Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon Reveal What Bothers Them About the Oscars at the Zurich Film Festival
Ever since first premiering at Sundance earlier this year, Nicholas Jarecki’s acclaimed financial thriller “Arbitrage” has been courting Oscar buzz for Richard Gere’s commanding performance as a shady hedge fund titan. It was therefore a given that Gere and his co-star in the film, Susan Sarandon, would be questioned by the press about said hype at the Zurich Film Festival, where the film had its German speaking country premiere, and where Gere recently received the event’s Golden Icon Award.
“In all fairness, there’s so many big juicy parts for men, that I think it’s more difficult for men [to get nominated],” Sarandon said during a roundtable interview seated next to Gere, who she first starred opposite in the Jennifer Lopez vehicle, “Shall We Dance.” “Now they’ve upped the number of films, which I’m not that happy about, to ten,” she continued. “But they didn’t change that number of slots for [acting] nominations.”
Despite her concern, Sarandon’s done alright for herself, having been nominated for five Oscars over the course of her career (she won once, for “Dead Man Walking” in 1996). Gere on the other hand, has yet to be acknowledged by his peers at the Academy.
Asked whether it vexes him to no end that this is the case, a game faced Gere said, “The only time it bothered me at all and I had any particular emotion about it was with ‘Chicago.’ Everyone was nominated on the movie except me.”
Poor guy. Hopefully for Gere, “Arbitrage” will make up for it.
The Zurich Film Festival runs through September 30. “Arbitrage” is currently playing in select theaters and is available on VOD in the states.
