Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#882
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Hugo Weaving represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Hugo is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Hugo Weaving appears in 33 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Hugo. The Matrix is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, screen presence. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for documentary, mystery, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Brian Ward, Mark Leonard Winter, Kitty Green and others, Hugo Weaving helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Matrix (1999) as Agent Smith · The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) as Elrond · The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) as Elrond
Career snapshot
Ranked #882 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
33
1995–2025
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
The Matrix
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.7
The Matrix
Most frequent director
Peter Jackson
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Peter Jackson
Most common genre
Action
15 titles
Average runtime
2h 6m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
7.6 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers, Happy Feet — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.6
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
4 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Matrix, The Matrix, Babe: Pig in the City.
Most productive era
2010s
13 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.12 films | — | 7.05 films | 4.93 films |
| Action | 8.82 films | 7.78 films | 7.14 films | 6.31 film |
| Thriller | — | 7.43 films | 6.31 film | 4.92 films |
| Comedy | 6.12 films | 6.41 film | 6.62 films | — |
| Sci-Fi | 9.21 film | — | — | — |
| Crime | — | — | 6.31 film | — |
| Romance | — | — | — | 4.41 film |
| Horror | — | — | 5.91 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Babe
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rex (voice).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1999The Matrix
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025What is an Ocean… Reconnecting the Cast and Crew of Cloud Atlas
The current state of the argument, as Self - Interviewee.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
33 of 33 films
as Agent Smith
Directed by The Wachowskis
as Elrond
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Elrond
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Elrond
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Agent Smith
Directed by Lilly Wachowski
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 37 titles · 37 total credits · active 1995–2026
The Airport Chaplain
2026 · TV · Tobias Wallace
What is an Ocean… Reconnecting the Cast and Crew of Cloud Atlas
2025 · Self - Interviewee
The Rooster
2024 · The Hermit
Creative Types with Virginia Trioli
2024 · TV · Self
Teacups
2023 · Don Ritchie
The Royal Hotel
2023 · Billy
Koala Man
2023 · TV · King Emudeus (voice)
Loveland
2022 · Dr. Bergman
Slow Horses
2022 · TV · Frank Harkness
The Matrix Resurrections
2021 · Agent Smith (archive footage) (uncredited)
Lone Wolf
2021 · Police Minister
Black '47
2018 · Hannah
Mortal Engines
2018 · Thaddeus Valentine
Patrick Melrose
2018 · TV · David Melrose
Hacksaw Ridge
2016 · Tom Doss
The Dressmaker
2015 · Sergeant Farrat
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2014 · Elrond
Mystery Road
2013 · Johnno
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2012 · Elrond
Cloud Atlas
2012 · Haskell Moore / Tadeusz Kesselring / Bill Smoke / Nurse Noakes / Boardman Mephi / Old Georgie
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2011 · Megatron (voice)
Happy Feet Two
2011 · Noah (voice)
Captain America: The First Avenger
2011 · Johann Schmidt / Red Skull
The Wolfman
2010 · Inspector Francis Abberline
The defining work
#1
Agent Smith
The Matrix (1999)
Performance score9.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Agent Smith gives Hugo Weaving a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Elrond
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Performance score8.4
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elrond is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Elrond
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Performance score8.4
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elrond is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Elrond
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Performance score8.4
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elrond is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Agent Smith
Start here. The Matrix is the clearest statement of what Hugo Weaving does — accessible, 136 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Hugo at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Matrix (1999)
Keeps the action register of The Matrix but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Keeps the action register of The Matrix but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Same director as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Same director as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Peter Jackson
Director
5 films together
Notably The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lilly Wachowski
Director
4 films together
Notably The Matrix
George Miller
Director
3 films together
Notably Happy Feet
Michael Bay
Director
3 films together
Notably Transformers
Joe Johnston
Director
2 films together
Notably Captain America: The First Avenger
Chris Noonan
Director
1 film together
Notably Babe
The Wachowskis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
James McTeigue
Director
1 film together
Notably V for Vendetta
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Jocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dressmaker
Mel Gibson
Director
1 film together
Notably Hacksaw Ridge
Lana Wachowski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Matrix Resurrections
Kitty Green
Director
1 film together
Notably The Royal Hotel
Mark Leonard Winter
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rooster
Brian Ward
Director
1 film together
Notably What is an Ocean… Reconnecting the Cast and Crew of Cloud Atlas
Carrie-Anne Moss
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Joe Pantoliano
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Keanu Reeves
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Laurence Fishburne
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Gloria Foster
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Marcus Chong
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Julian Arahanga
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Matt Doran
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Belinda McClory
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Anthony Ray Parker
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Paul Goddard
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Robert Taylor
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Matrix
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Peter Jackson
Director
5 films together · 8.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingLilly Wachowski
Director
4 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The MatrixMichael Bay
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
TransformersGeorge Miller
Director
3 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Happy FeetJoe Johnston
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Captain America: The First AvengerThe Wachowskis
Director
1 film together · 9.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MatrixMel Gibson
Director
1 film together · 8.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hacksaw RidgeJames McTeigue
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
V for VendettaJocelyn Moorhouse
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DressmakerZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'HooleChris Noonan
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabeLana Wachowski
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Matrix ResurrectionsKitty Green
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Royal HotelMark Leonard Winter
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The RoosterBrian Ward
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What is an Ocean… Reconnecting the Cast and Crew of Cloud AtlasSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2000
The Matrix
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
as Noctus / Grimble (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Matrix Resurrections
as Agent Smith (archive footage) (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Hugo Weaving has known it for a long time.”
“There is no spoon.”
“I know kung fu.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.2 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #188 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Action | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | The Wachowskis | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Action, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1999–1999 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Agent Smith — The Matrix | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Matrix | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Top 250 Movies of All Time
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
30 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
15 catalogue titles in action, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
as Noctus / Grimble (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Rooster
as The Hermit
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Matrix Resurrections
as Agent Smith (archive footage) (uncredited)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Babe
as Rex (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Matrix
as Agent Smith
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Keep reading
genre
Best Action Movies
Features The Matrix at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Best Philosophical Movies
Features The Matrix at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features The Matrix at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Action Movies
Features The Matrix at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features The Matrix
Read the collectionranking
Top 250 Movies of All Time
Features The Matrix
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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