Rush signs up for Sellers story
The cast of a new film about comic genius Peter Sellers was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival today.
Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush plays the Goon Show star in the biopic, The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers. Stephen Fry plays Maurice Woodruff, the “psychic” advisor on whom Sellers relied.
Emily Watson is his first wife, Anne Howe, and Emilia Fox his fourth, Lynne Frederick, while Britt Ekland is played by Charlize Theron.
And stunning Italian newcomer Sonia Aquino makes her English-speaking debut as screen siren Sophia Loren.
The film will portray Sellers – the former Goon who went on to become an international star in the likes of Dr Strangelove and the Pink Panther movies - as a troubled genius unable to cope with the pressures of fame.
Australian star Rush said he was a huge fan of Sellers’s work and wanted to do him justice in the film.
“I think he became the first really hip British actor from the most unlikely background,” he said.
“There were great British actors around like David Niven and Alec Guinness but there was something cool and chic and original about Sellers.”
He added that he was basing his performance on a quote from Sellers’s close friend and fellow Goon Spike Milligan, in which he described him as “a very complex simpleton”.
Rush, who won a best actor Oscar in 1996 for his portrayal of disturbed pianist David Helfgott in Shine, was the producers’ first choice for the part.
Director Stephen Hopkins explained: “Geoffrey’s really good at playing loonies.”
Hopkins, who directed cult TV drama 24, said the producers had been approached by dozens of actors and comedians desperate to play the role.
Rush, 51, bears an uncanny likeness to Sellers on screen after undergoing five hours in make-up and prosthetics.
Sellers’s son Michael has said he is unhappy with the film because it is based on the 1994 biography by Roger Lewis, which he has branded “unintelligible rubbish”.
The book painted an unflattering picture of Sellers as a deeply unpleasant character on the verge of insanity.
But Hopkins insisted: “I don’t think anyone who sees the film will find it is attacking Sellers on any level. It is compassionate and will make you feel sorry for him because of what he had to go through. It is an affectionate portrait.”
The film will have a surreal tone as it often chooses to portray events as Sellers saw them, rather than how they actually happened. It will also faithfully recreate scenes from his classic films including Dr Strangelove.
It is a co-production between America’s HBO network and BBC Films and has just begun shooting in the UK.
The rest of the cast features Miriam Margolyes as Peg Sellers, John Lithgow as Blake Edwards and Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick.
