The actor portrays Frank Harkness in the hit series
Hugo Weaving has embodied some of cinema’s greatest villains. From the dastardly AI program, Agent Smith to anarchist terrorist ‘V’, the award-winning actor isn’t interested in playing “black and white characters”.
“I’m drawn to complexity and contrasts within human beings. I don’t really like pure heroes or pure villains,” he tells
© Getty“I’m probably more well-known for the larger films like The Matrix franchise and Lord of the Rings, but for me they’re atypical. I like playing a wealth of different roles. Some people I play are just ordinary beta males who don’t think much of themselves and others are completely sadistic, overly confident, and macho, you know? It depends but I’m just fascinated by human psychology.”
In his latest role, Hugo inhabits Frank Harkness, the former CIA agent turned mercenary putting the Slow Horses through their paces.
© Jack English“I was drawn to Slow Horses because I loved watching season one, and I thought the scripts were a really wonderful mix of humour and intelligence. I think they’re really beautiful, brilliantly written scripts,” he said
“It felt very easy being on set. I thought it was a remarkable group of people and it felt lovely to be working in London. I love London and I love English actors. There’s a fantastic no-nonsense sensibility that English actors have. I enjoyed every day.”
During production on season four, Hugo filmed most of his scenes with Jack Lowden – aka River Cartwright. “It was great working with him [Jack]. I loved it and I really enjoyed talking to him,” Hugo raved.
“It was funny because I have an Australian-ish voice and Jack’s a Scot and then when we’d go for a take, he’d slip into English and I’d slip into American. I just love working with him.”
© Apple TV+In episode five, it was finally revealed that Frank was, in fact, River’s biological father, a plot point that Hugo and Jack discussed at length behind the scenes. “In casting, someone said to me, ‘Oh, yeah, you could be related, maybe,'” Hugo laughed.
“River doesn’t know much about Frank, so our journey watching this is actually his journey of discovery in a funny way, with regards to Frank. He [Jack] and I did talk about a back story, and we did talk about the stuff that was relevant to what we needed to know.