Hugo Weaving is one of those actors who’s been in more quality movies than you probably realize. He played Elrond in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, of course, but the British-Australian actor was also in V for Vendetta, cult classic The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Mortal Engines (whatever, it’s good), and he also worked with George Miller in Babe and the Happy Feet movies. Not bad! But Weaving’s defining role is Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy, and although he won’t be back for The Matrix 4, he spoke about the franchise being co-opted by the far-right.
“I am befuddled by it. It just goes to show how people don’t read below surfaces. They don’t read between the lines. They will take something that they think is cool and they will repurpose it to fit themselves when the original intention or meaning of that thing was quite the opposite,” he told the Daily Beast. Weaving thinks the Red Pill types have a “very, very shallow reading of the intention of [The Matrix]. That’s a problem with popular culture: these films are profoundly thought through, but it’s too easy to look cool, have a cool haircut, and have a gun, and you think that’s all you need to do in life.”
He continued:
“They aren’t thinking about other people and are only thinking about themselves. Trump is the classic, most unbelievable example. ‘Narcissist’ is a stupid thing to say, it’s so obvious. He doesn’t give a flying fuck about anyone else but himself. It’s just unbelievable that he’s the president.”
Put another way:
Fuck both of you
— Lilly Wachowski (@lilly_wachowski) May 17, 2020
Well said.
(Via the Daily Beast)