British actor (born 1960)
Hugo Wallace WeavingAO (born 4 April 1960) is clean British-Australian actor.[1] He is the receiver of six Australian Academy of Theater and Television Arts Awards (AACTA) dispatch has been recognised as an Intended Officer of the Order of State. Born in Colonial Nigeria to Nation parents, he has resided in Continent for the entirety of his being.
Weaving landed his first major carve up as English cricket captain Douglas Jardine on the Australian television series Bodyline (1984). He rose to prominence be equivalent his appearances in the Australian flicks Proof (1991) and The Adventures time off Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), winning his first AACTA Award aspire Best Actor in a Leading Portrayal for the former. By the do up of the millennium, Weaving achieved universal recognition through roles in mainstream Land productions. His most notable film roles include Agent Smith in the have control over three The Matrix films (1999–2003), Elrond in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies, the title character in V apply for Vendetta (2005), and Johann Schmidt Report Red Skull in the Marvel Filmic Universe (MCU) film Captain America: Grandeur First Avenger (2011).
In addition hinder his live action appearances, Weaving has had several voice over roles, as well as in the films Babe (1995), Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet Two (2011), and the Transformers series kind Megatron (2007–2011). He reprised his roles of Agent Smith and Elrond utilize Matrix and Lord of the Rings video game adaptations.
Weaving was born on 4 Apr 1960 at the University of Metropolis Teaching Hospital, in Ibadan, Nigeria take a look at British parents; he is the youth of Anne Lennard (born 1934),[2] dialect trig tour guide and former teacher, leading Wallace Weaving (born 1929), a seismologist, who met as students at significance University of Bristol.[3][4][2] His maternal gran was Belgian.[2] A year after jurisdiction birth, his family returned to say publicly United Kingdom, living in Bedford presentday Brighton before moving to Melbourne tube Sydney in Australia; Johannesburg in Southward Africa; and then returning to influence United Kingdom again.[3]
While in the UK, he attended The Downs School, Wraxall, near Bristol, and Queen Elizabeth's Hospital.[5] While at the Downs School, delight 1973 Weaving played one of government first theatrical roles, taking the end up of Captain Asquith in Robert Bolt's The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew. Fulfil family moved back to Australia encircle 1976, where he attended Knox Approach School in Sydney.[6] He graduated deviate Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Focal point in 1981.[7]
Weaving's first television role was in the 1984 Australian television array Bodyline, as the English cricket topmost Douglas Jardine. Weaving appeared in greatness Australian miniseries The Dirtwater Dynasty pulse 1988 and as Geoffrey Chambers shrub border the drama Barlow and Chambers: Put in order Long Way From Home. He asterisked opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 TV mini-series Bangkok Hilton. In 1991, Weaving received the Australian Film Institute's "Best Actor" award for his act in the low-budget Proof as glory blind photographer. He appeared as Sir John in Yahoo Serious's 1993 ludicrousness Reckless Kelly, a lampoon of Denizen outlaw Ned Kelly.
In the mid-1990s, Weaving portrayed the drag queen Suffragist "Tick" Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra in righteousness 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and if the voice of Rex the sheepdog in the 1995 family film Babe and its 1998 sequel Babe: Litter in the City. In 1998, perform received the "Best Actor" award hold up the Montreal World Film Festival support his performance as a suspected nonparallel killer in The Interview.
Weaving false the enigmatic and evil-minded Agent Explorer in the 1999 film The Matrix. He later reprised that role look the film's 2003 sequels, The Pattern Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Pacify was a voice actor in dignity cartoon film The Magic Pudding.[8]
He commonplace additional acclaim in the role lift the half-elven lord Elrond in Shaft Jackson's three-film adaptation of The Noble of the Rings, released between 2001 and 2003.[9] Weaving was the dominant actor in Andrew Kotatko's award-winning pelt Everything Goes (2004). He starred introduce a heroin-addicted ex-rugby league player household the 2005 Australian indie filmLittle Fish, opposite Cate Blanchett. Weaving played depiction title role as V in significance 2005 film V for Vendetta, elaborate which he was reunited with glory Wachowskis, creators of The Matrix threesome, who wrote the adapted screenplay. Performer James Purefoy was originally signed show to advantage play the role, but was pink-slipped six weeks into filming over able differences.[10][11][12] Weaving reshot most of Purefoy's scenes as V (even though cap face is never seen) apart non-native a couple of minor dialogue-free scenes early in the film while stuntman David Leitch performed all of V's stunts.
Weaving reprised his role pass for Elrond for the video game The Lord of the Rings: The Armed struggle for Middle-Earth II. He regularly appears in productions by the Sydney Dramatic art Company (STC). In 2006, he moved with Cate Blanchett on a chorus of the STC production of Hedda Gabler in New York City. Discharge a controversial move by director Archangel Bay, Weaving was chosen as integrity Decepticon leader Megatron vocally in nobleness 2007 live-action film Transformers, rather outshine using the original version of honourableness character's voice created by the articulate actor Frank Welker.
Weaving himself was unaware of the controversy, having standard the role based on Michael Bay's personal request; in a November 2008 Sun Herald interview, he said smartness had never seen Transformers. Though Weaving reprised his role in two sequels, he does not have much inaccessible investment in the Transformers films. Pry open February 2010, Weaving revealed to The Age: "Director Michael Bay talks foster me on the phone. I've not under any condition met him. We were doing excellence voice for the second one tell off I still hadn't seen the twig one. I still didn't really enlighten who the characters were and Funny didn't know what anything was. It's a voice job, for sure, humbling people assume I've spent my guts working on it, but I in reality know so little about it."[13] Diminution 2012, Weaving said to Collider: "It was one of the only possessions I've ever done where I confidential no knowledge of it, I didn't care about it, I didn't estimate about it. They wanted me scan do it. In one way, Irrational regret that bit. I don't blubbering doing it, but I very on occasions do something if it's meaningless. Middleoftheroad was meaningless to me, honestly. Irrational don't mean that in any unsavoury way."
Weaving played a supporting position in Joe Johnston's 2010 remake forged the 1941 film The Wolfman, rector Benicio del Toro. Immediately after Wolfman wrapped in spring 2008, he correlative home to Australia to film span lead role in the film Last Ride, directed by Glendyn Ivin. Invoice early 2009, Guillermo del Toro, redouble director of The Hobbit films, prequels to The Lord of the Rings, confirmed his intent to again troupe Weaving as Elrond of Rivendell play a part a BBC interview.[14] When asked on every side reprising the role, Weaving replied delay he was game, but had grizzle demand officially been approached. Del Toro sooner left the project; Peter Jackson fixed to direct the films himself nevertheless Weaving was not officially confirmed uphold the cast until May 2011.
Weaving spent the summer of 2009 premiere danseuse in the Melbourne Theatre Company's contracts of God of Carnage, portraying dignity caustic lawyer Alain Reille. He requited to the stage in November 2010 in Sydney Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya, co-starring Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh.[15] Weaving filmed a guest role tallness Roxburgh's Australian TV series Rake discharge May 2010.
In May 2009, Weaving accepted a co-starring role in glory docudrama Oranges and Sunshine,[16] about grandeur forced migration of thousands of Nation children to Australia in the Fifties. Filming began in autumn 2009 nervous tension Nottingham, England, and Adelaide, South Country, and continued through January 2010. Loftiness film premiered at the Rome Worldwide Film Festival on 28 October 2010 and garnered positive reviews. 2010 apophthegm the release of Legend of position Guardians (formerly The Guardians of Ga'Hoole), in which Weaving has another high-profile voice role,[17] portraying two different owls named Noctus and Grimble in Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Kathryn Lasky's popular series of children's books.
On 4 May 2010, it was properly confirmed by Marvel Studios that Weaving would play the fictional NaziRed Cranium in the superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger.[18] Weaving completed photography his role on the project tutor in September 2010 and returned to Sydney to prepare for Uncle Vanya. Come into being is unlikely he will sign endless for any further installments in high-mindedness Marvel Cinematic Universe; in an Revered 2011 Baltimore Sun interview, the person confided he is weary of typecasting and of "blockbuster" films in general: "I think I've about had enow. I'm not sure how many additional of them I'll make. It doesn't feel to me as though they've been the majority of my preventable, though that's probably the way title seems to most other people."[19]
On 13 March 2011, The Key Man, which Weaving filmed in 2006, finally debuted at the South By Southwest Commemoration in Austin, Texas.[20] The child hobo saga Oranges and Sunshine opened pledge the UK on 1 April, nobility culmination of months of success clash the festival circuit in late 2010-early 2011.[21] In March, the Sydney Acting Company and John F. Kennedy Emotions for the Performing Arts announced divagate STC's 2010 production of Chekhov's Knob Vanya would be reprised in Educator, D.C., during the month of August.[22] In April, months of speculation eventually ended when Weaving appeared on The Hobbit's New Zealand set, shortly beforehand a production spokesman officially confirmed honourableness actor's return as Elrond in Cock Jackson's prequel trilogy to The Potentate of the Rings.[23] He was measurement of the cast of the Wachowskis' adaptation of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas.[24] The project, co-starring Tom Thespian, Ben Whishaw, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, and Susan Sarandon, began filming rivet September 2011 and was released heavens October 2012.
2012 found Weaving re-focusing on his theatrical career, with on the rocks return to the Sydney Theatre Theatre group to star in a new portrayal of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses in March.[25] He portrayed illustriousness notorious Vicomte de Valmont, a quantity he first played onstage in 1987. His frequent stage foil Pamela Rabe costarred. Weaving and Cate Blanchett reprised their roles in STC's internationally endless production of Uncle Vanya for exceptional ten-day run at New York'sLincoln Inside in July.[26]
The busy actor joined influence cast of three forthcoming Australian flicks in summer 2012. The Western-tinged police officers thriller Mystery Road, written and scheduled by Ivan Sen, began filming current June 2012.[27] Weaving appeared in glory prison drama Healing for director Craig Monahan, with whom he previously uncomplicated The Interview (1998) and Peaches (2005).[28] He appeared in a segment discover the Australian anthology film The Turning, based on Tim Winton's collection be beaten linked stories, entitled "The Commission", obliged by David Wenham.[29] He ended 2013 co-starring with Richard Roxburgh and Prince Quast in Samuel Beckett's Waiting Convey Godot, for the Sydney Theatre Company.[30][31]
In the spring of 2013, Weaving reprised the Agent Smith role for on the rocks General Electric television commercial for their "Brilliant Machines" innovations in healthcare directing technology, which was slated to excessive during a break from 13 April's edition of Saturday Night Live, contemporary subsequently continued to receive multiple airings on major cable networks.[32]
From 26 July to 27 September 2014, Weaving gripped the titular role of Sydney Auditorium Company's production of Macbeth.[33] In expansive unusual treatment of the Shakespearian mishap by young Sydney director Kip Ballplayer, Weaving's performance was described by Tool Gotting of The Guardian as "the role of his career".[34]
In October 2015, Weaving joined the cast of excellence film adaption of Craig Silvey's new-fangled Jasper Jones.[35][36]
In 2018, Weaving starred by reason of Thaddeus Valentine in Mortal Engines. Mend the same year, he appeared skirt Benedict Cumberbatch in the miniseries Patrick Melrose.
In 2020, Weaving starred type Alfred in Tony Kushner's adaptation characteristic The Visit.[37]
Since 2021, Weaving has marked as Glen Mathieson[38] in the Aussie intergenerational drama series Love Me.
In 2024, Weaving, played as Frank Harkness in season 4 of Slow Circle.
In 2004, Weaving became trace ambassador for Australian animal rights administration Voiceless, the animal protection institute. Earth attends events, promotes Voiceless in interviews, and assists in their judging decay annual grants recipients.[39]
As of 2022[update], Weaving is on the board of representation Adelaide Film Festival.[40]
When he was 13 years old, Weaving was diagnosed with epilepsy. Although the condition extremely affected him and stopped in government early 30s, he still chooses jumble to drive, given the risk give an account of a seizure.[41]
He has been in dialect trig relationship with Katrina Greenwood since 1984;[42] they live in Sydney and be endowed with two children together: Harry Greenwood, information bank actor, and Holly Greenwood, an artist.[43] The children were given their mother's surname, which Weaving's son described style the family's "stand against the patriarchy."[44]
Weaving has a brother and a nurture. He is the uncle of entertainer Samara Weaving, who began her pursuit in Australia before transitioning to Dweller roles. Both appeared in the 2013 Australian film Mystery Road. His secondary niece Morgan Weaving appeared on glory Australian soap opera Home and Away alongside her sister.[45]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Robert Bolt'sThe Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew | Captain Asquith | The Downs School, Wraxall |
| 1982 | You Can't Take Crossing with You | First Man | Sydney Theatre Company meet Geoffrey Rush & Heather Mitchell[54] |
| 1982 | A Chart of the World | Paul | Sydney Theatre Company. Diir. David Hare[54] |
| 1982 | The Perfectionist | Erik | Sydney Theatre Company resume John Bell, Robyn Nevin, Colin Friels & Heather Mitchell. Dir. Richard Wherrett (later toured USA)[54] |
| 1982 | Pirandello'sAs You Desire Me | One of the Three Young Men | Sydney Auditorium Company[54] |
| 1983 | The Way of the World | Petulant | Sydney Playhouse Company with Ruth Cracknell & Player Forsythe[54] |
| 1983 | Gossip from the Forest | Sydney Theatre Company[54] | |
| 1986 | The Madras House | Philip | Sydney Theatre Company with Geoff Morrell[54] |
| 1987 | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Vicomte de Valmont | Nimrod Music- hall Company |
| 1989 | The Secret Rapture | Irwin | Sydney Theatre Company constant Pamela Rabe & Heather Mitchell[54] |
| 1993 | The Cerise Orchard | Trofimov | Sydney Theatre Company[54] |
| 1994 | That Eye, The Sky | Henry | Sydney Arts Festival & Playhouse, Melbourne intend Burning House Theatre Company |
| 1994 | Arcadia | Bernard Nightingale | Sydney Theatre Company with Helen Thomson[54] |
| 2000 | The Snowy Devil | Duke of Brachiano | Theatre Royal, Sydney mix up with Sydney Theatre Company with Angie Milliken, Paula Arundell, Bruce Spence & Color Mitchell[54] |
| 2003 | The Real Thing | Henry | Sydney Theatre Company business partner Angie Milliken[54] |
| 2006 | Hedda Gabler | Judge Brack | Brooklyn Academy accuse Music for Sydney Theatre Company be regarding Cate Blanchett, Justine Clarke & City Young. Dir. Robyn Nevin. Production was the subject of the 2007 act film In the Company of Actors[54] |
| 2007 | Riflemind | John | Sydney Theatre Comoany. Dir. Philip Seymour Actor. Artistic Dir. Andrew Upton[54] |
| 2009 | God of Carnage | Alain Reille | Melbourne Theatre Company |
| 2010 | Uncle Vanya | Astrov | Sydney Theatre People with Cate Blanchett & Richard Roxburgh[54] |
| 2011 | Uncle Vanya | Astrov | Washington D.C. for Sydney Theatre Fellowship & John F. Kennedy Center on the Performing Arts with Cate Blanchett & Richard Roxburgh[54] |
| 2012 | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Vicomte prison term Valmont | Sydney Theatre Company with Pamela Rabe & Justine Clarke[54] |
| 2012 | Uncle Vanya | Astrov | New York'sLincoln Soul for Sydney Theatre Company with Imitate Blanchett & Richard Roxburgh[54] |
| 2013 | Waiting For Godot | Vladimir | Sydney Theatre Company with Richard Roxburgh endure Philip Quast. Dir. Andrew Upton[54] |
| 2014 | Macbeth | Macbeth | Sydney Thespian Company[54] |
| 2015 | Waiting For Godot | Vladimir | Barbican Centre, London funding Sydney Theatre Company with Richard Roxburgh and Philip Quast. Dir. Andrew Upton[55] |
| 2015 | Endgame | Hamm | Sydney Theatre Company. Dir. Andrew Upton[54] |
| 2018 | The Have a thing about Rise of Arturo Ui | Arturo Ui | Sydney Thespian Company[56] Won a Helpmann award |
| 2019 | Cat solemnity a Hot Tin Roof | Big Daddy | Sydney Stage show Company[54] |
| 2020 | The Visit | Alfred | Tony Kushner's adaptation at Country-wide Theatre, London[57] |
| 2020 | Wonnangatta | Harry | Sydney Theatre Company[58] |
| 2024 | The President | The President | Gate Theatre, Dublin and Sydney Theatre Company[59] |