If you were avoiding eye contact with the homeless in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, this news might shock you: Richard Gere—he of Pretty Woman and countless other films that are not played on TBS ad nauseam—was one of those homeless people. For a movie! He has not lost all of his presumed movie millions—he was simply in character for an upcoming drama, Time Out of Mind, in which he plays a homeless man trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Cameras planted across the street were filming the actor as he retrieved a hamburger from a trash can, ate it, accepted food in a plastic bag from a kindly stranger who had no idea he was in the middle of a scene, and meandered through Grand Central Station. The New York Post has now blown his cover, however, with a complete slide show of paparazzi shots showing Gere in character and a somewhat incredulous report about how the actor managed to fool passersby, which seems somewhat offensive given that Gere is an actor after all. Is it that much of a surprise that he can successfully assume a character?

Regardless, the Post has commissioned a review of Gere’s street performance from a local newspaper salesman who witnessed the whole tableau. “He looked like a natural homeless guy,” said Mizan Rahman, 44, an expert on the subject of observing homeless people given that he lives in New York City. “He didn’t seem like he was acting.” Altogether, Rahman gives the actor two enthusiastic thumbs up, based on what he saw. “He was an excellent homeless man . . . He was putting his hand in the trash. He looked like a real homeless guy finding something . . . like the homeless men I see in many different places.”

For more on Richard Gere’s uncanny ability to act, see the Post’s original piece on the subject.