Anderson Cooper on how Richard Gere helped him realize he was gay as a child
Andy Cohen, on the latter’s Radio Andy. To mark Pride and the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, they broadcast from the Stonewall Inn in New York City.News presenter and journalist Cooper is famously the son of the late fashion designer, Gloria Vanderbilt.
When he was a child, her gay friends, including Truman Capote and Gore Vidal, would visit her.On another occasion, the photographer Paul Jasmin and his boyfriend took Cooper, to see a Broadway performance of the play Bent.
He recalls being aged 11 at the time he saw it.It starred Richard Gere, who was beginning to make waves in Hollywood.From the 1980 Archives: Richard Gere goes from American Gigolo to Broadway’s Bent https://t.co/J26yspfrua pic.twitter.com/Zy45rZF28L— Playbill (@playbill) June 5, 2018 “And they took me to see Richard Gere in Bent, which if anyone doesn’t know about the play Bent, it’s about two gay guys in the concentration camp,” Cooper recounted. “I mean the opening scene… It is the gayest thing you can imagine.“And this was Richard Gere in 1977, Looking for Mr.
Goodbar. He was so beautiful. And I’m there. My mom didn’t go. It was just me and my mom’s two gay friends,” he continued.Related: Anderson Cooper reveals he’s become a daddy againHe explained how the opening scene features a man getting out of bed naked, after sleeping with another man, and putting on an SS uniform.“And I just remember being like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gay. … I’m totally gay.’ And afterward, Paul Jasmin was friends with Richard Gere,” he said. “Cause Paul Jasmin took the pictures for American Gigolo and we go backstage and Richard Gere is shirtless in his dressing room.“And I couldn’t speak.
