Actor becomes emotional on stand as he defends himself from accusations of inappropriate behaviour with woman on stage

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Actor Geoffrey Rush has told a defamation trial he was aware of rumours a complaint had been made about his conduct during a 2015 theatre production, and confided in a colleague they may have involved the young actor at the centre of the case.

The Oscar-winning Australian actor is suing Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph over a series of articles published at the end of November and beginning of December in 2017 that alleged he behaved inappropriately during the production.

One front-page story was headlined “King Leer”.

The court has previously heard Rush was mystified when he discovered the actor Eryn-Jean Norvill had made a complaint about alleged inappropriate behaviour during the production, describing their relationship as “professional” and “warm”.

But under cross-examination on Tuesday lawyers acting for the newspaper read from a document which they argued show Rush told a colleague in the weeks leading up to the stories at the centre of the defamation trial that he was aware of the rumours against him and believed he knew who the complainant was.

Earlier on Tuesday he held back tears in court explaining how he imagined his own daughter’s death during the scene in which he was accused of behaving inappropriately.

But during cross-examination on Tuesday afternoon, Telegraph barrister Tom Blackburn SC read from a memo sent by the chief executive of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards, Damian Trewhella, to his board in which he relayed a conversation he’d had with Rush about disgraced US producer Harvey Weinstein.

Dated almost three weeks before the first Telegraph article, Trewhella’s memo revealed Rush had confided that he was also dealing with “an issue of this kind”.

“In passing and in confidence he mentioned by way of an example on his side that he’d been baited on some issue of this kind which he believed was bullshit and a symptom of the current climate,” the memo read.

Rush believed the complaint may have related to “a difficult scene” in which he carried Norvill on stage.

“Whilst he thought the carry position was right for all, there was believed to be some discomfort,” the memo read.

Rush has previously said that he first heard about rumours of a complaint in March 2017, when his wife told him. However he said he did not know who had made the complaint, or what it was about.

The conversation with Trewhella occurred on the same day Rush had received questions about a complaint from the Australian newspaper.

Rush dismissed the memo as “administrative speak” on Trewhella’s behalf, and said his suspicion that Norvill was the complainant was based on “a wild stab in the dark”.

“The only person I touched [during the production] was carrying [Norvill’s character] Cordelia,” he said.

“It was speculation of who, what, when, where, and why is all of this applying to,” he said.

Earlier Rush had became emotional on the stand describing his thoughts during a scene in the play where he carried the woman at the centre of the complaint on stage.

Rush played the title character in the play and Norvill played Lear’s daughter Cordelia.

In its defence, the Telegraph claims that Rush “engaged in conduct of a kind in which only a pervert would engage” during a scene where Norvill lay prone on the stage with her eyes closed while Rush, who played Lear, grieved above her.

The Telegraph says that during rehearsals of the scene Rush had at various stages hovered his hands above Norvill’s torso “pretending to stroke or caress her upper torso”.

The Telegraph also claims Rush had “made groping gestures in the air with two cupped hands [which were] intended to simulate and in fact did simulate him groping and fondling [Norvill’s] breasts”.

Geoffrey Rush tells defamation trial newspaper made him look like a 'criminal' Read more

But Rush denied that, becoming emotional as he described thinking about his daughter during the scene.

“I always imagined that it was my own real-life daughter [that] she’d been hit by a bus on the street near where we live in Camberwell,” he said.

“I knew she was gone and I carried her to the footpath, and every night I would reinvent that scene in my mind because she’s in her early to mid-20s and [so] was my daughter and [I] needed that trigger.”

Rush strenuously denies any of the claims made against him, and is seeking aggravated damages against the Telegraph.

Asked whether he had ever intentionally touched Norvill on the breast Rush replied “no”. He also denied touching her on her lower back, or aiming inappropriate gesture towards her.

In the stand on Tuesday he denied he had engaged in any inappropriate behaviour towards Norvill during the play, rejecting all of the claims made by the Telegraph and describing their relationship as “whimsical”.

“I had no inkling,” he said.

“My antenna is pretty good ... I lived Lear on a daily basis but I’m pretty aware of mood scapes within a group of people and I never detected that I was making her, as I hear I was, making her feel uncomfortable or I was ruffling feathers.

“No one came up and said I think you’re getting on Eryn Jean’s nerves, nothing at all. It felt congenial and collegiate, they’re the only words I can express.”

On Tuesday Rush also revealed he was told to resign or be stood down as the head of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in the wake of articles.

The AACTAs are Australia’s equivalent of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or the Oscars in the United States.

Rush stood down as the president of the AACTAs in the wake of the articles, releasing a statement at the time saying he would step aside “until these issues have been resolved”.

Under questioning from his barrister, Bruce McClintock, Rush revealed he had been asked to go because of concerns about the broadcast partners of the awards.

He said he had been told by AACTA chief executive Damien Trewhella that there was “blood on the walls” and that there had been a “massive fight” within the film organisation following the articles, because of concerns the awards night broadcasters would “pull the plug”.

“By Sunday [the board] had issued a kind of document to me saying we want you to resign or we will ask you to resign,” he said.

Rush said he later received a note signed by all but two of the AACTA board members “apologising with their deepest regrets and inviting me back to take back the position”.

“My response was we should wait and see how these events turn out,” he said.

The trial continues.