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Roxburgh: “No real Rake”

Rake star makes a point of order after famed barrister creates headlines.

Filming on Season 5 of Rake is about to get underway, in which Cleaver Greene holds the balance of power in the Parliament.

That should make for plenty of volatile storylines, some of which could mimic real life. And it’s that same mimicking that has prompted star Richard Roxburgh to speak out, after Charles Waterstreet’s name has appeared in headlines.

“To be crystal clear: there is no real Rake,” Roxburgh said. “Cleaver Greene is a fictional character.

“[He] is the result of the brilliant imaginations of the Rake creative team and the writing of Peter Duncan and Andrew Knight.”

“He told us one good story which we adapted and used in an episode in season one. As a result, it was agreed that he should be credited as co-creator.”

But Waterstreet has pointed to a 2008 episode of Australian Story that had Roxburgh saying he would be playing “a younger, much more dashing and handsome version of Charles” in a series loosely based on Waterstreet’s life.

As it stands, Rake may not based on Waterstreet, but he is nevertheless a co-creator even if he had no further input.

In 2013 Waterstreet sought two payments of $15,000. He argued he was entitled to profits after an initial consultation during the development of the series.

The matter was settled between both parties for an undisclosed sum.

Producer Ian Collie said at the time, “Charlie no doubt had his grievances and you want to settle it because it was doing nobody any good.

“The dispute takes up a lot of time energy and emotion, so we’ve come to an arrangement and we’re all happy to move on.

“You don’t want the success of the show tarnished by something like this.”

Waterstreet has been named in sexual harassment allegations by law student Tina Huang in an article on New Matilda called “The Real Rake“​. He responded here.

Source: Fairfax

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