# Hugo Weaving **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363 "2003-11-26T12:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/21 "2003-11-26T18:07:02Z")
I like Weaving’s Elrond. I’m glad he’s not a Happy Little Elf. He brings gravity and intensity to the role, and I enjoy some of his rather idiosyncratic line readings, although I realize some people may not: Our list of allies grows THIN… _But yoooou_, my daughter… I can also understand that people who have been playing this story in their heads for 10, 20, 30 or more years would have their own ideas of how each role should be played, and I think it would be impossible for any actor to satisfy all of them. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/22 "2003-11-26T18:15:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\ ***BrotherCadfael** , that’s hilarious. I’ve heard people do that before, but “Mr. Aragorn” is much better than “Mr. Frodo” because of the sound-alike issue. I’m gonna be doing that all day now. \*\* I also got her giggling with a reference to Elrond’s [Purple gown and tiara](http://home.nyu.edu/~amw243/diaries/elrond.html) … ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/23 "2003-11-26T18:26:44Z")
Someone once gave me a link to a nice picture of “Elrond Smith…” it looked something like [this](http://www.thelastfreecity.com/gallery/gallery_item.cfm?ID=6591) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/24 "2003-11-26T19:01:11Z")
Thanks to **telepwen** , [here it is](http://www.theninemuses.net/art/elrond1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/25 "2003-11-26T19:27:30Z")
Elrond is such a drak character to begin with. Being held prisioner, watching your mother seemingly commit suicide, at a young age and then being raised by your captors can’t have made life a bowl of cherries. Then to realize his parents were alive and yet forever separated from him? Top that off with watching his brother’s line fall from being great kings to wanders in the woods, and also for his wife to leave to return to Valinor after being attacked by orcs? Damn. Yet I have friends that though Hugo should have lightened up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/26 "2003-11-26T19:48:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MrMyth \* > \*\* The vocal inflections alone make Smith an excellent bad guy. \*\* The Voice is IT sometimes! That’s one of the things that made Hopkins’s Hannibal Lectre so effective. In an interview, Hopkins said he based the voice on HAL, the computer in _2001: A Space Odessy_. And, come on, James Earl Jones as the Voice of Darth Vader! Sure the shiny black helmet, big black cape and David Prowse’s 6’7" make him big and intimidating, but the Voice: _“Paauuh-hssst! Luke, I am your father! Paauuh-hsst!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/27 "2003-11-26T19:54:35Z")
Hugo Weaving had an interview in (I think) Maxim or Stuff this past month. In it, he said the Agent Smith voice was his own creation - he wanted, apparently, a voice that was neither human nor robotic, just a cold, calculating in-between. Good work, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/28 "2003-11-26T20:05:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eats\_Crayons \* > \*\*The Voice is IT sometimes! > > That’s one of the things that made Hopkins’s Hannibal Lectre so effective. In an interview, Hopkins said he based the voice on HAL, the computer in _2001: A Space Odessy_. > > And, come on, James Earl Jones as the Voice of Darth Vader! Sure the shiny black helmet, big black cape and David Prowse’s 6’7" make him big and intimidating, but the Voice: _“Paauuh-hssst! Luke, I am your father! Paauuh-hsst!”_ \*\* The girl I first saw “Star Wars” with, all these many years ago, told me about how she had read that the guy inside the Darth Vader suit didn’t have a good voice for the part, so they got “some big black guy” to do the Voice of Vader. Sheesh. Granted, Jones was not as big in 1979 as he is today (uhh…metaphorically speaking 🙂 ), but still…to call one of the greatest actors of the day “some big black guy”? We didn’t stay together very long after that… ---
**Author:** ![MrMyth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@MrMyth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMyth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/29 "2003-11-26T20:18:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eats\_Crayons \* > \*\*The Voice is IT sometimes! > \*\* Yep. > [@](#): > > Miiister Anderson, welcome back. We…MISSED…you I could quote Smith all day. But I do think that all the bad guys in the Matrix trilogy had excellent vocal inflections and memorable voices - even the vanilla Agents had a ghostly rhythm and quality about them. And I loved the Twins. And the Merovingian. And the Architect. And the original Oracle. But you need all that flavor when the best you can get out of the hero is a dazed, “Whoa.” ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/30 "2003-11-26T21:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pablito \* > \*\*Hugo Weaving may have had more people pay to see movies he has been in than any other actor in Hollywood. I wonder if someone is keeping track of things like that? \*\* [Yes, there is.](http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsdir/actors.mv?actors+ByTG) But for some reason, they don’t list Weaving. Orlando Bloom is at #59; Hugo should be much higher than that. ---
**Author:** ![Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horrifying_Howler_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/31 "2003-11-26T22:34:36Z")
> [@](#): > > But you need all that flavor when the best you can get out of the hero is a dazed, “Whoa.” Hee. My sister said that way you can tell the difference between the CGI neo and the Keanu Neo is that CGI Neo has a facial expression aside from confused. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/32 "2003-11-27T05:02:00Z")
Don’t forget, he was also the voice of the male dog in “Babe”. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/33 "2003-11-27T05:32:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > \*\*[Yes, there is.](http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsdir/actors.mv?actors+ByTG) But for some reason, they don’t list Weaving. \*\* But Judge Reinhold made the cut. Judge Reinhold??? I’d love to see a list like this adjusted for inflation and see Harrison Ford duke it out with Gable, Valentino, and Bogie. ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/34 "2003-11-28T07:36:15Z")
I checked the site **KGS** linked and there was a link for “actresses” as well. The dollar totals were much smaller for the top actresses, as compared to actors. And I was disappointed that the late **Amelia Batchelor** wasn’t #1, being that she’s appeared in every Columbia movie since 1936. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/35 "2003-11-28T07:59:00Z")
[The-numbers](http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/index.html) has Weaving at 64. He is certainly a fine actor and is currently getting raves in Tom Stoppard’s _The Real Thing_ for the Sydney Theatre Company. He appears in lots of odds and ends in Australia like comic films for the comedychannel. He once apparently starred in a student film - he was walking past while shopping and the schoolkids recognised him and he spent the weekend shooting their film. In a recent interview he said he only did the Matrix and LOTR so he could see himself as an action figure. The interview ended with the interviewer and Weaving debating whether Elrond could kick agent Smith’s butt. And _Proof_ and _The Interview_ are essential viewing. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/36 "2003-11-28T11:13:49Z")
A different kinda role of Hugo Weaving can be found in [Bangkok Hilton](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0096540/) as well. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/37 "2003-11-28T11:40:29Z")
I watched all of Bedrooms and Hallways last night. I am glad I did not see that in the theatre, i would have been kicked out for laughing too loud, (I sqeak loudly when I laugh to hard) and missed a lot of the dialog as well. There were a lot of Tivo moments, pausing for laughter, to backing up to see stuff again. Hugo was great in it too. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363/38 "2003-11-28T12:34:01Z")
I’ve had the privilege of seeing Hugo Weaving on the stage - he was Benedick in a Bell Shakespeare production of _Much Ado About Nothing_. I thought he was marvellous (this has to have been ten years ago when I was an impressionable youth) and went away from the theatre just a little in love with the way he played the character. I believe he’s a fine actor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-weaving/215363.md?page=1)