Hugo Weaving

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Birthday:

4 April 1960, Ibadan, Nigeria

Birth Name:

Hugo Wallace Weaving

Height:

188 cm

Hugo Wallace Weaving was born on April 4, 1960 in Nigeria, to English parents Anne (Lennard), a tour guide and teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. Hugo has an older brother, Simon, and a younger sister, Anna, who both also live and work in Australia. During his early childhood, the Weaving family spent most of their time traveling between Nigeria, Great Britain, and Australia. This was due to the cross-country demands of his father's job in the computer industry. Later, during his teens, Hugo spent three years in England in the seventies attending Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School in Bristol. There, he showed early promise in theater productions and also excelled at history, achieving an A in his O-level examination. He arrived permanently in Australia in 1976 and finished his education at Knox Grammar School, Sydney. He graduated from NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art), a college well-known for other alumni such as Mel Gibson and Geoffrey Rush, in 1981. Since then, Hugo has had a steadily successful career in the film, television, and theater industries. However, he has illustrated that, as renowned as he is known for his film work, he feels most at home on stage and continually performs in Australian theater productions, usually with the Sydney Theater Company. With his success has also come extensive recognition. He has won numerous awards, including two Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI) for Best Actor in a Leading Role and three total nominations. The AFI is the Australian equivalent of an Academy Award, and Hugo won for his performances in Proof (1991) and The Interview (1998). He was also nominated for his performance in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). He garnered the Best Acting prize for The Interview (1998) at the Montreal Film Festival in 1998 in addition to his AFI Award and, that same year, won the Australian Star of the Year. More recently, roles in films such as The Matrix trilogy as Agent Smith and The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Lord Elrond have considerably raised his international profile. His famous and irreplaceable role in The Matrix movies have made him one of the greatest sci-fi villains of the Twenty-first Century. With each new film, television, or theatrical role, Hugo continues to surpass his audience's expectations and remains one of the most versatile performers working today. He resides in Australia and has two children with partner Katrina Greenwood. Though Hugo and Katrina have never married, they've been a committed couple for over 25 years; while Hugo was quoted as saying marriage "petrified" him in the 1990s, by middle of the following decade he said he no longer felt that way, and that he and Katrina have toyed with the idea of marrying "when we're really old". Show less «

"I was on top of Keanu Reeves, he was on his back and I was on my trunk, and I was breathing down his neck for hours and hours. It was... ve...Show more »

"I was on top of Keanu Reeves, he was on his back and I was on my trunk, and I was breathing down his neck for hours and hours. It was... very erotic." (on filming The Matrix Reloaded (2003)) Show less «

I do love working in Australia. Generally, the budgets are smaller, the crews are smaller and generally you work at a fast pace. That gives ...Show more »

I do love working in Australia. Generally, the budgets are smaller, the crews are smaller and generally you work at a fast pace. That gives you energy. At the end of the day, you've worked a lot but you don't feel tired. On the big ones, you sit around a lot. That really saps your energy. Show less «

I think I said something like The Interview (1998) was the most fulfilling experience from an acting point of view. And it definitely was. T...Show more »

I think I said something like The Interview (1998) was the most fulfilling experience from an acting point of view. And it definitely was. That was a combination of working with a director who was very open and very prepared, and ... working with [co-star] Tony Martin - just sitting opposite him every day, which is pretty much what we did because the film is essentially a dialog between two men. Show less «

You're certainly pushed into selling yourself as a commodity in order to sell the product. I will engage in the selling of the film. But I w...Show more »

You're certainly pushed into selling yourself as a commodity in order to sell the product. I will engage in the selling of the film. But I will try not to engage in the selling of the image, because I find that it's easier to go on and make another film, because the next character is actually obstructed if your image is bigger than it. So the longer you keep the mask on, metaphorically and physically, the better. Show less «

I'm 'of the world'. There was a time when I thought, 'Oh, I must go back to England. I feel English.' Then I went and the longer I was away,...Show more »

I'm 'of the world'. There was a time when I thought, 'Oh, I must go back to England. I feel English.' Then I went and the longer I was away, the more Australian I felt. Now, I've come back here and I don't feel entirely Australian. But I certainly feel like this is my country. This is where I live and this is where I want to work. Show less «

One of the first things that made me want to be an actor was listening to Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet'. I was intensely moved by it. I thi...Show more »

One of the first things that made me want to be an actor was listening to Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet'. I was intensely moved by it. I think I was about nine - I went to see the ballet. That's what made me interested in Shakespeare. Show less «

I think films have a limited ability to change the world, but that doesn't mean you don't stop trying. You do what's right for you, make the...Show more »

I think films have a limited ability to change the world, but that doesn't mean you don't stop trying. You do what's right for you, make the films you believe in, talk about the issues you believe in. The bigger the risk, the more chance you're going to be crucified, but you have to execute your beliefs in any way you can. In the end ['Cloud Atlas'] has something to say about love and hope and believing in something. It wants to tell us that individual choices can come to mean something universal. Show less «