Hugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film
actorAn actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as
Agent SmithAgent Smith is the main antagonist of The Matrix film series and multimedia franchise, mainly played by actor Hugo Weaving and briefly by actor Ian Bliss in the films and voiced by Christopher Corey Smith in The Matrix: Path of Neo.In 2008, Agent Smith was selected by Empire Magazine as number 84...
in the
Matrix trilogy,
ElrondElrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
in the
Lord of the Rings trilogyThe Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
, "V" in
V for VendettaV for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.
Early life
Weaving was born at the University Teaching Hospital in
IbadanIbadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...
, Nigeria, to English parents Anne (née Lennard), a tour guide and former teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. His maternal grandmother was
BelgianBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. A year after his birth, his family returned to England, living in
BedfordBedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
and
BrightonBrighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
before relocating to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia,
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
in South Africa, and then returning to England again. While in England, he attended the independent boarding school
Queen Elizabeth's HospitalQueen Elizabeth's Hospital is an independent school for boys in Clifton, Bristol, England founded in 1586. Stephen Holliday has served as Headmaster since 2000, having succeeded Dr Richard Gliddon...
. His family moved back to Australia in 1976, where he attended another private school, Sydney's
Knox Grammar SchoolKnox Grammar School is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Wahroonga, an upper North Shore suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
. He later graduated from Australia's
National Institute of Dramatic ArtThe National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
in 1981.
Career
Weaving's first major role was in the 1984 Australian television series
BodylineBodyline is an Australian 1984 television miniseries which dramatised the events of the 1932–1933 English Ashes cricket tour of Australia....
, as the English cricket captain
Douglas JardineDouglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...
. Weaving appeared in the Australian miniseries
The Dirtwater DynastyThe Dirtwater Dynasty is a five-part Australian drama miniseries, first screened on Network Ten in 1988. The Dirtwater Dynasty was directed by Michael Jenkins and John Power....
in 1988 and as Geoffrey Chambers in the drama
Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way From HomeDadah Is Death is a 1988 Australian film based on the executions of Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in Malaysia in 1986.-Cast:*Julie Christie ... Barbara Barlow*Hugo Weaving ... Geoffrey Chambers*John Polson ... Kevin Barlow...
. He starred opposite
Nicole KidmanNicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
in the 1989 film
Bangkok HiltonBangkok Hilton is a three-part Australian mini-series, made in 1989 by Kennedy Miller Productions and directed by Ken Cameron. The title of the mini-series is, in the story, the nickname of a fictional Bangkok prison in which the protagonist is imprisoned.-Plot:Bangkok Hilton begins as Hal Stanton...
.
In 1991, Weaving received the
Australian Film InstituteThe Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
's "Best Actor" award for his performance in the low-budget
ProofProof is a 1991 Australian film by Jocelyn Moorhouse starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. It was chosen as "Best Film" at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, along with 5 other awards, including Moorhouse for "Best Director", Weaving for "Best Leading Actor", and Crowe...
. He appeared as Sir John in the 1993
Yahoo SeriousYahoo Serious , born Greg Pead , is an Australian film actor, director and score composer. He is best known for his 1988 comedy Young Einstein. He also created Reckless Kelly in 1993 and Mr. Accident in 2000...
comedy
Reckless KellyReckless Kelly is a 1993 Australian comedy film written, directed and starring Yahoo Serious. The story is a satirical take on a modern day Ned Kelly who is forced to Hollywood in order to make enough money to save his family's land. As it goes against his belief, he cannot simply rob banks for...
, a lampoon of Australian outlaw
Ned KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
.
Weaving first received international attention in the hit
Priscilla, Queen of the DesertThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot is based on the journey of three drag queens who travel across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named...
in 1994, and provided the voice of Rex the sheepdog and farm leader in the 1995 family film,
BabeBabe is a 1995 Australian-American film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog...
. In 1998, he received the "Best Actor" award from the
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
Film Festival for his performance as a suspected
serial killerA serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
in
The InterviewThe Interview is a 1998 Australian thriller film from writer-director Craig Monahan, and is the first of two films directed by Monahan. Almost the entire film takes place in a police interrogation room, with some short flashback sequences, and the cast consists primarily of three key actors—Hugo...
. He was a voice actor in the cartoon film
The Magic Pudding.
Weaving earned further international attention with his performance as the enigmatic
Agent SmithAgent Smith is the main antagonist of The Matrix film series and multimedia franchise, mainly played by actor Hugo Weaving and briefly by actor Ian Bliss in the films and voiced by Christopher Corey Smith in The Matrix: Path of Neo.In 2008, Agent Smith was selected by Empire Magazine as number 84...
in the 1999 blockbuster hit
The MatrixThe Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
. He later reprised that role in the film's 2003 sequels:
The Matrix ReloadedThe Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15,...
and
The Matrix RevolutionsThe Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction film and the third installment of The Matrix trilogy. The film was released six months following The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers and released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5,...
.
He garnered much popular attention in the role of
ElrondElrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
in
Peter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's three-film adaptation of
The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, released between 2001 and 2003. Weaving was the main actor in Andrew Kotatko's award-winning film
Everything GoesEverything Goes, released in 2004, is an award-winning short film directed by Andrew Kotatko. It is based on the short story Why Don't You Dance? from Raymond Carver's collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The film stars Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton...
(2004). He starred as a heroin-addicted ex-rugby league player in the 2005 Australian indie film
Little FishLittle Fish is a 2005 Australian film directed by Rowan Woods and written by Jacquelin Perske. It was filmed in and around Sydney, in Cabramatta and in Fairfield...
, opposite
Cate BlanchettCatherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...
. Weaving played the title role as V in the 2006 film
V for VendettaV for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
, in which he was reunited with the Wachowski brothers, creators of
The Matrix trilogy, who wrote the adapted screenplay. Actor
James PurefoyJames Brian Mark Purefoy is an English actor best known for portraying Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome.-Early life and work:...
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 most 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 reprised his role as Elrond for the video game
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth IIThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, abbreviated BFMEII, is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It is based on the fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film trilogy adaptation...
. He regularly appears in productions by the
Sydney Theatre CompanyThe Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
(STC). In 2006, he worked with Cate Blanchett on a reprise of the STC production of
Hedda GablerHedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
in New York City. In a controversial move by director
Michael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
, Weaving was chosen as the
DecepticonThe Decepticons are usually depicted as the antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers stoyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots and the University of California Davis Aggies...
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 WelkerFranklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
. 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 did not 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. Though Weaving reprised his role as Megatron in
Transformers: Revenge of the FallenTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...
and
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (his highest-grossing film as of 2011), he does not have much personal investment in the Transformers films. In February 2010, Weaving revealed to
The AgeThe Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
:
"[Director] Michael Bay talks to me on the phone. I've never met him. We were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadn't seen the first one. I still didn't really know who the characters were and I didn't know what anything was. It's a voice job, for sure, and people assume I've spent my life working on it, but I really know so little about it."
Weaving played a supporting role in
Joe JohnstonJoseph Eggleston "Joe" Johnston II is an American film director and former effects artist best known for such effects-driven movies as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III, the period drama October Sky, The Wolfman, and Captain America: The First Avenger.- Life and...
's 2010 remake of the 1941 film
The Wolfman, starring
Benicio del ToroBenicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
. Immediately after
Wolfman wrapped in spring 2008, he returned home to Australia to film a lead role in the film
Last Ride, directed by Glendyn Ivin. In early 2009,
Guillermo Del ToroGuillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones...
, then director of
The Hobbit films, prequels to
The Lord of the Rings, confirmed his intent to again cast Weaving as
ElrondElrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
of
RivendellRivendell is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth...
in a BBC interview When asked about reprising the role, Weaving replied that he was game, but had not officially been approached. Del Toro eventually left the project; Peter Jackson decided to direct the films himself but Weaving was not officially confirmed in the cast until May 2011.
Weaving spent the summer of 2009 starring in the
Melbourne Theatre CompanyThe Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
's production of
God of CarnageGod of Carnage is a play by Yasmina Reza. It is about two pairs of parents, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving...
, portraying the caustic lawyer Alain Reille. He returned to the stage in November 2010 in Sydney Theatre Company's
Uncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
, costarring Cate Blanchett and
Richard RoxburghRichard Roxburgh is an Australian actor who has starred in many Australian films and has appeared in supporting roles in a number of Hollywood productions, usually as villains.-Early life:...
. Weaving filmed a guest role on Roxburgh's Australian TV series
RakeRake is an Australian television series, produced by Essential Media and Entertainment, that first aired on ABC1 in 2010. It stars Richard Roxburgh as Cleaver Greene, a brilliant but self-destructive barrister, a rake...
in May 2010.
In May 2009, Weaving accepted a costarring role in the docudrama
Oranges and SunshineOranges and Sunshine is a 2010 drama film directed by Jim Loach with screenplay by Rona Munro.-Plot:The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the scandal of "home children", a scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia...
, about the forced migration of thousands of British children to Australia in the 1950s. Filming began in fall 2009 in
NottinghamNottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, UK and Adelaide, Australia and continued through January 2010. The film premiered at the Rome International Film Festival on 28 October 2010 and garnered positive reviews. 2010 also saw 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 SnyderZachary Edward "Zack" Snyder is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and producer. After making his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead, he gained wide recognition with the 2007 box office hit 300, adapted from writer-artist Frank Miller's Dark Horse Comics...
's film adaptation of
Kathryn LaskyKathryn Lasky is an American author whose work includes several Dear America books, The Royal Diaries books, Sugaring Time, The Night Journey, and the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series.-Biography:...
's popular series of children's books.
On 4 May 2010, it was officially confirmed by
Marvel StudiosMarvel Studios, originally Marvel Films, is an American television and motion picture studio based in Manhattan Beach, California. Marvel Studios is a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, a self-contained part of the The Walt Disney Company conglomerate....
that Weaving would play the fictional Nazi the
Red SkullThe Red Skull is a name shared by several fictional characters, all supervillains from the Marvel Comics universe. All incarnations of the character are enemies of Captain America, other superheroes, and the United States in general....
in the superhero film
Captain America: The First AvengerCaptain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
. Weaving completed filming his role on the project in September 2010 and returned to Sydney to prepare for
Uncle Vanya. It is unlikely he will sign on for any further Marvel franchise installments; in an August, 2011 Baltimore Sun interview, the actor confided he's weary of typecasting and of "blockbuster" films in general: ""I think I've about had enough...I'm not sure how many more of them I'll make. It doesn't feel to me as though they've been the majority of my work, though that's probably the way it seems to most other people.".
2011 will see the release of four other Hugo Weaving films, the thematic range of which is typical for the actor's career. On 13 March,
The Key Man, which Weaving filmed in 2006, finally debuted at the
South By SouthwestSouth by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
Festival in Austin, TX. The child migrant saga
Oranges and SunshineOranges and Sunshine is a 2010 drama film directed by Jim Loach with screenplay by Rona Munro.-Plot:The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the scandal of "home children", a scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia...
opened in the UK on 1 April, the culmination of months of success on the festival circuit in late 2010-early 2011. In March, the
Sydney Theatre CompanyThe Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
and
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
announced that STC's 2010 production of Chekhov's
Uncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
would be reprised in Washington DC during the month of August In April, months of speculation finally ended when Weaving appeared on
The Hobbit's New Zealand set, shortly before a production spokesman officially confirmed the actor's return as Elrond in Peter Jackson's two-film prequel to
Lord of the Rings. The actor was also announced as part of the cast of the Wachowskis' ambitious adaptation of
David MitchellDavid Stephen Mitchell is an English novelist. He has written five novels, two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.- Biography :...
's novel
Cloud AtlasCloud Atlas is a 2004 novel, the third book by British author David Mitchell. It won the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year award, and was short-listed for the 2004 Booker Prize, Nebula Award, Arthur C...
during the 2011
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. The project, slated to costar
Tom HanksThomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
,
Ben WhishawBenjamin John "Ben" Whishaw is an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Whishaw is perhaps best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and his role as the lead character in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.-Early life:Whishaw was born and raised in...
,
Halle BerryHalle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
,
Jim BroadbentJames "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
and
Susan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, began filming in September 2011.
Weaving's first announced project for 2012 will be a return to the Sydney Theatre Company to star in a new adaptation of
Christopher HamptonChristopher James Hampton CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of...
's play
Les Liaisons DangereusesLes Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos.Les Liaisons dangereuses may also refer to:* Les liaisons dangereuses , a 1959 film adapted by Claude Brulé and directed by Roger Vadim...
in March. He will portray the notorious Vicomte de Valmont, a character he first played onstage in 1987.
Pamela RabePamela Rabe is a Canadian / Australian stage, television and film actor. A graduate from the Playhouse Acting School, in Vancouver, Pamela Rabe is one of Australia’s most highly regarded and awarded actors. She is best known for her appearances in the films Cosi, Sirens and Paradise Road...
costars.
Personal life
When he was 13 years old, Weaving was diagnosed with
epilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
. He lives in Sydney with his partner Katrina Greenwood and two children, Harry (b. 1989) and Holly (b. 1993). He has a brother, Simon Weaving, and a sister, Anna Jane.
Weaving is the primary ambassador for Australian
animal rightsAnimal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
organization Voiceless. He attends events, promotes Voiceless in interviews, and assists Voiceless in their judging of annual grants recipients.
His niece,
Samara WeavingSamara Weaving is an Australian actress known for her role as Kirsten Mulroney in the Australian-produced BBC TV series Out Of The Blue and also for playing Indigo Walker on soap opera Home and Away.-Family and early life:...
, currently portrays
Indigo WalkerIndigo "Indi" Walker is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera Home and Away, played by Samara Weaving. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 30 July 2009. Weaving and her on-screen family initially appeared in 2009 for a guest stint, in 2010 they were...
on the long-running Australian soap,
Home and AwayHome and Away is an Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney since July 1987 and is airing on the Seven Network since 17 January 1988. It is the second-longest-running drama and most popular soap opera on Australian television...
.
Filmography
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
| 1980 |
|
Student 2 |
|
| 1983 |
|
Andy White |
|
| 1986 |
For Love Alone For Love Alone is a 1986 Australian film directed by Stephen Wallace and starring Helen Buday, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill. The screenplay was written by Wallace, based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Christina Stead. The film marked the screen debut of Naomi Watts...
|
Johnathan Crow |
|
| 1987 |
Melba |
Charles Armstrong |
|
| 1987 |
|
Ned Devine |
|
| 1988 |
Dadah Is Death Dadah Is Death is a 1988 Australian film based on the executions of Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in Malaysia in 1986.-Cast:*Julie Christie ... Barbara Barlow*Hugo Weaving ... Geoffrey Chambers*John Polson ... Kevin Barlow...
|
Geoffrey Chambers The Barlow and Chambers execution refers to the hanging in 1986 by Malaysia of two Australian citizens, Kevin John Barlow and Brian Geoffrey Chambers of Perth, Western Australia, for the drug trafficking of 141.9 g of heroin....
|
|
| 1990 |
|
Jake |
|
| 1991 |
Proof Proof is a 1991 Australian film by Jocelyn Moorhouse starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. It was chosen as "Best Film" at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, along with 5 other awards, including Moorhouse for "Best Director", Weaving for "Best Leading Actor", and Crowe...
|
Martin |
AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| 1992 |
Road to Alice |
Morris |
|
| 1993 |
Frauds Frauds is a 1993 Australian black comedy film starring pop star Phil Collins. It was entered into the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:The film is a story of the ways in which insurance investigator Roland Copping interferes in and manipulates the lives of others with outrageous games and gimmicks...
|
Jonathan Wheats |
|
| 1993 |
Reckless Kelly Reckless Kelly is a 1993 Australian comedy film written, directed and starring Yahoo Serious. The story is a satirical take on a modern day Ned Kelly who is forced to Hollywood in order to make enough money to save his family's land. As it goes against his belief, he cannot simply rob banks for...
|
Sir John |
|
| 1993 |
|
Det. Church |
|
| 1994 |
Exile Exile is a 1994 Australian drama film directed by Paul Cox. It was entered into the 44th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was shot entirely on location in Tasmania.-Cast:* Aden Young as Peter Costello* Beth Champion as Mary...
|
Innes |
|
| 1994 |
|
Anthony "Tick" Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra |
Nominated — AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| 1994 |
What's Going On, Frank? |
Strange Packer in Supermarket |
|
| 1995 |
BabeBabe is a 1995 Australian-American film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog...
|
Rex the Male Sheepdog |
Voice role |
| 1997 |
True Love and Chaos |
Morris |
|
| 1997 |
Halifax f.p: Isn't It Romantic |
Det. Sgt. Tom Hurkos |
|
| 1998 |
Babe: Pig in the City Babe: Pig in the City is a 1998 sequel to the 1995 film Babe. It occurs in the fictional city of Metropolis. Due to the unexpected darker and more mature subject matter , the film was not received as well as the first Babe film was, as it flopped at the box office and reviews were generally...
|
Rex the Male Sheepdog |
Voice role |
| 1998 |
Bedrooms and Hallways Bedrooms and Hallways is a 1998 comedy-drama film about bisexuality or the fluidity of sexuality. It was written by Robert Farrar and directed by Rose Troche, starring Kevin McKidd, James Purefoy, Tom Hollander, Julie Graham, Simon Callow and Hugo Weaving....
|
Jeremy |
|
| 1998 |
|
Eddie Rodney Fleming |
AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Montreal World Film FestivalThe Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
Award for Best Actor
Nominated — FCCA AwardThe Film Critics Circle of Australia is a group of cinema critics that judge Australian films.-External links:**...
for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1998 |
|
Barry |
|
| 1999 |
Strange Planet |
Steven |
|
| 1999 |
Little Echo Lost |
Echo Man |
|
| 1999 |
|
Agent SmithAgent Smith is the main antagonist of The Matrix film series and multimedia franchise, mainly played by actor Hugo Weaving and briefly by actor Ian Bliss in the films and voiced by Christopher Corey Smith in The Matrix: Path of Neo.In 2008, Agent Smith was selected by Empire Magazine as number 84...
|
Nominated — Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Villain |
| 2001 |
Russian Doll |
Harvey |
|
| 2001 |
|
Rubicondo (Dentist) |
Nominated — AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — FCCA AwardThe Film Critics Circle of Australia is a group of cinema critics that judge Australian films.-External links:**...
for Best Supporting Actor |
| 2001 |
|
ElrondElrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
|
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 2002 |
|
Elrond |
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 2003 |
|
Elrond |
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
National Board of Review Award for Best CastThe National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble is an annual film award given by the National Board of Review.-1990s:...
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 2003 |
|
Agent Smith |
|
| 2003 |
|
Agent Smith |
Nominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Fight The MTV Movie Award for Best Fight is an award presented to actors and characters for quality fight scenes in films at the MTV Movie Awards, a ceremony established in 1992. Honors in several categories are awarded by MTV at the annual ceremonies, and are chosen by public vote...
(shared with Keanu ReevesKeanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
) |
| 2003 |
After the Deluge |
Martin Kirby |
|
| 2004 |
Everything Goes Everything Goes, released in 2004, is an award-winning short film directed by Andrew Kotatko. It is based on the short story Why Don't You Dance? from Raymond Carver's collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The film stars Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton...
|
Ray |
Inside Film Awards The Inside Film Awards is an annual awards ceremony and broadcast platform for the Australian film industry, a format created by Australian Producer Andrew Dillon...
: Best Short Film |
| 2004 |
Peaches Peaches is a 2004 Australian film, written by Sue Smith and directed by Craig Monahan. The music was by David Hirschfelder, cinematography by Ernie Clark A.C.S., editing by Suresh Ayyar and art direction by Paula Smith.-Plot:...
|
Alan |
|
| 2005 |
Little Fish Little Fish is a 2005 Australian film directed by Rowan Woods and written by Jacquelin Perske. It was filmed in and around Sydney, in Cabramatta and in Fairfield...
|
Lionel Dawson |
AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
FCCA AwardThe Film Critics Circle of Australia is a group of cinema critics that judge Australian films.-External links:**...
for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Inside Film AwardThe Inside Film Awards is an annual awards ceremony and broadcast platform for the Australian film industry, a format created by Australian Producer Andrew Dillon...
for Best Actor |
| 2006 |
Happy FeetHappy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated family film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released...
|
Noah |
Voice role |
| 2006 |
V for VendettaV for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
|
V |
Nominated — International Award In 1988, representatives of the Award Programme worldwide founded The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award International Association ....
for Best Actor |
| 2007 |
Transformers |
Megatron |
Voice role |
| 2008 |
|
McHeath |
|
| 2009 |
Transformers: Revenge of the FallenTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...
|
Megatron |
Voice role |
| 2009 |
Last Ride Last Ride is a 2009 Australian drama film directed by Glendyn Ivin. It is based on the novel The Last Ride by Denise Young. The film follows a young boy accompanying his father , who is wanted by the police, across Australia.The film was given a limited release across Australia on 2 July...
|
Kev |
Nominated — AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| 2010 |
|
Detective Aberline |
|
| 2010 |
Oranges and Sunshine Oranges and Sunshine is a 2010 drama film directed by Jim Loach with screenplay by Rona Munro.-Plot:The film tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the scandal of "home children", a scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia...
|
Jack |
|
| 2010 |
Legend of the Guardians |
Noctus and Grimble |
Voice role |
| 2011 |
Transformers: Dark of the Moon |
Megatron |
Voice role |
| 2011 |
Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...
|
Red SkullThe Red Skull is a name shared by several fictional characters, all supervillains from the Marvel Comics universe. All incarnations of the character are enemies of Captain America, other superheroes, and the United States in general....
/ Johann Schmidt |
Nominated - Scream Award for Best Villan |
| 2011 |
Happy Feet Two |
Noah |
Voice role |
| 2012 |
|
ElrondElrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
|
|
| 2013 |
|
Elrond |
|
Television
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
| 1984 |
BodylineBodyline is an Australian 1984 television miniseries which dramatised the events of the 1932–1933 English Ashes cricket tour of Australia....
|
Douglas Jardine Douglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...
|
Television miniseries |
| 1988 |
|
Richard Eastwick |
4 episodes |
| 1989 |
Bangkok Hilton Bangkok Hilton is a three-part Australian mini-series, made in 1989 by Kennedy Miller Productions and directed by Ken Cameron. The title of the mini-series is, in the story, the nickname of a fictional Bangkok prison in which the protagonist is imprisoned.-Plot:Bangkok Hilton begins as Hal Stanton...
|
Richard Carlisle |
Television miniseries |
| 1993 |
Seven Deadly Sins |
Lust |
Television miniseries |
| 1995 |
Bordertown Bordertown is a television western-drama series that aired from 1989 to 1991. It depicts the town formerly known as Pemmican that was later renamed Bordertown when the western border between the United States and Canada was surveyed in 1880, dividing the town.-Premise:Pemmican was a town in the...
|
Kenneth Pearson |
10 episodes |
| 1996 |
|
Jack Shannon |
Television miniseries |
| 1996 |
Naked: Stories of Men |
Martin Furlong |
1 episode |
| 1997 |
Frontier |
Governor Arthur |
Television miniseries |
| 2003 |
After the Deluge |
Martin Kirby |
Television miniseries |
| 2010 |
Rake Rake is an Australian television series, produced by Essential Media and Entertainment, that first aired on ABC1 in 2010. It stars Richard Roxburgh as Cleaver Greene, a brilliant but self-destructive barrister, a rake...
|
Prof Graham Murray |
Television series, 1 episode |
| 2010 |
I, Spry |
Narrator |
Television documentary |
Awards
- 1991 – Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
, Best Actor in a Lead Role: ProofProof is a 1991 Australian film by Jocelyn Moorhouse starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. It was chosen as "Best Film" at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, along with 5 other awards, including Moorhouse for "Best Director", Weaving for "Best Leading Actor", and Crowe...
- 1998 – Australian Film Institute Awards, Best Actor in a Lead Role: The Interview
The Interview is a 1998 Australian thriller film from writer-director Craig Monahan, and is the first of two films directed by Monahan. Almost the entire film takes place in a police interrogation room, with some short flashback sequences, and the cast consists primarily of three key actors—Hugo...
- 2005 – Australian Film Institute Awards, Best Actor in a Lead Role: Little Fish
Little Fish is a 2005 Australian film directed by Rowan Woods and written by Jacquelin Perske. It was filmed in and around Sydney, in Cabramatta and in Fairfield...
- 2007 – The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Miniseries: V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...
- 2011 – Sydney Theatre Award, Best Supporting Actor:Sydney Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya
External links