Hugo Weaving on joining Slow Horses season four and The Matrix's 25th anniversary
Hugo Weaving has embodied some of cinema's greatest villains. From the dastardly AI program, Agent Smith to anarchist terrorist 'V', the award-winning actor isn't interested in playing "black and white characters".
"I'm drawn to complexity and contrasts within human beings. I don't really like pure heroes or pure villains," he tells HELLO!
"I'm probably more well-known for the larger films like The Matrix franchise and Lord of the Rings, but for me they're atypical. I like playing a wealth of different roles. Some people I play are just ordinary beta males who don't think much of themselves and others are completely sadistic, overly confident, and macho, you know? It depends but I'm just fascinated by human psychology."
In his latest role, Hugo inhabits Frank Harkness, the former CIA agent turned mercenary putting the Slow Horses through their paces.
"I was drawn to Slow Horses because I loved watching season one, and I thought the scripts were a really wonderful mix of humour and intelligence. I think they're really beautiful, brilliantly written scripts," he said
"It felt very easy being on set. I thought it was a remarkable group of people and it felt lovely to be working in London. I love London and I love English actors. There's a fantastic no-nonsense sensibility that English actors have. I enjoyed every day."
During production on season four, Hugo filmed most of his scenes with Jack Lowden – aka River Cartwright. "It was great working with him [Jack]. I loved it and I really enjoyed talking to him," Hugo raved.
"It was funny because I have an Australian-ish voice and Jack's a Scot and then when we'd go for a take, he'd slip into English and I'd slip into American. I just love working with him."
In episode five, it was finally revealed that Frank was, in fact, River's biological father, a plot point that Hugo and Jack discussed at length behind the scenes. "In casting, someone said to me, 'Oh, yeah, you could be related, maybe,'" Hugo laughed.
"River doesn't know much about Frank, so our journey watching this is actually his journey of discovery in a funny way, with regards to Frank. He [Jack] and I did talk about a back story, and we did talk about the stuff that was relevant to what we needed to know.
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"We talked about specific things, but there was nothing massive to work out with regard to similar psychologies or hereditary traces or anything like that," he mused.
With season four concluded Hugo has added Frank Harkness to his nuanced repertoire of characters. One that has truly stood the test of time is, of course, Agent Smith – the all-powerful computer virus determined to terminate Keanu Reeves' Neo.
The cyberpunk sci-fi film has become a cult classic, continuing to captivate audiences 25 years after its release. Following The Matrix's silver anniversary on 11 June, HELLO! chatted to Hugo about the franchise's enduring legacy.
Asked if he expected the movie to become so iconic, the star replied: "No, but I did love meeting [directors] Lana and Lily [Wachowski]. I loved meeting them. I loved reading the script. It was like something I hadn't read before. And then I realised that Warner Brothers were [distributing it] and it was all happening.
"It was incredibly hard work to train. We trained for months and months and months to get all the kung fu going. And during that period, I was seeing a lot more of the art department – a lot more storyboards, understanding how they were thinking about shooting it.
"It seemed very cutting edge at the time – it was cutting edge," he added. "So I felt like we were doing something that hadn't really been done before. And I think that was true. I didn't expect it when I first read it to be as huge as it was, but I wasn't surprised by the time we started shooting. I thought, 'Oh, this is a really special piece of work', so I'm not surprised that the first Matrix film has still stood the test of time."
