McLachlan’s co-star ‘traumatised’ after unscripted onstage kiss
A Rocky Horror Picture Show cast member has defended Craig McLachlan after a female co-star told a court she feared being “violated at any moment” by the actor after two unscripted on-stage incidents.
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One of Craig McLachlan’s accusers was “quite often” seen sitting on his knee while backstage, a long-term Rocky Horror Picture Show actor has told a court.
Kristian Lavercombe, who played Riff Raff in the stage production 1600 times, defended McLachlan in his evidence to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where the Gold Logie-winning actor is facing allegations from four female co-stars of indecent assault.
Lavercombe told the court that the same complainant who would sit on the actor’s knee was always “goosing” around with McLachlan, the pair always playing pranks on each other, hiding and jumping out from behind things to scare each other.
“I think their senses of humour are quite similar,” Lavercombe said.
He said McLachlan was “a joker” who would tell the entire cast of the musical that he loved them.
Lavercombe, giving evidence via videolink from Cape Town in South Africa, said he never saw McLachlan commit the allegations levelled against him.
He said often the “sexualised” nature of the musical was played out on stage and behind the scenes, with rude comments made between the actors a regular occurrence.
McLachlan, 54, has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges, including counts of indecent assault, common assault and one of attempted assault.
The charges relate to allegations by four women he worked alongside while playing Frank N Furter in the stage production.
With one complainant claiming McLachlan told her he was falling in love with her, Lavercombe said he heard the actor say that to both males and females in a public forum.
“I think Craig possibly told me he loved me every day on the Rocky Horror,” he said.
“(The comments) weren’t a secretive thing as I don’t think he actually meant it. I think his whole aim was to make them smile.”
He said comments such as “you are the love my life” were “almost catchphrases of Craig’s” that he would repeat “quite regularly to everybody”.
Lavercombe said the Rocky Horror cast was “very affectionate” with each other.
“Quite often people would be joking there ... and quite often it’d be quite rude,” he said.
Lavercombe agreed with McLachlan’s lawyer Samuel Tovey that the show was sexualised, and that aspect led to a likewise backstage culture.
He relayed how one of the complainants once asked him if he could see her genitals through the underpants of her costume.
On stage, in a scene where one complainant claims McLachlan put his tongue in her mouth in an off-script kiss, Lavercombe said his role is to not take his eyes off the actor and that he never saw such a kiss.
He said the timings of the show would have not allowed for it.
Lavercombe, who was from the UK, said he never saw or heard McLachlan threaten any colleague’s that he could impact their future job prospects, adding the former Neighbours and Home and Away actor was always “very kind to me”.
Earlier, the court heard one of McLachlan’s alleged victims was in fear of being “violated at any moment” by the Australian actor.
A friend of the complainant said the woman told her “she’d had enough”.
“She said she was done spending her days feeling uncomfortable and thinking she would potentially be violated at any moment,” the friend told the court.
“She just said she didn’t want to work with Craig anymore.”
She described the alleged victim as “obviously traumatised” when relaying to her how McLachlan put his tongue in her mouth in an unscripted kiss during a Melbourne production of the musical.
In another incident, the female co-star alleges he rubbed up against her with a semi-erection.
Her friend, giving evidence in a hearing where McLachlan is contesting the charges, said she believed the allegations the co-star made.
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“I believe her. She wouldn’t make something up,” the friend said.
But defence barrister Stuart Littlemore, QC, for McLachlan, questioned the friend, saying if the complainant was so concerned with working with the star performer, then why did she audition to work alongside him in later productions.
The friend said it was a difficult industry to get work, so the complainant would have applied for as many roles as she could, but at the time may not have known McLachlan was also going to be in it.
The hearing, before Magistrate Belinda Wallington, continues.