When was the last time you felt invisible?
Maybe it was when you first started high school, when new clicks of friends started to be formed.
Maybe it was when you moved to a new city for college or a job where you didn’t know anyone.
Maybe it was when you experienced a breakup and you had to learn how to fly solo again.
For Richard Gere, it was during the filming of his new movie Time Out of Mind.
The film, released last month, is about a homeless man named George Hammond, portrayed by Gere. George navigates the streets of New York City, trying to make sense of the world of homelessness while attempting to repair the relationship with his estranged daughter.
The film was low budget and shot over the course of 21 days. At the beginning of the filming, Gere wasn’t sure if the movie could even be made. He was convinced that he would be recognized within a few minutes and getting enough footage to make the movie would be impossible.
But that’s not how things played out for the actor.
Gere, unshaven, and dressed in ratty clothes, walked the streets of Manhattan with the crew filming from a distance down the street. What happened next was completely unexpected.
Nobody recognized him.
At first, Gere just sat on a sidewalk, waiting for someone to walk up and ask for his autograph. He sat for a long time, waiting to be recognized at any moment. But nobody cared that he was there.
The actor got bolder and stood up and walked up to people, holding out a cup and asked for some change, thinking people would smile and say, “Hey, you’re Richard Gere!” But that didn’t happen.
People avoided him. They crossed the street. They didn’t make any eye contact.
One person, a French tourist, stopped and gave the actor some food.
Everyone else treated him like he was toxic.
When asked why in an interview, Gere explained how the homeless are invisible – they feel like they don’t exist. He said that he could sense people walking by projecting their assumptions on him: “He’s homeless, he wants something from me, he’s dirty, dangerous, probably mentally ill, I don’t want to give him any money, why would I give him any money?” Gere added, “I could see this on the faces of people up to two blocks away.” He could sense their guilt for avoiding him.
During the 21 days of filming, Richard Gere became invisible. A man used to being paid attention to and receiving the highest praise from Hollywood for over 40 years had the opportunity to experience first hand what it felt like to be rejected, avoided, and treated like he didn’t matter.
The latest stats on homelessness reveals that 45% of the homeless are under 30 years old and 37% are between 31 and 50. There are over 578,000 homeless people walking the streets of America right now. Many more are living just one paycheck away from being out on the streets.
That’s a lot of invisible people.
I realize it’s not always comfortable to approach someone who’s homeless. I’m not always prompted to give. The truth is, my first reaction is usually to lock my doors or cross the street.
But maybe what we see on the outside is just the result of a life that went wrong somewhere.
It could happen to any one of us.
If you can’t offer a buck, at least offer a smile. Show that you can see them, that they do exist.