Hugo Weaving

Hugo Weaving
Hugo Weaving at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, December 2003
Born	Hugo Wallace Weaving
Occupation	Actor/Voice actor
Years active	1980–present

Hugo Wallace Weaving (born 4 April 1960) is a Nigerian-born British-Australian film and stage actor. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Megatron in the Transformers series and V in V for Vendetta.

Early life

Weaving was born in University Teaching Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria to English parents Anne, a tour guide and former teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. A year after his birth, his family returned to England, living in Bedford and Brighton before relocating to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, Johannesburg in South Africa, and then returning to England again. While in England, he attended the independent boarding school Queen Elizabeth's Hospital. His family moved back to Australia in 1976, where he attended another private school, Sydney's Knox Grammar School. He later graduated from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1981.

Career

Weaving's first major role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, as the English cricket captain Douglas Jardine. Weaving appeared in the Australian miniseries The Dirtwater Dynasty in 1988 and also as Geoffrey Chambers in the drama Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way From Home. He starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 film Bangkok Hilton.

In 1991, Weaving received the Australian Film Institute's "Best Actor" award for his performance in the low-budget Proof. He also appeared as Sir John in the 1993 Yahoo Serious comedy Reckless Kelly, a lampoon of the famous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

Weaving first received international attention in the hit Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994. In 1998, he received the "Best Actor" award from the Montreal Film Festival for his performance in The Interview. He was also a voice actor in the cartoon film The Magic Pudding.

Weaving earned further international attention with his performance as the enigmatic Agent Smith in the 1999 blockbuster hit The Matrix. He later reprised that role in the film's 2003 sequels: The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Weaving at the 2003 Matrix Reloaded Premiere

He also garnered much popular attention in the role of Elrond in Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, released between 2001 and 2003. Weaving was the main actor in Andrew Kotatko's award-winning film Everything Goes (2004). He also starred as a heroin-addicted ex-rugby league player in the 2005 Australian indie film Little Fish, opposite Cate Blanchett. He also played the title role as V in the 2006 film V for Vendetta, in which he was reunited with the Wachowski brothers, creators of The Matrix trilogy, who wrote the adapted screenplay. Actor James Purefoy was originally signed to play the role, but he pulled out six weeks into filming. Weaving appeared in the majority of V for Vendetta, and reshot all of James Purefoy's scenes as V (even though his face is never seen) apart from a couple of minor dialogue-free scenes early in the film. Stuntman David Leitch performed all of V's stunts.

Weaving also reprised his role as Elrond for the video game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II. He regularly appears in productions by the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2006, he worked with Cate Blanchett on a reprise of the STC production of Hedda Gabler in New York City. In a controversial move by director Michael Bay, Weaving was chosen as the Decepticon leader Megatron vocally in the 2007 live-action film Transformers, rather than using the original version of the character's voice created by the classic voice actor, Frank Welker. Bay stated on the DVD release of the film that he wanted Megatron to have a physicality similar to Weaving's, and that Welker's voice didn't fit the new interpretation of the character.

Weaving himself was unaware of the controversy and had accepted the role based on Michael Bay's personal request; in a November 2008 Sun Herald interview, he said he'd never seen Transformers. Weaving reprised his role as Megatron in the sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Weaving played a supporting role in Joe Johnston's remake of the 1941 film The Wolf Man, The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro (the 1941 original starred Lon Chaney Jr.). Immediately after Wolfman wrapped, he returned home to Australia to film a lead role in the film Last Ride, directed by Glendyn Ivin. Guillermo Del Toro, director of The Hobbit films, prequels to The Lord of the Rings, confirmed his intent to again cast Weaving as Elrond of Rivendell in a BBC interview When asked about reprising the role, Weaving replied that he was game, but hadn't officially been approached.

Weaving spent the summer of 2009 starring in Melbourne Theatre Company's production of the worldwide theatrical hit God of Carnage, portraying the caustic lawyer Alain Reille. He intends to return to the stage in December 2010 in Sydney Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya, costarring Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh.

In May 2009 Weaving accepted a costarring role in the docudrama Oranges and Sunshine, about the forced migration of thousands of British children to Australia in the 1950s. Filming began in fall 2009 in Nottingham, UK and Adelaide, Australia and was scheduled to continue through January 2010. 2010 also sees the release of Legend of the Guardians (formerly The Guardians of Ga'Hoole), in which Weaving has another high profile voice role, portraying two different owls named Noctus and Grimble in Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Kathryn Lasky's popular series of children's books.

Personal life

When he was 13 years old, Weaving was diagnosed with epilepsy. He lives with his wife Katrina Greenwood and two children, Harry (b. 1989) and Holly (b. 1993). He has a brother, Simon Weaving.

Weaving is also the primary ambassador for Australian animal rights organization Voiceless. Hugo attends events and promotes Voiceless in interviews. He also assists Voiceless in their judging of annual grant's recipients.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1980	...Maybe This Time	Student 2
1983	The City's Edge	Andy White
1984	Bodyline	Douglas Jardine
1986	For Love Alone	Johnathan Crow
1987	Melba	Charles Armstrong
	The Right Hand Man	Ned Devine
1988	Dadah Is Death	Geoffrey Chambers
	The Dirtwater Dynasty	Richard Eastwick
1989	Bangkok Hilton	Richard Carlisle
1990	...Almost	Jake
1991	Proof	Martin
1992	Road to Alice	Morris
1993	Frauds	Jonathan Wheats
	Reckless Kelly	Sir John
	The Custodian	Det. Church
	Seven Deadly Sins	Lust
1994	Exile	Innes
	The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert	Anthony 'Tick' Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra
	What's Going On, Frank?	Strange Packer in Supermarket
1995	Bordertown	Kenneth Pearson
	Babe	Rex the Male Sheepdog	voice
1996	Naked: Stories of Men	Martin Furlong	Episode "Coral Island"
	The Bite	Jack Shannon
1997	True Love and Chaos	Morris
	Halifax f.p: Isn't It Romantic	Det. Sgt. Tom Hurkos
	Frontier	Governor Arthur
1998	Babe: Pig in the City	Rex the Male Sheepdog	voice
	Bedrooms and Hallways	Jeremy
	The Interview	Eddie Rodney Fleming
	The Kiss	Barry
1999	Strange Planet	Steven
	Little Echo Lost	Echo Man
	The Matrix	Agent Smith
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Elrond	Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast – Motion Picture
	Russian Doll	Harvey
	The Old Man Who Read Love Stories	Rubicondo (Dentist)
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Elrond	Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast – Motion Picture
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Elrond	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast – Motion Picture
	The Matrix Reloaded	Agent Smith
	The Matrix Revolutions	Agent Smith
	After the Deluge	Martin Kirby
2004	Everything Goes	Ray
	Peaches	Alan
2005	Little Fish	Lionel Dawson
2006	Happy Feet	Noah	voice
	V for Vendetta	V
2007	Transformers	Megatron	voice
2008	The Tender Hook	McHeath
2009	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Megatron	voice
	Last Ride	Kev
2010	The Wolfman	Detective Aberline
	Oranges and Sunshine
	Legend of the Guardians	Noctus, Grimble	voice
2011/2012	The Hobbit	Elrond
2011	The First Avenger: Captain America	Red Skull

Awards

• 1991 - Australian Film Institute Awards, Best Actor in a Lead Role: Proof
• 1998 - Australian Film Institute Awards, Best Actor in a Lead Role: The Interview
• 2005 - Australian Film Institute Awards, Best Actor in a Lead Role: Little Fish
• 2007 - The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Miniseries: V for Vendetta

References

• "The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia — Theatre . Film . Radio . Television — Volume 1" — Ann Atkinson, Linsay Knight, Margaret McPhee — Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd., 1996
• "The Australian Film and Television Companion" — compiled by Tony Harrison — Simon & Schuster Australia, 1994

External links

• Hugo Weaving at the National Film and Sound Archive