Richard Gere remembers Louis Gossett Jr.

It’s been more than 40 years since “An Officer and a Gentleman” became a huge box office hit, but every now and then, star Richard Gere still makes a name for himself in the classic military drama.

“Every now and then I hear people calling me from across the street, ‘Hey, Mayo, Mayo-nnaise,’ and that’s Lou,” says Gere Selectionreflecting on the film’s legacy following the death of his Oscar-winning co-star Louis Gossett Jr. on Friday at age 87.

In the 1982 film, Gere plays Zack Mayo, an aspiring Marine aviator who clashes with his headstrong drill teacher, Gunnery Sergeant. Emil Foley (Gosset). Gossett won the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance, making history as the first black actor to win in that category and joining Sidney Poitier and Hattie McDaniel as the only black actors awarded at the time.

“We were all happy with the film and Lou was happy with his work on it – and he should be! He was a humble man,” says Gere of Gossett Jr.’s historic victory. “We were happy for him, as an artist and as a person, that he gained this recognition.”

In a dialogue with SelectionGere recalled his time on set:

“As powerful as Foley was, you always felt this heat beating in his heart. This is why Lou was so effective in this position: he was not just a “powerful man”; he was someone who truly cared about all the kids he mentored.

He worked hard to be Foley. He did a series of analyzes and talked to a drill sergeant from Pensacola who was working with us. Lou was on him like white rice, taking every part she could. Lou was very sensible and stubborn about not socializing with us. I didn’t see another side of him (during filming), but I didn’t need to. Some actors are simply knowable. Their fundamental humanity, no matter what they are doing, comes through. Lou had it. He was a man, but he wanted to be powerful over us – and he was super powerful. I can’t imagine anyone better than him playing this role.

Lou was a sweetheart. He was a very light, delicate and intelligent man. He really cared about his craft. He cared about creating a personality and doing a job. He was a participant in the workforce, there to serve history. For our scenes, we needed to have real trust with each other, and that progressed quickly. We could trust each other not just as fellow actors, but as human beings.

Our combat scene was one of the most important in the film. It’s not just a fight. It’s a whole internal battle that my character goes through and a lesson that he knows and that I must discover about myself.

We rehearsed for months. I was doing all the physical training that the cadets were doing, but before or after the shooting, I spent an hour or two doing karate lessons and Lou was doing his thing too. We didn’t do the routines together until we actually filmed it and were going full steam ahead. We didn’t want to get hurt, but we wanted it to be real. We had completely different types. He’s very strict classical karate, and I came from a different version of Taekwondo, kickboxing and everything combined, which caught up to him abruptly when we were sparring.

This was not a film that people had excessive expectations about. It was a small budget, under-the-radar production, but we all worked hard to deliver the best. I made a film with director Akira Kurosawa (1991’s ‘Rhapsody in August’), and I was very surprised that he put ‘An Office and a Gentleman’ on his top 10 list. But I could understand why there was this sense of honor, dignity, self-sacrifice and self-acceptance in the film.

And the first agent of that was Lou.”