Geoffrey Rush opposes 'The King's Speech' potential re-cutting
"The King's Speech" is sitting pretty as we approach Oscar night, with Tom Hooper taking home a Directors Guild Award on Saturday (Jan. 29), and Colin Firth nabbing "Best Actor" honors at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards.Amidst the film's campaign for an Academy Award, comes rumors that executive producer and distributor Harvey Weinstein may order the film to be re-cut for a PG-13 rating.
One person not a fan of the idea is Geoffrey Rush, who plays Lionel Logue, the unorthodox speech therapist enlisted to help King George VI control his stammer.
"I just think it's a shame considering that it's all in the context of therapeutic play," Rush tells The Hollywood Reporter. "You're going to cut one of the key thrills of the film."
The scene in danger of being cut involves Rush's character encouraging King George VI (Firth) to let out a string of curse words as part of his speech therapy.
"It's almost like a tongue-twister," the actor says. "It's gobbledygook. But it's not aggressive, it's not offensive. It's not harmful."
His solution?
"They should just 'bleep it,'" he suggests, in lieu of cutting the scene entirely.
Do you think Weinstein should edit the film to reach a wider audience? Or is "The King's Speech" perfect the way it is?
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Wellllll, many of us have already seen it. Wouldn't cutting it now be like closing the gate after the horse has escaped?
I just saw the movie - didn't realize it wasn't PG-13. With all the violence in movies of that rating, it seems absurd to re-edit the mildly obsentity segment. Besides - don't know of too many tweeners that would go for this type of movie. LEAVE IT ALONE.
Under-16s will NOT go see this movie on their own. They will go with their parents, so the R-rating doesn't matter to them. Editing the movie will not increase ticket sales. The scene is not offensive so leave it in.
Yet more proof (following the over-the-top reaction to Skins) that there's an element of American society hellbent on trying to pull the United States back to the 1950s.
America is so weird when it comes to censorship and at least half a century behind when it comes to standards. A signle utterance of obscenity (Bono's "f***") or a second of nudity (Janet Jackson, Superbowl 2004) is considered more offensive and musters up more public outrage than what is shown on CSI every week.