Thursday, March 28, 2024

King’s Speech Star Geoffrey Rush is ‘Best Supportive Actor’

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Geoffrey Rush plays Lionel Logue–the speech therapist–so brilliantly in “The King’s Speech.”

But forget Logue–Rush should be playing Lionel “Jet Lag.” Since the beginning of December, Rush has been commuting back and forth from Sydney to Los Angeles on 48 hour turnarounds to help support the movie, attend award shows, etc. He’s been appearing simultaneously on stage in “The Diary of a Mad Man.”

Best supporting actor? How about best Supportive actor since until Christian Bale came along in “The Fighter,” Rush was the dead on favorite for an Oscar?

The play ends its Sydney run on Feburary 6, then transfers to the Brooklyn Academy of Music from February 11th through mid March. There will likely be an understudy on Sunday, February 27th. Ironically, the venue at BAM is called The Harvey Theater.

On Monday, at a Hollywood lunch given for him at the Peninsula Hotel by his “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Rush told our Leah Sydney that the jet lag wasn’t so bad after all. He said, ““I’m lucky to have these problems and I know it.  I drink water, I sleep a lot.”

Bruckheimer told the crowd–including  Angela Lansbury  Sharon Stone , James Cromwell, Virginia Madsen, Dyan Cannon, Mickey and Jan Rooney, Patrick Stewart,  Hal Holbrook, Frances Fisher, Martin Landau, Angie Dickinson, Sharon Stone, Brenda Vaccaro, Peter Gallagher, Ileana Douglas and Jane Seymour–that  “Geoffrey, over the course of four ‘Pirates’ has transformed himself body and and soul into the Captain.  He owns every part he plays and his performances haunt you.  He’s more than a great actor, he’s quite simply a genius.” 

Rush said that he and his wife Jane, “just jetted here from Australia yesterday, I’m doing a play there, and I’m going back tonight. I feel embraced by this town.”  Then Renee Taylor’s phone rang loudly, to which Geoffrey quipped,  answer that, “it might be your agent.” 

Rush said that Martin Landau “gave me the best advice early in his career, which I can’t tell you, I have to protect patient/therapist privilege. I can say that he’s a party animal though.”

Rush confessed to Angela  Lansbury that , “In my closeted metro sexual adolescent years, I did leap around my room lip synching to Mame.  I thought she should know that.”

He thanked Sharon Stone for “yelling my name out with such enthusiasm at the Golden Globes.”

He thanked Helena Bonham Carter  “who always felt the triangle of man love (me, Colin Firth and Tom Hooper) was dangerous so she only popped in on weekends cause she was shooting Harry Potter. ”

He also thanked his wife, Jane. “She’s an amazing actress. The secret of our success is that we share blouses.”

Directors Guild winner Tom Hooper than explained that the only reason the film was made was because Geoffrey signed on and that’s when everyone else agreed to to do it.

He brings a wide eyed joy and wonderment to his craft every day he’s on a set. Tom then had everyone toast to “The Kings Speech Therapist.”

reporting in Hollywood by Leah Sydney

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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