You've never seen Richard Gere quite like this

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — You’ve never seen Richard Gere quite like this before.

The Golden Globe-winning, Emmy-nominated actor has garnered a well-earned reputation as a dashing leading man over the decades, best known for films like An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Pretty Woman (1990).

That changes with his work as the decidedly not glamorous titular protagonist in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer. An American/Israeli co-production written and directed by Joseph Cedar, Norman opens in select cinemas on Friday through Sony Pictures Classics.

Gere’s character, a low-level player in the Manhattan financial landscape, is in virtually every scene of the film, but he remains a mystery throughout; the man is a moving target, his story constantly shifting ever so slightly to fit whatever power play he’s working at that moment.

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“It’s pure fun playing a guy like that because it’s all invention,” Gere told the Asbury Park Press’ “Fan Theory” podcast. “To get onto solid ground to play him was not easy, and we spent eight or nine months talking about this before we got there.

“I had resolved a lot of issues I think you have to resolve as an actor, or at least I do, to be able to play this guy and (figured out) some semblance of what his backstory actually is. And if you asked me now, ‘What is it?’ I don’t know exactly his backstory, but I know enough to give a fertile energy to play the guy and allow me to be spontaneous because that’s what he is. He’s spontaneous. He flows.”

Gere cuts a surprisingly schlubby figure as Norman. Wrapped up in a bulky coat, silver hair covered by a nearly ever-present cap, iPhone earbuds all but permanently in his ears and a bulky bag draped over his shoulder, he floats through a sea of connections that includes a rising Israeli politician (Lior Ashkenazi), an area rabbi (Steve Buscemi), a New York mogul and his assistant (Harris Yulin and Dan Stevens), and Norman’s own nephew (Michael Sheen).

“It’s a turtle in its shell,” Gere said of Norman’s character design. “He carries his house with him. He’s self-sufficient. He just comes out with his head when he’s hungry. He definitely is an animal-like creature.

“And it’s hard to even imagine what his apartment is like or his house because he doesn’t have it. This synagogue is his house, or I guess as close as he gets to a house. His office is Staples, Starbucks. Everything he needs during the day, he carries with him.”

Cedar was born in New York City and raised in Jerusalem before serving in the Israeli army and then attending film school at New York University. After directing two Israeli movies nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar — Beaufort (2007) and Footnote (2011) — he makes his English language debut with Norman.

According to Cedar, casting Gere was a deliberate effort to play against expectations. He explained what made the actor an ideal, if unconventional, choice for this role.

“Every once in a while when we discuss this question, Richard mentions a group of New York Jewish actors that could have been wonderful Normans,” Cedar said. “And when I visualize that group of wonderful New York Jewish actors, what you end up with is a clichéd version of Norman, I think.

“Not being fully aware of this while we were making the decision to work together, casting Richard saved the film from being that very simplistic version of someone who’s physically flawed and can come across (as) too eager because something about his persona is so obviously lacking.

“Richard is almost the opposite of all of that, which makes the challenge a serious one and makes the story more realistic to me. I don’t think the Normans have a physical type; I think Richard Gere and everything he brings with him has a Norman inside him.”

While in some sense Norman is the latest entry in a series of schemers, wheelers and dealers that Gere has played over the years — among them Billy Flynn in Chicago (2002) and Clifford Irving in The Hoax (2006) — there’s something different, even gentler, this time around.

“There’s no anger in this guy,” Gere said. “Genuinely, there’s no anger. Now, there are flashes of him being humiliated and doors slammed in his face and quite clearly humiliated, where he has to make a transition. And there are times that it happens. (Cedar) allows it in the editing to show a little bit, and a lot of times it’s so quick that you don’t even see it happen.

“But to me as the actor, that was an interesting thing to discover about him: there’s no sense of remembered humiliation. There’s not a residual anger leading to revenge in him. There’s no Iago inside of him. There’s no enjoyment in hurting anyone. There’s no enjoyment of thinking that one of these lies or exaggerations is going to lead to disaster for someone. There just isn’t a shadow side to him, and that’s one of the peculiar things. I think, in a way, that he’s a holy idiot. He's Billy Budd in some bizarre sense.”

“Only,” added Cedar, “he takes his 7%.”

Follow Alex Biese on Twitter: @ABieseAPP