Gere Shows Up For Roberts

Runaway Bride was a runaway success at the box office this weekend, earning $34.5 million. A lot of that had to do with the chemistry between its stars, Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. CBS News This Morning Entertainment Contributor Eleanor Mondale spoke with Gere about the movie.

Gere plays a cynical reporter trying to find out why Julia Roberts' character has run away from the altar three times, and whether she'll do it again to fiance number four.

"I think the most that anybody can honestly say is, 'look, I guarantee that there will be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us are going to want to get out of this thing.' But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life," says Gere in the film as he proposes to Roberts.

One of the messages of the film is that a lot of people are ruled by their fears, and that is something that Gere confesses is a battle for him, too.

"I'm far from a perfect person, an enlightened person or totally wise person. So I'm battling the same stuff over and over again," he says. In terms of relationships, he agrees with the message from the movie: "You got to show up."

Gere says the only way to be in a relationship is to be yourself. "That's the only way the other person can ever know you, is if you show up as yourself, fully--warts, everything. Everything is there. This is who I am. And if the other person doesn't like that, then there's no relationship," he says.

Early next year, Gere will enter a brand new relationship in the role of father. Actress Carey Lowell, who plays D.A. Jamie Ross in the TV drama Law & Order and who has a 9-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, is carrying his child. The announcement came just days after ex-wife Cindy Crawford gave birth to her son Presley.

Meanwhile, in his professional relationships, Gere says he's remained friendly with Julia Roberts ever since Pretty Woman almost a decade ago. He says it took a script as strong as Runaway Bride to bring back their on-camera chemistry.

Another message of the movie is the importance of really "seeing" the other person in a relationship. "I think I've always 'seen' Julia," says Gere. "I don't think she was 20 when she walked into my office in New York to do Pretty Woman. So I have a good sense of Julia. You know, she'd probably say the same thing about me. I don't know that that's the case. But I think certainly on screen there's something that works with us that's mysterious, and who knows what it is."

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