Press & Updates

Nova Radio
April 27, 2104

E: Playing the freshest hits, this is Confidential on Nova, joining me now, you’d probably be familiar with his roles in “The Matrix”, “Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit” and now his latest Australian film “Healing”, it’s Hugo Weaving. [movie excerpt] Hey Hugo, how is it going?

H: Good, good, how are you?

E: Good. Now, you’ve done a couple of famous movies, one or two, you know “The Matrix”, “Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit”, “Transformers”, “Babe”, just to name a few. Tell us what’s been your favourite role so far?

H: Oh look, probably Lionel in “Little Fish” or the character I played in “Last Ride”, so both Australian films.

E: Oh great! You do live in Sydney, am I right? Why did you decide not to cross over to Hollywood and live in L.A.?

H: Ehm…I don’t like it over there [laughs]

E: Too pretentious?

H: I am interested in how films have a particular sense of place and culture, and if I’m living in this country then I wanna work here and express the sort of stories and sort of culture and sort of landscape that somehow I’m a part of.

E: Definitely. You have a massive year coming up, the new Hobbit movie “There and Back Again” is out later, what can you tell us about the movie? Can you give us any details?

H: Ehm…no, I can’t really, ehm, but I suspect this might be the last of the Middle Earth stories…

E: Oh no…

H: and I expect they’ll…oh well who knows, you never say goodbye to Middle Earth but I suspect they might have a big celebration at the end of the year when they release this one.

E: Right. There is talk that they might be changing its name to “The Hobbit: Into the Fire”, do you, can you give us any goss on that?

H: No, you would know more about that than me. Really, you would.

E: [laugh] I’d better do some digging then. Now Hugo, you also have another movie, filmed here in Australia, out very soon. It’s called “Healing” and I wanna know about it next.

H: Yeah.

[break]

E: Hey it’s Elle tonight, we love to get the Hollywood A-lister on Confidential on Nova and we definitely have one of them, right now, it’s Hugo Weaving. [movie excerpt] Hugo let’s talk about your new movie, it’s called “Healing”, can you give us a bit of a synopsis?

H: “Healing” is based on a true story of a raptor programme or bird rehabilitation programme that was setup in a minimum security correctional facility in Victoria some years ago. It’s actually, it’s not a prison film at all, it’s really about these guys trying to move on in their lives and trying to get back into society.

E: Also, what’s next for you? You’ve also been filming another movie “Strangerland” in Australia with Nicole Kidman.

H: Yeah.

E: What’s that like? You know, you guys must be old mates, right?

H: Well we, yeah, we haven’t worked together for a long time. We were going to work on a project called “Eucalyptus” about five years ago which fell through at the last minute unfortunately, so it was really nice to catch up with her again and work with her, it was a treat to work with her again.

E: Well, you can see Hugo in his new movie “Healing” in cinmeas May 8. Hugo thanks so much for speaking to me tonight.

H: Thank you very much indeed.

E: Thanks Hugo.