By Erin Free
“I thought he would be great fun to play. There’s definitely a light relief there. The heroes don’t have the ability to dip into humour. They’re trying to save the world. I have much more scope with my character to be funny. You could see it in the writing – it attracted me to that character.”
It’s this humour and left-of-field approach that made Hugo Weaving such an essential part of the Matrix series. As Agent Smith – part computer generated boogieman and part synthetic demon – Weaving brings a kind of demented levity to the Gothic apocalyptica of The Matrix. While far from winking at the audience, there’s an arresting self-awareness in Weaving’s performance, and a kind of looseness that the series’ central performers – Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie Ann-Moss – can’t afford to project. Like all good bad guys, Weaving gets to steal every scene he’s in.
“It’s a great character to create,” Weaving told FilmInk from his home in Sydney back 2003, just before the release of the second film in the series, The Matrix Reloaded. “But now that he’s already created, what do you do? That’s the challenge. But with this film he’s kind of expanding…he’s sort of unstoppable. His is an ego that keeps growing. He is sort of liberated. There are a lot of quirks of personality that come out in The Matrix Reloaded.”
For Weaving, the second film in the series represented a huge challenge for a theatre actor such as himself. On the stage, the script is king, and The Matrix Reloaded didn’t even have one. The film’s visionary writer/directors – then brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, both of whom have now undergone gender transition, and are now known as Lana and Lilly Wachowski – had to get a commitment from their actors first so they knew who to incorporate into the film. “It was always actually conceived as a trilogy but it obviously wouldn’t have been one if the first film had not done well at the box office,” Weaving told FilmInk. “But it did do well, so the second and third one went through. Saying yes to something that is going to take up a large part of two years and that you’re not really sure of the outcome is a very difficult thing to do. But we had to commit to our parts so the Wachowskis could go away and write the scripts.”
For the Australian based Weaving, however, there were slightly more prosaic matters to consider. While most local actors pack their bags and make a dash for the states as soon as they can, Weaving’s MO is totally different. “I was concerned with the fact that it may have been shot in the states,” Weaving said of the fact that at one stage it looked like the second Matrix film wouldn’t be shot in Sydney like the first. “I didn’t really want to do that. It was never definitely settled and I didn’t want to have to go there for a period of two years of training and filming because I don’t want to live there. And I didn’t want to take my kids out of school. That was the one thing I really didn’t want to do.”
When Weaving finally got the script after sweating on what it would incorporate and what changes it would bring for his character, he was more than happy. “I had a good chuckle,” he says. “I rang Larry and said that it was very funny.” The film’s most famous scene has Keanu Reeves’ Neo fending off an attack from multiple Agent Smiths. “There was actually me and twelve stunt doubles. If you ever went on set, you would see thirteen of me wandering around. There would always be me in the centre of the frame playing the shot, and then the other Agent Smiths in the scene would be stunt doubles. It was complex and really tiring but a lot of fun to play. It was all pretty funny.”
Though funny and slick to watch on the big screen, the film’s fight sequences are among the most gruelling and difficult that the actors have to film. They’re what the Matrix films hinge on, and the performers were put through the wringer to make them snap together like clockwork. “The first film really shocked me,” Weaving said of the fight scenes in the original. “I knew that it would be exhausting, but this was even more than that. Kung Fu is quite a punishing art, and there’s really the risk of getting injured. The risk gets lessened though once you start getting fit and getting your skills in better form. This time round I was determined to get fit. I’m not the world’s greatest kung fu artist! But Agent Smith’s kung fu is actually a lot of punches, so I don’t have to get into the kicking so much. Smith doesn’t really use his feet, but when he does it’s a real whack, a real blast. It’s really difficult for Keanu, who is amazing and dedicates himself to getting better. He tries all these kicks. It’s hard work, but it’s exhilarating. There are many different elements to the fights this time around…specifically with the ones that involve more than one of me!”
As well as its visionary and high impact take on the sci fi genre, the Matrix films stand alone for another reason. Along with The Coen Brothers, the Wachowskis are one of the few directing duos currently working within the Hollywood system. As Weaving explained, they work very much in tandem and don’t delineate their duties to any obvious effect. “They work together. They’re always next to each other on the set, chatting to each other. One may have an idea and then they’ll discuss it with us. They work as a unit and really complement each other. They seem to be in sync on set, and they have an extraordinary relationship. They work out how to do each scene. And they chase everything down to its logical conclusion. The great thing about them is that they are incredibly imaginative and they persevere with everything. They’re also very real. They’re very warm but very shy. They’re a little bit geeky, kinda shuffling around and mumbling a bit. But when you sit and chat to them they come out of their shells. I’m really fond of them.”
The creation of the Agent Smith character is something that the filmmakers largely left up to Weaving himself. “I did a test that they liked,” the actor told FilmInk of his audition for the first film. “There was obviously something they liked. We were in sync about that. We talked about the character, and they left me alone and that’s the way that it works. I’ll do something and they’ll say, ‘Great, how about this?’ And I’ll do the same. It’s an easy relationship.”
Despite finding success with The Matrix – and following it up with high profile turns in international fare such as V For Vendetta, Transformers and Captain America: The First Avenger – Hugo Weaving has never taken the bait, and staged a total move to Hollywood. “I try not to go,” he said in 2003 with the sound of someone who knew exactly what he was missing out on…and didn’t care. “I try to avoid my agency over there. I go over as briefly as possible. I like to work here and be here in Australia. I’m comfortable – I feel like I can be myself here.”
The Matrix Trilogy box set is available on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray from October 31. The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions will also be available individually.
