GEOFFREY RUSH

The Australian-born actor holds the Triple Crown of acting awards—an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony, with credits that include The

King’s Speech, Les Misèrables and his role as Captain Barbossa in the

Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Now Rush, 65, plays Albert Einstein in the TV miniseries Genius, which began airing April 25 at 9 p.m. ET on National Geographic Channel. How did you make Genius more than just a history lesson? [Executive producer] Ron Howard came in firing on all cylinders. Genius is an epic story of the great scientific revolution of the late 19th century and the two World Wars that devastated the planet. How did you portray Einstein the man? Einstein could play the violin as well as deal with intricate equations about how the mathematics of the universe might work. You try not to underscore too much that he was a walking computer. What can you tease about Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, opening May 26? There are a few revelations and troublesome, personal, anguished secrets from his past. Also, Salazar [Javier Bardem] has resurfaced after 25 years in purgatory. His motivation is to annihilate every existing pirate. Why did it take you until age 44 to become a film actor? I did bits of films. I did gigs with colleagues who were studying at film school in Sydney. I was in all their short films when I was in my late 20s and 30s. But I was so absorbed with theater, I never identified myself as being a film actor.