While he denied groping the actress, he admitted he may have “accidentally” touched her breast. The actress was later named as Eryn Jean Norvill, who The Daily Telegraphreported lodged a complaint with the Sydney Theatre Company over his “inappropriate behaviour”.
Ms Norvill is expected to give evidence in the 67-year-old’s defamation trial against the newspaper.
The paper’s barrister Tom Blackburn SC asked Mr Rush if he told Ms Norvill “you’re looking very scrumptious today” during rehearsals in late 2015.
“I don’t recall saying that but I may have said that,” Mr Rush told the Federal Court. “I was always in a very chirpy mood.”
Ms Norvill played Cordelia — daughter of Mr Rush’s character King Lear whose “lifeless” body he carried on stage before caressing her in grief.
Mr Rush denied deliberately tracing his fingers across Ms Norvill’s breast, saying he had wanted to feel the silhouette of her character’s lifeless torso, adding it was “the interior of my palms wanting to feel the loss of her soul”.
“Did a thumb accidentally touch the lower part of her chest? Possibly. I wasn’t monitoring this with detachment,” Mr Rush said.
When asked by the newspaper’s barrister Tom Blackburn SC if he told Mr Rush — in front of the cast after a preview — that the way he was touching Ms Norvill on stage was becoming “creepy” and unclear, Neil Armfield replied: “I have no memory of that.”
“Did you say that he should make the touching of her body more paternal?” Mr Blackburn asked.
“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
1 George Herbert Walker Bush; 2 Bill O’Reilly; 3 Al Franken; 4 Robin Brooke; 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; 7 Joe Biden; 8 Rolf Harris; 9 Harold Bloom; 10 Sir Jimmy Savile; 11 Dr Morgan Fahey; 12 Prince Harry; 13 Bill Clinton; 14 Judge Roy Moore; 15 Matt Lauer; 16 Richard Branson; 17 Warren Moon; 18 Donald John Trump; 19 Damian Green; 20 Gene Simmons; 21 Sylvester Stallone; 22 Louise’s husband Charlie; 23 Father O’Hagan (AKA “Father Gropius”); 24 David Lloyd George; 25 James Franco; 26 Joel Kramer; 27 Rene Naufahu; 28 Steve Wynn; 29 Vince McMahon; 30 Rob Porter; 31 The old buffers at Russell McVeagh; 32 Otago law students; 33 Tom Brokaw; 34 David Scott; 35 Justin Trudeau; 36 Morgan Freeman; 37 Hugh Hefner’s guests; 38 Brock Turner; 39 Les Moonves; 40 Asia Argento; 41 [name withheld]; 42 NY subway groper; 43 His Dishonor Brett Kavanaugh; 44 Corey Lewandowski; 45 Brooke Howard-Smith; 46 Dr. Filth McGraw; 47 Dominique Strauss-Kahn; 48 Roger Ailes; 49 Louis C.K.
No. 50: Geoffrey Rush