#thebookthief set: Geoffrey Rush
HANS HUBERMANN
Firstly: Geoffrey Rush knows accordions. Second: he likes questions. Thirdly? He likes questions ABOUT accordions, and questions about basically everything he could learn on Hans Hubermann and The Book Thief in the short amount of time we talked in Berlin, in April.
Probably the best thing I can say about Geoffrey (and the same goes for Emily Watson) is that he was just so…normal. He treated me like a friend. It was like we were talking about a book we’d both read, and he spoke about it like it was something alive, and something he wanted to fight for.
At one point he referred to the two accordion songs I mentioned in the book. I thought, ‘Jesus, he HAS read it,’ and that’s one of the strangest, nicest honours I can imagine. This is one the finest, best-loved actors to ever come out our country, and he’d read The Book Thief.
As we talked, I knew it wasn’t even necessary to see him acting the role. I didn’t need to see him take Liesel, and then Max, into his home. Some things are better left unseen.
Some things you just know.
