A tourist visiting from Paris stumbled across a man pulling a partially eaten burger from a trash can on the streets of New York. Not realizing it was Richard Gere, she offered him some help.

“It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen,” said the heartbroken woman, who thoughtfully offered the millionaire beggar some fresh food.

In 2014, Richard Gere was in New York filming Time Out of Mind, a drama movie where he stars alongside Kyra Sedgwick and Steve Buscemi.

Gere, now 74, plays George, a man with mental illness who’s forced to live on the streets after he’s kicked out of the apartment he was previously squatting.

On the first day of shooting the film, the star was asked by the director, Oren Moverman, to “be” homeless to film a scene. Gere was dressed in rags and placed on the bustling city streets among everyday people.

Initially, Gere had some reservations about filming in a big city but when he walked the streets of New York City as a homeless man, with an empty coffee cup begging for change, few people noticed.