It might come as something of a surprise when someone who's played a lot of villains in his storied career declares that he doesn’t believe in heroes or villains, but Hugo Weaving has always been known as an actor that speaks his mind. And, as the man famous for portraying Agent Smith and Elrond, Hugo knows his good guys from his baddies. He tells Miriam O’Callaghan that he prefers playing bad guys because they’re usually more interesting:
"I like complex characters and often – I mean, those bad guys, I never see anyone being bad or good. Everyone’s grey. Everyone is grey. We all have potential to be hideous in us and so I like to try and understand the complexities of any character. And the more complex they are, the better."
It isn’t always the case, though, and Hugo references his role as The Red Skull in Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger as an example of a, well, not-so-complex character:
"Someone who thought someone like Hitler was a, you know, weakling. So, playing a role like that, you just have to enjoy yourself. I think you’re just asked to enjoy the character, don’t worry too much about the psychology."
Most characters, just like most people, are more nuanced than the Red Skull and that’s the way Hugo likes it. But just like the villainous Red Skull, the heroic Elrond in The Lord of the Rings didn’t have much in the way of nuance for Hugo:
"Elrond was a clothes horse. Elrond was a clothes horse who had lots of exposition, so I didn’t enjoy that so much."
One of Hugo’s breakout roles was playing drag queen Mitzi Del Bra in Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert, a part he really did enjoy playing. And he told Miriam that when he read the script, he was eager to play any kind of part, as long as he got to work on the film:
"The idea was beautiful. I’d worked with the filmmaker before and he said, 'I’ve written this film about these three drag queens who go out on a bus into the dessert.’ And I said, ‘Aw, look, just, I’ll play, I’ll do one day on that. Please, you know, just cast me in it.’"
And cast him he did. Hugo reckons that Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert caught the crest of a wave of people being much more accepting of sexuality and diversity and its unexpected success had a lot to do with its timing.
Theatre has always been a mainstay of Hugo’s work and it’s why he’s in Dublin talking to Miriam – he's co-starring with Irish actor Olwen Fouéré in The President by Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard, a co-production between Dublin’s Gate Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company. The co-production – a first between the two theatres – came about because Fouéré saw one of Bernhard’s plays, loved it, got a copy of The President and showed it to Colm O’Callaghan, who at the time was Company Manager with Sydney Theatre Company and is now Executive Director of The Gate. O’Callaghan asked Hugo if he’d be interested in reading the play:
"So, we read it and I instantly fell in love with this writer, who I’d heard of, but not experienced in any form. The play is compulsively thrilling to me."
Thomas Bernhard is not particularly well known, and Hugo wants that to change. Indeed, he’s so taken with Bernhard’s work that he compares him to one of Ireland’s finest:
"He’s a genius and he’s a writer that we just don’t, we don’t know enough about him and I’d put him in the same, I’d put him up there with Beckett, you know, he’s that great."
High praise indeed. Audiences will be able to judge for themselves when The President opens at the Gate on 8 February. And you can hear Miriam’s full conversation with Hugo Weaving by clicking above.