Only the fact they're both very picky has kept them from doing even more films together. "There were a couple of times that have been close calls that didn't happen," said Lane who recalled Gere was at one point interested in co-starring in a film set in Antarctica. "I remember you saying 'Bring Eleanor, she'll like the Antarctic.' I said, 'Wait, let me get this right. We'll be in an ice breaker, on a big metal ship, for how many weeks?'"
They decided against that film, but agreed on doing Nights in Rodanthe. In the romantic tale based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, Lane plays a mother of two trying to decide whether or not to let her wayward husband come back home. While taking care of her friend's bed and breakfast for a weekend she meets a handsome but troubled doctor (Gere) who captures her heart.
Diane Lane and Richard Gere Press Conference
How did it feel to reunite?
Diane Lane: "I remember this phone call that we had. I was in Toronto in January of ’07.
Richard Gere: "This is going to be a Rashomon by the way. Her story is going to be totally different than mine."
Diane Lane: "You said, 'So you’re really gonna do this, huh?' And we were both, 'Yeah, so we’re really gonna go for it.' Because all these conversations had been had in sections, and so by the time we finally got on the phone with each [other], we were - how can you be a little pregnant? - but we were. It was like that. It was like we knew we were on the track but yet still with a question mark at the end, just a little bit. And then I have to say I finally got a chance to see Lackawanna Blues and that sealed the deal for me because Richard was so enamored with George C. Wolfe."
And your version, Richard?
Richard Gere: "It was vaguely like that. But it was a lot more of… Is the producer here? So I can say anything I want…. The script was not perfect. They had brought this to me, years [ago] it seems like, before we actually ended up making it and I kept going, 'You know, this needs a lot of work. And I get where it could go and I think I understand how it probably functions the best for the story it’s telling, but the script is not happening.' So I went through a lot of that over, at least, it might have been two years."
Diane Lane: "It read like a play for a while, like two people without being fleshed out."
Richard Gere: "In a way it didn’t give us space to let anything organic happen. It was trying to work it too much, in an obvious kind of way. So, anyway, it was in the process of that but it still wasn’t coming together. And Diane was, of course, perfect for the part. And there wasn’t a director involved. It was all kind of fluffy, out in the air somewhere. And I think for me it was probably meeting George. I said, 'Okay, this is a smart guy.' We just talked about movies, story telling. He came over to my office. Diane was here in LA. We were in New York. She didn’t have a chance to meet him."
You spoke on the phone?
Diane Lane: "We spoke on the phone. I was in Toronto."
Richard Gere: "We spent quite a bit of time just talking about things in general, just to see where we were coming from. And I had a comfort level with him. And as Diane said, we spoke about it. I said, 'Look, I feel good with this guy. We’ll develop it, we’ll work on it. It won’t be easy, but we’ll find what there is in this material that resonates with us and try and bring something to it.'"
"And it wasn’t easy - believe me. It wasn’t like, 'Here’s the script. Wanna do it or not?' 'Yes, let’s go.' It really was a slow burner; it took quite a bit of time."
George C Wolfe comes from the theater world. Does he direct differently?
Richard Gere: "I don’t think so. He has a sense of the theatrical. There are a couple of scenes in the movie that maybe a movie director wouldn’t have thought of. He thinks about music a lot and designed a couple of scenes around music, and specifically had something in his mind that would be the music of those scenes. We improvised a lot within that. But I think he’s more of an idea guy, coming from the world of theater. 'What’s the idea of this scene?' And then we would construct something that worked. I think a lot of movie directors tend to go by the feeling of it and find a way to film the feeling, rather than something manifest in behavior."
Diane Lane: "And he would talk a lot also about the energy of the scene and the house being a character in the story that goes through the storm, as we are part of the story going through our storm. Parallel lines, very theatrically described."
Richard Gere: "George is incredibly articulate also. A lot of film directors especially that don’t come out of the theater, find it very hard to articulate what they’re trying to do. George absolutely can communicate. That’s his life in the theater. You learn how to do that. And if you can’t say it, you probably are not going to get it on stage. George is incredibly verbal. So in a way, it made it easier for us. We weren’t thinking, 'What is he talking about? What is he wanting here?'"
Diane Lane: "We could just nod a lot."
Richard Gere: "Which sometimes you do in a movie. You try 15 different things and the director is still not giving you anything…"
Diane Lane: "You throw it at the wall and see if it sticks."
Richard Gere: "You go, 'Okay, I’ve done everything I can do, what do you want?' But George isn’t like that. George is very clear."
