Geoffrey Rush, for the first time in Romania, at TIFF.22
Geoffrey Rush is known for the multitude of roles that have remained imprinted in the public’s memory. Geoffrey Rush amazes every time with his authenticity and versatility in choosing each character, and his always perfect performances. On June 16th, Geoffrey Rush was present at the Q&A held by Mihai Chirilov, on the occasion of TIFF.22. I got the chance to speak with the actor, for a special interview that was published in AperiTIFF. For the first time in Romania, he was excited to discover the beautiful places from Cluj-Napoca, and especially the food, the element that impressed him the most.
The movie “Shine”, the movie you were awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1997, is playing at TIFF this year. How do you feel talking and representing this movie again, literally one of the most important ones from your career?
Geoffrey Rush: It holds a very special place for me, because it was the only second feature film that I was in, for the main role. It just went in a direction we hadn’t anticipated to go to. And we had the 20th anniversary in 2016. Being part of the mid 90’s, it was part of a phenomenon that happened in that particular year at the Oscars. A lot of independent films were fully grounded, like Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient, Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies, Lars von Trier. It was good for independent movies at that time.
The movie brought you great reputation and fame after releasing it. After 30 years from then, how do you perceive this special moment? This film, what did it bring to you, when did it arrive in your career?
Geoffrey Rush: It was, with hindsight, a very watershed moment. I was in 1992 when I read the screenplay, but we didn’t start screening and it was a low budget film; I’ve been working since 1971–1991 and I’ve established a substantial career as a theatre actor. I was travelling and I had a reputation, and I was exploring trying to pick up 3-month jobs to do whatever Shakespeare. I had a bit of a brick wall and I started having anxiety, that was when my daughter was born and be at home and later script arrived and it took ages for the film to be made when I read the script — I thought he’s a character in a story that is like some of the things, the things that were a big a creative mark — I knew that this is a very dramatic film and they expected a dramatic film in Australia and I had three years to prepare because. Scott gave me all the recorded tapes of David and helped the writer to put the screenplay; it is the vocal patterns that I must achieve, the thought processing that is so liberal.
Throughout your life, your roles were distinguished by the authentic essence you gave them, becoming the character yourself, not just playing a role. How do you manage to get under the skin of the character so perfectly?
Geoffrey Rush: All you have is the script. But then the script has, let’s say, for Captain Barbossa, very good writers. They were brilliant. For action, adventure, story writers, they wrote Shrek, which is a great film, I think. So then, they said, they sort of settled, in the mid 18th century, the actual piracy. Piracy is not a very attractive thing. If you meet pirates now, they are tough people. But I knew that Jerry Bruckheimer wouldn’t have done the role until the writers came up with a definite direction, like making the pirates cursed.
The francize you’re most recognized for is the Pirates of the Caribbean, we all know that. How has this role marked you professionally and personally after the release of it?
Geoffrey Rush: Well, it is a really important role. It’s the only character I played in 5 different films. What was refreshing for me was that the writers, once I’ve been killed in the first movie, they brought me back. They put him (Hector Barbossa) through different story lines. He got to work for the king, so his arrogance and his vanity were stronger. He became like a global leader of the 9 lords and then he had an emotional connection with the long-lost daughter. So, I didn’t feel like I was doing the same character over and over again. And the team of people, we were a big family, over a period of 12 or 15 years. Children were born and people had died. It was a big saga. It was great to explore the Caribbean. And in the last film we were shooting in Queensland, where I grew up. And that was great.
After these years, are you still asked about this role? Are people still interested in the role of Hector Barbossa?
Geoffrey Rush: Kind of, yes. I know from fan mail that there still are people out there whose favourite francize is this, the Pirates of the Caribbean. I think also because there was a supernatural element, you know, particularly the first film was a Disney film. It was filmed with disease (afecțiune).
Because of the multitude of roles you had during your whole career, you must have encountered challenges, difficulties of different kinds. For example, the time in 1992 when you had to film for 8 plays. You have dealt with anxiety. How did you overcome those challenges when they kicked in?
Geoffrey Rush: Well, it is mostly the fact that I got to travel that helped me a lot to not get stuck in that specific mindset. I was suddenly traveling a lot and it was a stimulus for me. That helped, it took my mind off. I could have gone for very serious therapy for a very long time, but that happened and happily within my work.
