A METAPHYSICAL ATTRACTION RICHARD GERE EXPLAINS THE INVISIBLE LINK BETWEEN LIFE AND WORK.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Some actors just make scary movies and that's that.

But for Richard Gere, appearing in ``The Mothman Prophecies'' offers an opportunity to expound on metaphysics and the fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy.

``My interest in the piece is that it calls into question all of our assumptions about perception and what is out there,'' says the 52-year-old actor and humanitarian activist. ``From my point of view, all of life is a projection. It's all based on the content of your mind and your heart; what is out there is not a definitive thing, it's all very fluid, this thing called reality.''

This about that rarest kind of fright flick: one based on true events.

In ``Mothman,'' Gere plays traumatized Washington Post reporter John Klein. Still grieving two years after his wife (``Will & Grace's'' Debra Messing) died from car crash injuries, Klein sets out one night for Richmond and an interview with Virginia's governor.

Somehow, though, he ends up hundreds of miles in a different direction, in Point Pleasant, W.Va. Apparently, he's been there several times that week, though he has no memory of that. But he isn't the strangest visitor in town. According to local cop Connie Parker (Laura Linney), sightings of a headless, winged humanoid are proliferating. Hanging around to investigate, Klein comes into increasing contact with a seemingly omniscient entity that calls itself Indrid Cold, which appears to be warning of an impending disaster.

Although the movie has been updated and dramatized, it's based on John Keel's nonfiction book ``The Mothman Prophecies,'' which recounts similar supernatural goings-on in Point Pleasant before the deadly 1967 collapse of the town's Ohio River bridge. Similar mothman manifestations have been reported before other disasters around the world, including the 1985 Mexico City earthquake and the Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown in the Ukraine.

For Gere, the material was neither more, nor less, freaky than anything else about life.

``Literally, everything is a supernatural experience,'' he insists. ``It isn't just in a narrow field, it's the ballfield.''

His reality

Some realities, however, are more insistent than others. Directed by Mark Pellington (``Arlington Road'') in the Pittsburgh area one year ago, ``Mothman'' had its cast shivering to the depths of their souls.

But not in fear.

``It was freezing!'' says Gere, wincing and putting an end to any speculation that he somehow exists separately from the agreed-upon physical world. ``We were outside all night on a river. This was brutal shooting; this was survival! The crew members were in arctic parkas and we were there in cute little overcoats and no hats.''

According to the widely admired Linney (``You Can Count on Me''), who jumped at the chance for a second go with Gere after making ``Primal Fear'' with him six years earlier, her co-star's irrepressible sense of humor brought a kind of warmth even to the coldest nights of shooting.

``It was wonderful,'' she says. ``I just adore Richard. We have a great time together and we laugh a lot. It's very nice, when you're making a movie that's this hard, when you can really laugh with the person you're working with.''

Richard Gere a cutup? Sure, his most popular movies may have been the comedies ``Pretty Woman'' and ``Runaway Bride,'' but their lighthearted appeal was generally attributed to co-star Julia Roberts while Gere more-or-less did straight-man duty. He has more often been associated with dramas - ``An Officer and a Gentleman,'' ``Internal Affairs,'' ``American Gigolo,'' ``Days of Heaven,'' ``Sommersby,'' the upcoming infidelity thriller ``Unfaithful'' from ``Fatal Attraction's'' Adrian Lyne - and his screen persona has been repeatedly criticized as cool and aloof.

And off screen, Gere is generally regarded as serious-minded - to, sometimes, unintentionally ludicrous degrees. A close friend of the exiled Dalai Lama, Gere has long been a leading exponent for the liberation of Tibet from Chinese rule. He is also deeply involved with a variety of groups that aid refugees and tribal peoples throughout the world.

But none of this apparently hampers Gere's ability to have fun. Especially on the job.

How it works

``To me, work is best when it has a lightness of approach,'' he says. ``When it gets too tight, holding on, you miss possibilities and you also waste a lot of energy. So it's very important that there's a looseness and an ease to any work situation for me. I just want to be a guy, walking through, from the day the offices are rented for the production. Then I'll start to evolve the character, and that way me and the character become organic. There isn't a point where I've got to go, 'Now I'll be doing the movie,' and another where it's, 'Oh, I'm gonna do life now.' It's much more fluid than that, and it seems to be the most creative approach that I've found.''

That noted, Gere remains dead serious about his political and spiritual beliefs. In the past, using award shows presentations as a platform criticizing China got him suspended from the Oscar stage. And in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a statement Gere made angered many.

``In a situation like this, of course you identify with everyone who's suffering,'' Gere told ABC News Radio in October. ``The terrorists ... are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. If you see it from a much wider point of view, we're all in this together. ... If you can see them as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion, there's nothing better.''

While not refuting the statement, Gere does attempt to clarify it.

``My feeling is that we are all interconnected through infinite lifetimes; none of us is a separate entity,'' he explains. ``There is much more wisdom in the event than just the surface of it. As a country, we have created causes which have brought about certain effects. As generous as we are - and we give the most money to the U.N. refugee high commission, we give the most money to charitable causes than anyone on the planet - we have been irresponsible, also, and caused a lot of suffering elsewhere.

``Also, from a spiritual point of view, whether you're a Buddhist or a Christian or whatever, none of them preaches violence or vengeance. Every religion is based on love, compassion and forgiveness. Those may be the hardest things to find in this situation, but I think they're the most important.''

While Gere's worldview may sound inordinately philosophical, his personal world is anything but, especially since the birth of his first child, Homer, two years ago. The mother is actress Carey Lowell, whom Gere has been with since soon after the 1995 breakup of his tabloid-attracting marriage to supermodel Cindy Crawford.

On becoming a father

From a large family himself, contemplative detachment hardly describes Gere's views on late-in-life parenthood.

``What's bizarre is, all of us are old enough that we've heard every cliche about everything, every life experience we're supposed to have,'' he says, excitedly. ``And every cliche is true, but it's different, because it's actually more intense, deeper, bigger, wider, richer, more wonderful than any of the cliches. And it's almost indescribable. What it does to your heart is just delicious. And hopefully that translates into other things in one's life, too.''

Currently finishing up a film version of the stage musical ``Chicago,'' then hoping to aid in the resettlement of Afghanistan's many returning refugees, Gere says that the reality of fatherhood enhances his drive to alleviate the suffering he can't help but perceive.

``In a simple, practical, very direct way, having your own child and manifesting that incredible love and protective feeling you have for him, to see other children who aren't your own in distress, you feel almost as badly,'' he explains. ``I can project from my own feelings about my own child what another father feels like having lost a child in a war or to starvation or trying to get over the mountains to a refugee camp, whatever it might be. That feeling gets more intense, for sure.''

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