Geoffrey Rush on Battling John Lithgow (and His Twisted Hand Puppet) in Nursing Home Thriller ‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’: ‘It’s Like “The French Connection,” But in a Wheelchair’

variety.com:

William Earl Once Geoffrey Rush hit his mid-60s, he was offered more and more roles where his age was the focal point. Yet when he read the script for “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” the nursing home-set horror film offered a different angle.

Rush plays Stefan Mortensen, a tough-talking judge who suffers a stroke and must live in an assisted living facility. Unfortunately, one of the other wards is Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), who terrorizes the residents in increasingly sinister ways — along with the help of his hand puppet, Jenny Pen.

As Dave gets more emboldened to do terrible things in the nursing home, Stefan loses more and more of his faculties, having to take down his nemesis as his motor skills fade. “I’ve had quite a few scripts sent my way in the last eight years that felt like treading water,” the 73-year-old actor says. “But in this, his brain deteriorates — actually, he doesn’t say anything for the last 40 pages.

I said, ‘This is a bit like “The French Connection,” but in a wheelchair.'” Rush, an Oscar winner for his work in 1996’s “Shine” and nominee for 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” 2000’s “Quills” and 2010’s “The King’s Speech,” was quickly intrigued by this wild indie movie, co-written and directed by New Zealander James Ashcroft. “I’d had a period where I took some time out and was reflecting on ‘I don’t want to repeat myself,'” he says.