Hugo Weaving is ‘befuddled’ by the alt-right misinterpreting ‘The Matrix’
Hugo Weaving is befuddled by online men’s rights activists that are co-opting and misinterpreting The Matrix.
The Australian actor played Agent Smith in the original trilogy of films, which were written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski.
Recently, Lily Wachowski admitted that the film is a “trans metaphor.” However, over the last few years, both conspiracy theorists and men’s rights activists have used the term, “red-pilling,” from the film for their own agendas. Which is something that Weaving, understandably, is rather peeved about.
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“I am befuddled by it,” he told The Daily Beast. “It just goes to show how people don’t read below surfaces. They don’t read between the lines. They will take something that they think is cool and they will repurpose it to fit themselves when the original intention or meaning of that thing was quite the opposite.”
Weaving said that these individuals have a “very, very shallow reading of the intention of [The Matrix]. That’s a problem with popular culture: these films are profoundly thought through, but it’s too easy to look cool, have a cool haircut, and have a gun, and you think that’s all you need to do in life.”
He then went even further with this assertion, linking it to the current divisive social and political problems across the world, especially in the United States Of America.
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“They aren’t thinking about other people and are only thinking about themselves. Trump is the classic, most unbelievable example. ‘Narcissist’ is a stupid thing to say, it’s so obvious. He doesn’t give a flying fuck about anyone else but himself. It’s just unbelievable that he’s the president.”
Unfortunately, while a fourth installment to The Matrix franchise is currently in production, Weaving has already confirmed that he won’t be a part of it.