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