Actor Craig McLachlan has admitted to pretending to fellate a piece of fruit and masturbating the arms of colleagues on set while giving evidence on day six of his defamation trial.

McLachlan is suing the ABC, Nine Newspapers and actress Christie Whelan Browne over 2018 reports alleging he indecently assaulted, harassed, bullied and exposed himself to female cast members during the 2014 Australian tour of The Rocky Horror Show.

McLachlan denies all claims of sexual harassment and bullying in the stories and says they ruined his reputation and put an end to his acting career.

In court today, the media's barrister, Michael Hodge QC, accused McLachlan of behaving crassly on set — something he strongly rejected, claiming 'I don't use the word crassness in theatre.'

The 56-year-old was subsequently questioned about a 12-minute blooper reel filmed in 2014 while McLachlan was a cast member on the ABC's The Doctor Blake Mysteries.

Responding to questions from Mr Hodge, McLachlan admitted that in the video he is seen "pretending to masturbate the arms of the crew" and "running up and kissing members of the crew".

Mr Hodge also asked: "there's another thing you do on set; you do a performance when you have a banana, you pretend to fellate it?"

"Yes," McLachlan responded.

"And then appear to deep-throat it?" Mr Hodge questioned. 

"The banana is already the appropriate shape but yes," McLachlan responded, adding that he didn't do it "all the time" but "it's a joke I would perform."

Under questioning, McLachlan then agreed that this "kind of sexual innuendo" was brought by him onto the set of the 2014 Rocky Horror Show.

Mr Hodge also suggested McLachlan manipulated co-star Whelan Browne into apologising for not congratulating him on being nominated for a 2014 Helpmann Award.

McLachlan told the court he "was confused" by her lack of public congratulations because "we were friends".

The jury heard that during this period, McLachlan emailed the show's director, Christopher Luscombe, referring to Ms Whelan Browne as a "horror" while also texting Whelan Browne, "I've always supported you".

Hodge suggested this was evidence of "manipulation" — a suggestion McLachlan denied.

The defamation trial is expected to run for another four weeks and will hear from 11 women who have accused McLachlan of inappropriate behaviour.