IESB.net
February, 24 2003

Hugo Weaving, who reprises his role as Agent Smith in the upcoming sequel films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, told SCI FI Wire that his character's ability to replicate himself made for some interesting challenges during the filming. "We achieved the multi Smiths in a number of different ways," Weaving said in an interview.

"Sometimes I would move into a room, say, and do it 10 times and end up in 10 slightly different positions. And then there would be 10 of me."Weaving, who is also known to audiences as Elrond in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, added, "Then there are other scenes where there are stunt doubles or doubles of me, men the same height as me, and there would be face replacements done afterwards. And then there would be completely CG Smiths in other scenes, and then also sometimes there were dummies. There were just stationary dummies.

"In addition to the new duplication ability, Weaving said there will be another big change in his character. Smith has broken away from the Matrix and is now a free agent within the system. "He's basically working for himself," Weaving said. "But he has the same goal and the same purpose and focus, which is to destroy Neo." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15 and The Matrix Revolutions opens Nov. 7. (SciFi Wire)