ON SET WITH... Geoffrey Rush

for his Geoffrey, 65, is best known films including award-winning roles in He plays Shine and The King’s Speech.

National Albert Einstein in Genius, series about Geographic’s ten-part us through the physicist. Here he talks in Prague… a week on the show’s set

5 MONDAY

Genius traces the life and times of Albert Einstein. Like most people I knew little about him except that he had mad hair, but he was also a bohemian, musician and poet. I think this series will surprise people. Part of the challenge for me is making myself look like him. This week the costume designer showed me a photo of Einstein in his later years. He has his legs crossed and is wearing a sweater and huge fluffy slippers, which are so at odds with who he is. We agreed that we have to get this look in somewhere.

6 TUESDAY

Einstein played the violin brilliantly but I’m not very good. I’ve been having lessons for weeks but I’m still at the level of a not-very-good five-year-old. In the past I’ve enjoyed learning new things for my roles; I played the accordion in The Book Thief and learned sword fighting for the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, but the violin is terribly hard. You either play it well or really, really badly. If I manage to look like a reasonable player on screen in the scene we’re filming today, that’s down to the magic of television.

7 WEDNESDAY

Emily Watson plays Einstein’s wife and first cousin Elsa, but he also had lots of affairs. All that domestic turmoil was a revelation to me. Today we’re shooting scenes showing Albert and Elsa arriving in America [right], where Einstein had become something of a star.

8 THURSDAY

When I was growing up I was an aspiring astronomer as I had become obsessed with NASA’s Mercury space programme. I remember when the US astronaut John Glenn flew over Australia in 1962 and we all turned our lights on to say hello. I even studied maths and physics to help with my ambition but I was hopeless at them. I’ve always had a layman’s love of science but a lot of stuff we talk about in the show I have to learn parrot fashion; in a scene today I have no idea what’s going on. Thankfully we have two Czech physicists on set to advise us.

9 FRIDAY

Einstein’s friend Charlie Chaplin once said to him, ‘You’re famous for something no one understands’, and he really was an astonishing celebrity. We don’t have role models like him any more who have his empathy, curiosity and compassion. There’s a glow around his mental and humane capacities that people can find sustenance in. He said we’re all different, let’s ask questions and deepen the human experience. I hope people will enjoy learning about his life by watching our drama – it could even make you seem a bit more clever at dinner parties!