At the tail end of his talk with Australian newspaper The Age, character actor Hugo Weaving was asked about the depth of his involvement in the Transformers series, voicing uber-robot villain Megatron in both films.
Here’s what he had to say:
“Oh no,” he barks with a laugh. “They’re not making Transformers III, are they?”
“[Director] Michael Bay talks to me on the phone. I’ve never met him. We were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadn’t seen the first one. I still didn’t really know who the characters were and I didn’t know what anything was. It’s a voice job, for sure, and people assume I’ve spent my life working on it, but I really know so little about it.” [via The Playlist]
It feels wrong to be too surprised, considering the low level of involvement director Michael Bay appears to have with the characters. But to have never met Weaving? The actor voicing your biggest, baddest villain?
What does this say about films themselves? While voice recording Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson took his actors on location to record so as to better capture the environment. Weaving doesn’t even know the characters? He knows who Optimus Prime is right?
They’re definitely making a Transformers 3, so maybe he should learn the characters. Or at least watch the second movie before they start shooting the third.
Or not. It doesn’t appear Mr. Bay could be bothered either way.
Does this news surprise you? Or just further confirm the heartlessness behind the Transformers films?