HOLLYWOOD star Geoffrey Rush “slowly” and “deliberately” ran his fingers over his young co-star’s right breast during rehearsals for a play, a court heard today.
Actress Eryn Jean Norvill said she was playing the Oscar winner’s dead daughter in the Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear and felt “trapped” as he stroked her breast.
Mr Rush, 67, is suing The Daily Telegraph over a series of articles late in 2017 which reported that a young actress had lodged a complaint with the Sydney Theatre Company over his alleged “inappropriate behaviour.”
The actress was later named as Eryn Jean Norvill, who played Mr Rush’s daughter Cordelia in the STC production.
Ms Norvill told The Federal Court: “I had my eyes closed, Geoffrey placed his hand on my face and then his other hand touched under my armpit, and stroked down my, across my right breast and onto my hip.”
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Gesturing with the palm of her hand on the side of her breast with her spread fingers over the top of her breast she said: “It was halfway up my breast, it didn’t touch my nipple I don’t think.
“It lasted about eight or 10 seconds. It felt slow,” she said. “I believed that he’d done it deliberately. The touch was different to what I’d witnessed previously. It was slow and light and pressured across my breast and that’s why I thought it was deliberate. It wasn’t an accident.
“At the time I was on stage with my eyes closed playing a dead body so I probably felt very trapped because I couldn’t do or say (anything) or move. But I probably also felt frightened and again I imagine probably confused, trying to make sense of what Geoffrey’s intention were,” she said.
She said director Neil Armfield told Mr Rush his actions were “creepy” and “unclear” and should be more paternal. Mr Armfield previously denied that.
Ms Norvill said she went “on high alert” after that and tried to keep her distance from Mr Rush.
She said she was frightened and had tried to speak to people to try and get out of the situation.
“I hadn’t really received any support. I may have felt isolated in that experience,” she said. She carried on because “maybe I thought it was part of my job.”
Ms Norvill said that while she was waiting in the wings, standing on a chair, waiting for Mr Rush to carry her on stage he would come up behind her, place his hand on the small of her back and “fondle” her fingers.
“I didn’t swat his hand away no. We were on stage, and the audience was right there. I was worried about making noise. I also didn’t want to disturb Geoffrey as he was about to go on stage and do one of the iconic speeches in the play. It was huge for him,” she said.
On another occasion he put his hand beneath her shirt and stroked the bare skin of her back along the waistline of her low riser jeans.
“He placed his left hand on my lower back above my shirt and he moved his hand from right to left as in rubbing or stroking my back. His hand then moved from above my shirt to below my shirt and I remember feeling his fingers touch my skin,” she said.
“He went up to the line of my jeans, underneath it, his fingers kind of traced the line where my jeans and lower back I guess, across from left to right, very softly and lightly.”
Ms Norvill said she felt “threatened” and “my panic levels shot up, I felt unsafe and probably sad because I think Geoffrey’s idea of friendship was different to mine.”
She did not speak because they were on stage and she felt “stifled” and “frightened”. She decided to “buck up and get through”.
Mr Rush denies any wrongdoing and claims two front page articles in the newspaper about the alleged incident painted him as a “pervert” and “sexual predator”.
The newspaper argues the stories published on November 30 and December 1 last year draw on allegations made by Ms Norvill and are true.
Rush’s groping gestures left actress ‘belittled’ and ‘shamed’
ACTRESS Eryn Jean Norvill was left “belittled, embarrassed” and “shamed” after Geoffrey Rush gestured groping her breasts while bulging his eyes and licking his lips during play rehearsals, a court was told today.
Ms Norvill said that Mr Rush would gesture cupping her breasts while licking his lips or growling on a daily basis during rehearsals for the Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear.
Ms Norvill was giving evidence in Mr Rush’s defamation case against The Daily Telegraph in the Federal Court today.
Mr Rush, 67, is suing The Daily Telegraph over a series of articles late in 2017 which reported that a young actress had lodged a complaint with the Sydney Theatre Company over his alleged “inappropriate behaviour.”
The actress was later named as Eryn Jean Norvill, who played Mr Rush’s daughter Cordelia in the STC production.
Ms Norvill said that in rehearsals for the climatic scene where her character lies dead on the stage she opened her eyes during rehearsals after hearing titters of laughter.
“I opened my eyes and Geoffrey was kneeling over me and he had both of his hands above my torso and he was gesturing, stroking up and down my torso and gesturing groping and cupping above my breasts and he was looking up to the front of the room and raising his eyebrows and bulging his eyes, smiling, licking his lips,” she said.
She said director Neil Armfield said “Geoffrey, stop that” in a reprimanding and angry way.
“I felt shocked, I guess I was confused, I considered Geoffrey a friend. I felt belittled and embarrassed and I guess shamed.”
The incidences were repeated on a regular basis. “I started noticing that Geoffrey would make these sexual kind of gestures toward my body when I’d come into work or when he’d greet me at the start of the day he’d comment on my body, he’d curve the shape of my hips and kind of grope the air.
“He would look at me and he would smile and cups his two hands like (gestured hands out squeezing), lick his lips, raise his eyebrows and bulge out his eyes. I remember him calling me yummy, scrumptious.”
She said Mr Rush’s hands “were level with my breasts” from two metres away. “It happened a lot.”
Ms Norvill told judge Michael Wigney she thought his actions were “inappropriate”.
“I discovered that Geoffrey’s behaviour was inappropriate, mostly toward women.” She said he also targeted other women in the production and the behaviour became “normalised” in the rehearsal room.
But Ms Norvill said she could not complain about the Oscar winner’s behaviour.
“I was on the bottom of the rung, in terms of hierarchy and Geoffrey was definitely at the top. His power was intimidating.
“I wanted to be a part of his world and we were also playing father and daughter. I felt as though if I was to speak or reprimand his behaviour, I would jeopardise the relationship, that tenderness, the closeness that is needed in those two roles.
“Everyone else didn’t; seem to have a problem about it. I was looking at a room that was complicit. My director didn’t’ seem to have a problem with it. I felt quashed in my ability to find allies.”
The Oscar winner denies any wrongdoing and claims two front page articles in the newspaper about the alleged incident painted him as a “pervert” and “sexual predator”.
The newspaper argues the stories published on November 30 and December 1 last year draw on allegations made by Ms Norvill and are true.
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