Harry Potter star Ian Hart ‘hit’ theatre-goer

Ian Hart, the prolific British character actor and Harry Potter star, could face police action after he allegedly hit a West End theatre-goer who had given him a standing ovation.
 
Hart, who played the villainous Professor Quirell in Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, apparently thought the audience member, Londoner Gerard Earley, was goading him throughout his performance of Speaking in Tongues on Monday night.
 
As Gerard Earley got to his feet to applaud, Hart, 45, ran off the stage and lunged at the theatre-goer, screaming threats at him and accusing him of talking throughout the play. According to a fellow audience member at the Duke of York's Theatre, Hart hit Earley, 38, on either the head of shoulder. He told the Daily Telegraph that Hart had been staring at Earley for most of the performance. "We thought it must be part of the act. The play ended and this man was one who stood up with some others to applaud and Ian Hart just lost it."
 
Fellow actor John Simm apparently tried to restrain Hart, the unnamed theatre-goer added. "John Simm was trying to hold him back but he pushed past him and ran off the side into the stalls and hit him."  
 
Earley told the Times that he was "very scared" as Hart came torwards him. "I’d sat back down by then and he was screaming and shouting, incoherent with rage. He was saying,'‘You're disrespecting me, you're not respecting the other actors'. I said, 'You must be mistaking me for someone else', and he just lost it completely. Spittle started flying out his mouth and the ushers were holding him back."
 
Asked if he was thinking of pressing charges, Earley said: "I am considering my options."
 
Yesterday Hart refused to comment on the incident but insisted that he would continue to appear in Speaking in Tongues, Andrew Bovell’s play about adultery and betrayal, in which he plays three roles.

Perhaps Hart should stick to film and television. Last week he told an interviewer that he did not like theatre acting. "I simply don't enjoy the process; I don't enjoy the relationship between the audience and the actor... I find it hard work." ·