Due to his commitments to a new stage show, Hugo Weaving has revealed he’s unable to reprise his iconic role of Agent Smith in the recently announced “Matrix 4”.
The 59-year-old actor is expected to headline the National Theatre’s production of The Visit when Warner Bros and Roadshow begin filming the highly anticipated sequel.
Speaking to Time Out, the acclaimed thesp expressed disappointment in not being able to reprise his legendary villain opposite Keanu Reeves in the film.
‘“It’s unfortunate but actually I had this offer [for “The Visit”] and then the offer came from “The Matrix”, so I knew it was happening but I didn’t have dates. I thought [I] could do both and it took eight weeks to work out that the dates would work – I held off on accepting [a role in “The Visit” during that time]. I was in touch with [director] Lana Wachowski, but in the end she decided that the dates weren’t going to work. So we’d sorted the dates and then she sort of changed her mind. They’re pushing on ahead without me.’
Weaving was also absent in another sequel one expected to see him in. After reprising the role of Red Skull in Marvel’s “Captain America : The First Avenger”, many were surprised to see a different actor behind the cherry mask in the recent two-part “Avengers” blockbuster.
That, it seems, was Weaving’s choice —and the reason he nixed the opportunity probably won’t surprise many.
“I loved playing that character Red Skull – it was a lot of fun. We were all obliged to sign up for three pictures: I was thinking [Red Skull] probably wouldn’t come back in “Captain America” but he may well come back as a villain in “The Avengers”. By then, they’d pushed back on the contracts that we agreed on and so the money they offered me for “The Avengers” was much less than I got for the very first one, and this was for two films. And the promise when we first signed the contracts was that the money would grow each time. They said: “It’s just a voice job, it’s not a big deal”. I actually found negotiating with them through my agent impossible. And I didn’t really wanna do it that much. But I would have done it.”
Weaving, who claimed international stardom in the likes of “Bangkok Hilton” and “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” before cementing it with the role in the three previous “Matrix” movies, was last seen in the acclaimed drama “Hearts and Bones”.
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