Richard Gere explains what drew him to his latest role and why he's too old to be a heartthrob

Richard Gere is getting a bit long in the tooth to be a heartthrob. Before any ambulance-chasing lawyers start placing calls to Hollywood I should point out that it's not me who's suggesting this, it's him.

"I'm 57 years old," he says. "How much longer can I be a sex symbol? Let's be realistic!"

Gere has attracted a lot of attention for his latest film, The Hoax, in which he plays a cheat and a liar. Most of that attention has been about the departure from his usual romantic image. Gere doesn't see it as such a big loss.

"I've always said it's flattering to be desired, just as it's flattering that people accept the reality of the character you play," he argues. "But it was always ridiculous to assume because I could play a gigolo on screen I'd play that role off screen."

The Hoax is the story of Clifford Irving, a struggling author who almost pulled off one of the great cons of the 20th century. He managed, briefly, to convince a major publisher he had the ear of Howard Hughes - the world's richest and most reclusive man - and was writing an authorised biography.

"He's just like us; we all lie and we all cheat, and even if we don't do it, we think it, and we could at any moment," says Gere of Irving. "There's nothing he does in this movie we haven't done to some degree, and some of us do much worse.

"And he convinces himself of the stories he's telling," he continues. "You can see when he's talking he's like a bad actor. You don't quite believe him but you know he believes what he's saying."

Although he was in the middle of this monumental deception, there are many moments in the film when Irving appears to be sympathetic and even likable.

"That's the trick with any character," Gere explains. "If an actor makes a judgement on the character you're lost right from the beginning.

"Even if the character's consumed by self-loathing and what's interesting to me is he is a real character. He finds himself in a story that's much larger than he imagined where there are universal forces at play.

"And he realises in the end he has no control over them," he continues. "They're so much bigger than him - and it does lead to a form of madness. You see him descend."

Many actors when they play a real person choose to hang out with their subject. But Gere was adamant he didn't even want to meet Irving.

He didn't want to have to protect a friendship or worry about betraying confidences, so in the end it made more sense simply not to meet.

Certainly there must have been some sympathy there for Gere to play Irving. He can also perhaps identify a kindred spirit in the sense that acting itself is our most acceptable form of deception and Gere has already compared Irving to a bad actor.

But there's deception then there are outright lies. Where does Gere's moral compass lie on that score?

"There are times when telling a lie is not a bad thing," he suggests. "It can be a compassionate thing. But to make it benign, you have to be aware of your compassionate reasons for telling that lie. The story shows that people will believe what they want to believe.

"I think Clifford had a bit of that college-boy thing - he liked the idea of getting one over on the establishment, on the guys who ran the media and the publishing houses."

It is remarkable to think the man who became a sex god in films such as American Gigolo and Looking for Mr Goodbar will be 60 in a little over two years. The man who found it almost impossible to remain fully clothed on screen has now shed his heartthrob status.

He is, he insists, just like one of us.

"I'm the same as anybody else - I'm a dad my kids don't pay attention to," he says.

"I have a teenage daughter who couldn't care less about me and I have a seven-year-old who sees me as the guy who plays baseball with him. I still care very much about my career; but without a doubt the best part of my life is my family."

  • The Hoax (15) opens tomorrow.