Apparently, Richard Gere does an excellent job getting into character.

While on the set of his most recent film Time Out of Mind, in which he plays a homeless man, Gere was actually mistaken as a hobo and given food by a Parisian tourist.

Gere was dressed in grimy clothes, carrying a paper bag containing beer, and was digging through the trash can when Karine Gombeau stopped to help him. She explained to Gere that she and her family had just eaten a large pizza and then proceeded to offer him the leftovers.

“I said, ‘Je suis désolée (I am sorry), but the pizza is cold,’ ” Karine told the New York Post. Gere did not reveal his identity, but instead he simply replied: “Thank you so much. God bless you.”

It wasn’t until two days later, when a worker at the hotel she was staying at handed her a copy of The Post, that Karine realized who the alleged “hobo” actually was. “It was magical . . . It’s crazy, this story,” she explained. “It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen.” Karine described Gere as handsome and revealed that she loved his movie Chicago. “I think he’s very handsome, even at his age,” she continued. “ Pretty Woman was not my favorite movie, but I ­really loved Chicago. ”

Karine explained, looking back, that she should have realized that they had stumbled onto the set of a movie. Her husband had been filming their outing, and she said that people immediately told him to stop filming when he entered the area. “People came from all over the station and told my husband to stop filming,” Karine said. “People came out of the subways. It was very confusing.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons