Richard Gere is just wrapping up his movie, Time Out of Mind, in which he plays a homeless man. He’s been doing such a good job, that people have mistaken his homelessness as genuine. They’ve done things like giving him cold leftover pizza.

He is now apparently so much an expert on homelessness, that other stars will call him up to ask his advice. According to Confidenti@l, Susan Sarandon was meeting with Time Out New York magazine’s editor in chief, Terri White, to figure out how to cover homelessness in New York for the magazine. Sarandon immediately thought of Gere and his movie Time Out of Mind.

“She said, ‘I’ll just text him and see if I can interview him for the issue,’” White recalled. “So she just texted him in the room in front of everybody, which was kind of awesome unto itself, and then her people called me a few days later and said, ‘Susan interviewed Richard.’ It’s truly the power of having friends like that. And being Susan Sarandon.”

The interview is scheduled to be published next Wednesday, August 13th.

Susan's scoop for @timeoutnewyork http://t.co/JpQoUhEv2R

— Terri White (@Terri_White) August 4, 2014

While he’s coping with pretending to be homeless, Gere has other personal problems. The New York Daily News recently described him as “desperate” to sell his house in the Hamptons. The asking price is now 47.5 million dollars, down from the 65 million dollar price he was asking for last year. The six acre estate is known as Strongheart Manor, and includes a gym, basketball courts, an outdoor fireplace pavilion, a 60-foot heated pool, 12 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, and a lovely view of Peconic Bay. It was built in 1902 on 26 Actors Colony Road. Gere bought it in 2006 for the low price of 6.9 million dollars.

Avast! HOUSE OF THE DAY: http://t.co/Mhz6yNUuHA #curbedhamptons #douglaselliman #richardgere #strongheartmanor pic.twitter.com/7CVEAGUoB1

— Pirate News (@_Pirate_News) August 4, 2014

It’s hard to imagine going back to that kind of luxury after eating from the garbage.

Image via Wikimedia Commons