Hugo Weaving talks about loving art, hating learning lines, and what's next
"Man, woman and creature fell in love with him," says Virginia Trioli of filming an episode of Creative Types with Hugo Weaving. (Supplied: ABC TV)
Hugo Weaving lives a life surrounded by art.
The place he has called home for decades in Sydney is filled with the paintings of friends and artists he admires, as well as the work of his wife and his daughter, who is also an artist.
Sculptures lean in front of paintings, and memories of roles past lie around the house, including the signature Guy Fawkes mask from his movie "V for Vendetta", which leers from a garden bed.
The haunting mask worn by Hugo Weaving in V for Vendetta lives on in the garden. (Supplied: Imdb)
One of the first things of importance he mentions to me is a touchstone creation: the book of exquisite drawings of Hugo and colleagues such as John Bell and Cate Blanchett in rehearsal, witnessed and made by the late Archibald-winning artist Nicholas Harding.
That quiet, demanding process of starting to make a new performance is something that Hugo, the consummate actor's actor, references often.
"I never feel like I have enough time, and I always feel like I'm not ready," he tells me.
"You've got to start at some point … you've just got to let everything go and just jump in and hopefully you've found something through imagination and research, and all of that has somehow osmotically grown inside you so that character appears one day on set."
Hugo is charming and thoughtful company: man, woman and creature fell in love with him while we were making this episode of Creative Types. And as much as you think you know his filmography, he's done even more work besides.
His career has encompassed the most important classical and modern theatre roles ever written, as well as key moments in Australian cinema, and some of the biggest Hollywood franchises of our times.
Through it all, Hugo Weaving has worn the cloaks of a remarkable range of characters.
His defining quality is his deep connection to the character he's playing, and the changes he makes to be them.
From the hapless optimist Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, to a manipulative addict in Little Fish, to the role that made him an international star, Agent Smith in The Matrix, Hugo goes deep to find who they are.
"They're the things that are so far removed from you, you have to travel a long way to find them," he says.
"And then there are the other things which are basic to everyone, and how are they expressed in this person differently from how you might express them? So, you're working inwardly and also imaginatively working out."
Nicholas Harding entered his portrait "Hugo at home" in the 2011 Archibald Portrait Prize. It's now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)
The cost of a formidable career
Hugo lives the most un-Hollywood life for one of the most internationally renowned actors.
He married the girl who lived across the road from him as a child and still lives in the house he settled in years ago. He walks most places and only relatively recently got a computer and a phone.
His good friends are those who commit in the same way to the work of creating characters — but those who know Hugo well say his work comes at a cost.
Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith from The Matrix film series can still send a shiver down your spine. (Supplied: IMDb)
"If I remember the productions that I've worked with him on recently in the last 10 years," says Richard Roxburgh, "If he's on any break — his head is in the text: he's studying it as if kind of willing the meaning to come into his spirit somehow.
"And it doesn't always look like it's a joy. I'm just aware there's a price that he's paying in there."
Hugo has an intriguing approach to the mountain that every actor must climb for each new role: he doesn't learn his lines verbatim before he starts rehearsal.
Hugo Weaving likes to learn his lines "by osmosis". (Supplied: STC/Prudence Upton)
Instead, his exhaustive research into the role and the rehearsal process itself allows him, he says, to absorb the words in a more organic way.
"That's the time when you are slowly, incrementally through osmosis learning the lines and they're getting into your body and into your head as you are working it out on stage. There's a physical muscle memory with lines.
"I can't learn lines that don't mean anything. I can't learn lines that don't come from anywhere."
Hugo is now filming with Australian breakout star from The Pitt, Shabana Azeez, but has also been noodling away for some time on a project of his own — a road movie he's keen to direct.
"As an actor, you say yes to something and then you're part of a group, which is wonderful. It's a collaborative thing. So, I am then forced to learn my lines, and I'm forced to get up on stage," he says.
"But if it's your own project, then that's a different sort of bravery!"
Watch Creative Types with Virginia Trioli at 8.30pm Thursdays on ABC TV or stream anytime on ABC iview.