ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
He has won the Golden Globe, been courted by Steven Spielberg, and now been nominated for an Oscar, yet Australian actor Geoffrey Rush manages to keep it all in perspective.
At 45, Rush is no wide-eyed new star. He has known his share of hits and misses in the Australian theater, where he has appeared in scores of classical and modern plays.
Still, he had a right to be dazzled when he captured the Golden Globe as best dramatic actor of 1996 for his role as troubled Australian pianist David Helfgott in ``Shine.''
And earlier this week, he received an Oscar nomination as best actor.
``I was taken by the party atmosphere,'' he reflected. ``Within the room it didn't feel too tense. I was expecting an undercurrent of intense, competitive energy. It felt like this town was having a bit of a party that night. ...
``Getting my name called out and then going up there - the response was quite different from what I thought it was going to be. Something quite huge poured up onto the stage, and I felt, `My God, this is the peer group of peer groups!'
``I'm really new to this. I've only done films since 1994; the rest has been theater. I suddenly find myself on the West Coast of America with Dustin Hoffman beaming up at me. Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, John Travolta and all these faces - it was pretty extraordinary.
``The nice thing was the warmth of the response and the generosity I've sensed as an outsider. There's a feeling in the industry I got at that moment that people were saying, `We like this sort of film, we like what it says, we like how it was made, we like its ethos.'''
Like all quality, independent films, ``Shine'' had a long journey to completion. Rush first heard about the project in 1992 when the director, Scott Hicks, saw him onstage in ``Uncle Vanya.''
``Scott was fearful that I might have stumpy, banana-like fingers,'' said Rush. ``So the joke is that I had been cast from the wrist down.''
His long, slender fingers suited him for the role of the concert pianist; he was hired without a screen test. Financial and casting problems stalled production until 1995. The final budget came to $6 million, a large sum for an Australian film.
Rush used the delay to study tapes Hicks had made with David Helfgott, who speaks in an outburst of manic, repetitive sentences.
``It was like learning a dialect or another language,'' the actor said. ``I tried to absorb what I could of David's particular rhythms, then make it my own.'' He met Helfgott socially, but decided not to study him lest the portrayal become an imitation.
Rush had studied piano until he was 15, mostly pop music. He worked with a piano tutor for ``Shine'' and was able to fake the playing for the movie.
Geoffrey Rush has a long face, melancholy in repose, with a prominent nose and unruly hair. He was born in Toowoomba (``an aboriginal word. I'm not sure what it means,'' he says) in Queensland.
When he was 8 years old, his family moved to Brisbane, where he did all his schooling, earning an arts degree at the local university.
``I was never really thinking I'd become a professional actor,'' he said, ``because there was no theatrical culture I'd been around.'' But having seen some traveling tent-shows in his youth, he was fascinated by the theater. He appeared in college plays, then joined the newly founded, state-sponsored Queensland Theater Company.
In the mid-1970s, he studied drama in Paris, and returned to work in repertory in Brisbane and Sydney. His first major film came in 1994.
About the rendezvous with Steven Spielberg:
``We had a chat about a possible project that may eventuate. It was great. He was filming a terrific stunt sequence for [`Jurassic Park' sequel] `The Lost World' with a velociraptor.
``He was absolutely extraordinary. He was working this shot on a set with perhaps 200 people. We were having chats about this future project. He talked to my wife about the impending birth of his child. There was a 6-year-old boy who was a friend of a friend of a friend, and he was giving that child equal time.
``Some prop guy would come up with a velociraptor part to see if it was OK. Steven would get called to the monitor to look at the shot. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. No overt ego. Good, hard work and skills.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Geoffrey Rush's long, slender fingers suited him forby CNBthe role of a concert pianist; he was hired for "Shine" without a
screen test. color.