The makers of new BBC drama MotherFatherSon have brought legendary actor Richard Gere to telly for his first major TV role — and it turns out there's a surprising link to American Crime Story.
MotherFatherSon casts the Golden Globe winner as an American media mogul ready to pass down the reins of his empire to his son (Witness for the Prosecution's Billy Howle), despite his heir's self-destructive tendencies.
The series comes from director James Kent and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story writer Tom Rob Smith, who both recently chatted to Digital Spy about how they wooed Richard Gere to TV.
"It was written in two chunks – I wrote four scripts before American Crime Story and whilst researching I watched American Gigolo," Rob Smith explained. "Richard is amazing in that role, he has an ambiguity which not everyone can put across –in the same scene he can be incredibly menacing and seductive.
"I remember meeting him in New York and he said he wasn't interested in being 'the villain' and I said, 'No one is good or bad' and the only way it would work is if you’re pulled and pushed all the time by everyone. So that was a really important element for him taking part."
Even with that pitch and the rise of prestige TV, it was somehow still a challenge to convince Richard Gere that TV was the best choice for his career.
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"It’s not easy getting stars of that calibre," Kent admitted. "I mean, it makes my life easier if you get Richard Gere because my job is to deliver authentic characters, and if you have Richard Gere who brings his legacy with him and is truly a man of great presence on the screen, then you don’t have doubt he couldn’t be a Max, so it was well worth the struggle."
Rob Smith concurred: "It did take a long time but he wanted to be sure… as an actor you put your faith in the production team and the director and Richard spoke to me, he has been in films and things that just didn’t deliver, and so he’s quite cautious and he doesn’t have to do this.
"He doesn’t need the money, but he loved the scripts and I think the team... He came over to London and met James and they had a real bromance! He very much wanted to know the team."
Joining Gere in the series will be Peaky Blinders' Helen McCrory as his on-screen ex-wife and Harry Potter actor Ciarán Hinds as his father.
MotherFatherSon begins on Wednesday, March 6 at 9pm on BBC Two.
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Naomi Gordon is news writer mainly covering entertainment news with a focus on celebrity interviews and television.
Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
