[from Contact Music and Ananova]

Lord of the Rings and Matrix star Hugo Weaving has blasted award ceremonies as meaningless - just days after Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won 11 Oscars.

The 43-year-old Australian, who stars as Elf King Elrond in Peter Jackson's blockbusting trilogy, didn't attend Sunday's Academy Awards because he dislikes such events.

Weaving says, "The whole red carpet thing, that's a side of the industry I cannot bear.

"Everything has to be sold, everything has to be hyped, money becomes the key.

"You end up becoming a product yourself. I don't want that. I just want to be an actor who's also a human being.

"There's too much cr*p being made in Hollywood. The film world is full of garbage. I don't want to live in a world where all the films come out in Los Angeles."

The 43-year-old, who went to school in Bristol for three years, said: "The money's been good, but I still take the kids to school in the morning and do a big supermarket shop on Mondays.

"I choose not to have a publicist or a bodyguard or a personal assistant. Some actors live in such incredibly rarefied worlds that they forget how to take responsibility for themselves."

He says he isn't sure who would win in a fight between Elrond and Agent Smith.

He added: "Elrond slashes his sword up and down if you squeeze his little legs together. Agent Smith, on the other hand, simply wields a pistol at the end of an outstretched arm.

"Elrond's got the movable pieces. And he's also bigger," Weaving says, after due consideration. "Smith, on the other hand, has got a gun. But then, Elrond's immortal..."