Sunday Herald Sun

Lambert C.

August 9, 1992

 

CHARMING Hugo Weaving is set to return to the small screen next year n the ABC series Sins.

Described by producer Bob Weis as a celebration of the pleasures of wickedness", Sins is a series of modern dramas constructed around each of the "seven deadly sins". Weaving stars with Victoria Longley in the "lust" episode.

Four couples get together for dinner - a regular but tedious event in their yuppie social calendar. Lust weaves its spell and affairs develop.

On the production set, Weaving and Longley were recovering from the flu and a particularly passionate scene in the bathroom. Weaving plays Eric, a widower whose wife died in an accident six months before. Longley is Deirdre, a needy and dissatisfied married woman.

"Eric is not responsible for looking after himself and is used to women doing that for him," Weaving said. "He is basically a fairly weak man who just talks about himself all the time."
"Deirdre is a wicked, dreadful woman who is appalling to the guests but she is also a scream," Longley said. "She has suffered disappointment because she expected more out of life and marriage but it just got more and more dreary. Now she is bored and loony and has a fancy for Eric."

Weaving said Eric was threatened because Deirdre made no bones about the depth of her lust but he was still in love with his dead wife.
Weaving denied the series made any moral judgments about sin. If anything, it left judgments to the viewer if they chose to be critical.
"The lust episode just looks at modern relationships that are in a rut. The characters are desperately struggling to keep their friendships together but they are past their due date," he said.

Sins completes Weaving's foray into combining drama with comedy. "The last three projects I have done have been comedies which is a direction I have really enjoyed exploring and Sins is particularly different for me," he said.

Longley, too, found her character like no other she has played. "Lust was written by Andrew Bovell who also wrote my last TV play (Piccolo Mondo in the SBS Six Pack series). There are some dramatic links between the characters but Deirdre is very different," Longley said. "Playing Deirdre has been great. She is so bad and funny at the same time.