Geoffrey Rush “cupped” Eryn Jean Norvill’s breast while on stage during a 2015 production of King Lear, a fellow cast member has said.

Norvill is the actor whose complaint about Rush’s behaviour is at the centre of the Oscar-winning actor’s defamation case against Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph.

She has previously given evidence that during a preview screening of the production Rush “deliberately” ran his hand over her right breast.

Rush denies the allegation, and other cast members have previously testified that they did not see the incident.

But on Thursday Mark Leonard Winter, who played the role of Edgar during the play, said he had witnessed Rush make a “cupping” action around Norvill’s breast in the final scene of the play during a performance.

“On that occasion I saw Geoffrey’s hand cupping around the bottom of EJ’s breast, which was something I hadn’t seen before on stage,” he said. “The nipple was not covered, it was sort of a more of a cupped position. It’s a little bit tricky to describe I guess but I would say the side and underneath [her breast]. So not like a squeeze, if you will, not like that.”

He said the incident was “pre Me Too” and had not prompted a reaction.

“There was a strange thing that occurred that we just went ‘that happened’ and then we moved on,” he said. “It wasn’t something that I dwelled on.”

Winter said he found the touch “confusing”.

“I couldn’t give you a seconds figure, a number figure, it was long enough for me to have a series of thoughts that took me outside the actions of the play,” he said.

However, Winter told the court he recalled the touching happened on Norvill’s left side. Norvill has given evidence that it occurred on her right side.

Winter also told the court he had witnessed an incident during rehearsals where Rush had made a “boob-squeezing gesture” over Norvill’s body. The court has previously heard an allegation that during Rush “made groping gestures” over Norvill’s breasts during a rehearsal of the play’s final scene.

Rush denied that allegation, and the play’s director, Neil Armfield, previously told the court he never witnessed it occur.

But Winter described seeing the event take place.

“There was [a] rehearsal day when Geoffrey was doing a bit of a skit over Eryn Jean when she was lying on the floor of the stage,” he said. “I was talking to somebody at the time [so] this is probably the vaguest of my recollections. It was like a Three Stoogesy-like bit, if you will. I can’t describe for you the whole thing [but there was] a sequence of quick jokes and like a ‘eh’ at the end. [He] made a jokey gesture at the end.”

He said the “jokey gesture” was “a boob-squeezing gesture”.

“They were in the position they were in for those final moments of the play.”

Under cross-examination Rush’s barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, pushed Winter on his friendship with Norvill.

He said Norvill was in the year below him at the Victorian College of the Arts, although they were not close at the time.

Winter said he was friends with “both sides” of the case, and the court heard that the actor had asked Rush for a reference after King Lear.

“To be honest I don’t really care about The Daily Telegraph,” he said.

“I care about the two people involved.”

“There’s always a tendency [to] paint people as black and white … people aren’t just black and white; Geoffrey Rush is a respected figure and a friend.”

The court also heard from Rush’s US agent Fred Specktor, whose clients include Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and Danny DeVito.

Specktor gave evidence that Rush’s reputation before the Telegraph stories was “perfect”, but that he had been “damaged as a human being”.

“I think this has been very destructive to him in terms of his psyche. I just see a total difference in him,” he said.

The Daily Telegraph’s barrister, Tom Blackburn SC, opened his lengthy cross-examination of Specktor with: “You said Mr Rush likes complicated characters. Have you seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?”

“I can tell you that is a complicated role,” Specktor said of Rush’s role as pirate Hector Barbossa.

The Oscar-winning Australian actor is suing Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph over a series of articles published at the end of November and beginning of December in 2017 that alleged he behaved inappropriately during the production.

The Telegraph is arguing a truth defence against Rush.

The trial continues.