Speaking at a masterclass at Venice Film Festival, the 75-year-old actor reflected on his role as rich businessman Edward Lewis in the smash hit 1990 rom-com classic and poked fun at the part.
"I was playing a character that was almost criminally underwritten.
"It was basically a suit and a good haircut."
He then said he and Roberts' prostitute character Vivian Ward "had no chemistry".
"I mean, no chemistry," he said.
"This actor and this actress obviously had no chemistry between them … I haven't seen that in a long time."
He went on to reveal that one of the most iconic scenes in flick, where he seductively lifts her on top of a piano in the hotel ballroom and caresses her body, wasn't scripted.
"We didn't know how we would use it later. It ended up being integral to the film."
The scene came about after director Garry Marshall asked Gere what he did late at night in a hotel.
"And I said, 'Well, I'm usually jet lagged, [that] would be the time I'm in a hotel. So I'm up all night and usually there's a ballroom somewhere or a bar, and I'll find a piano and I'll play the piano.
"He said, 'well, let's do something with that'.
"So we just basically improvised this scene, and he said, 'play something moody'.
"I just started playing something moody that was this character's interior life."
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