To celebrate the  500th visit to this blog, I thought I’d take a look back at an extraordinary period of months when I was regularly spotting a hard-working and well-known Australian actor ~ Hugo Weaving.

It was the summer of 2006 when I first spotted Hugo Weaving (star of Bodyline, Bangkok Hilton and of course, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings trilogies). It was a total surprise to me ~ I was off to do my shopping and there walking down the lane was his tall and unmistakable person. Needless to say I was fairly gobsmacked ~ I had just come out of a period of being really into the Matrix films and, to me, he was still Agent Smith!

Not long after this, I was taking the bus home from the city when to my right across the aisle there he was again! This time he was with a female companion. I later learned that, like myself, Hugo Weaving does not drive. So there was Agent Smith, riding a city bus like everyone else! I thought this was pretty cool ~ he seemed perfectly comfortable, no-one was approaching him or even seemed to realise he was there.

Later when an election came up I made my way to my local polling booth ~ and there he was again! Then a little time later my GF and I sighted him once more at a local cafe ~ again, seemingly not attracting any attention at all.

Hugo in person seems to have a  low-key presence that belies his international fame. He dresses to blend in and he doesn’t stand out in the way that say Hugh Jackman would. However Hugo is a terrific actor, and he has entertained Australian audiences for over 25 years now.

As the malevolent Agent  Smith in The Matrix he embodied the latest kind of super-villain; seemingly all-powerful, but with a wry wit and a penchant for philosophy. For me this was the crown in his career. He was also powerful as a completely different kind of character in the Australian film Little Fish (co-starring Cate Blanchett).

Hugo stands out on the Australian film landscape, giving audiences highly memorable characters and contributing to wonderful films for a quarter of a century. To find out more about Hugo, please visit his Wikipedia entry.