Hugo Weaving’s iconic way of speaking has become synonymous with villainous roles, but the actor is no stranger to playing positive characters, with one notable example being Elron Half-elven. Appearing in all three The Lord of the Rings entries, Weaving played the character to perfection and was lauded by fans and critics for bringing the character’s archaic style of speech to life.
But despite garnering critical acclaim for his portrayal of the noble ruler, Weaving had no interest in stepping into Elrond’s shoes ever again, as he isn’t particularly a fan of the character.
Hugo Weaving Didn’t Find Elrond Satisfying to Play
Following his commanding presence as the noble Elven ruler and his intense love for his daughter, Elrond won over fans. But while most love the eloquently spoken character, the man responsible for making him engrossing isn’t too fond of his LOTR counterpart. Unlike his villainous gigs, which Hugo Weaving finds fun, the actor hated Elrond for being a vehicle of exposition in the iconic trilogy.
He told The Guardian:
“He wasn’t the most satisfying character to play, to be honest. Elrond was a clothes horse and they gave me all the exposition!”
When asked in another interview, if he was open to stepping back in the character’s shoes in The Rings of Power, which follows a young Elrond, the actor stressed he has no interest.
He said:
“Lord of the Rings, no, I would never — I’m not interested in that at all. Look, I loved being in New Zealand with all those great people, and it was like going back to a family, but actually, to be honest, I think everyone had more than enough of it.”
But opposed to his stance on his LOTR counterpart, the Captain America star was initially onboard to reprise another one of his iconic roles, Agent Smith.
Scheduling Conflicts Led to His Absence From The Matrix Resurrections
Despite his love for playing villainous gigs, by the time he did Red Skull, Weaving was tired of antagonistic roles. But despite his fatigue towards villainous gigs, he was initially open to return as Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections. Unfortunately, following his commitment to The Visit, the actor and director Lana Wachowski struggled to work out the dates. Eventually, Wachowski gave up and moved ahead without Weaving.
The actor told Time Out:
“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.’”
While The Matrix star might not be too fond of Elrond, both fans and Robert Aramayo, who played the young iteration of the character in The Rings of Power, would disagree with him. Being influenced by Weaving’s iconic performance, Aramayo dreamt of playing Elrond since his childhood and did a fantastic job portraying the character during his initial years in Middle-Earth.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is available to stream on HBO Max.
