1984–1998 Weaving's first television role was in the 1984 Australian television series
Bodyline, as the
English cricket captain
Douglas Jardine. Weaving appeared in the Australian miniseries
The Dirtwater Dynasty in 1988 and as
Geoffrey Chambers in the drama
Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way From Home. He starred opposite
Nicole Kidman in the 1989 TV mini-series
Bangkok Hilton. In 1991, Weaving received the
Australian Film Institute's "Best Actor" award for his performance in the low-budget
Proof as the blind photographer. He appeared as Sir John in
Yahoo Serious's 1993 comedy
Reckless Kelly, a lampoon of Australian outlaw
Ned Kelly. In the mid-1990s, Weaving portrayed the
drag queen Anthony "Tick" Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra in the 1994 film
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and provided the voice of Rex the sheepdog in the 1995 family film
Babe and its 1998 sequel
Babe: Pig in the City. In 1998, he received the "Best Actor" award from the
Montreal World Film Festival for his performance as a suspected
serial killer in
The Interview.
1999–2010 Weaving played the enigmatic and evil-minded
Agent Smith in the 1999 film
The Matrix. He later reprised that role in the film's 2003 sequels,
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions. He was a voice actor in the cartoon film
The Magic Pudding. '' premiere in 2003 He received additional acclaim in the role of the
half-elven lord
Elrond in
Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation of
The Lord of the Rings, released between 2001 and 2003. Weaving was the main actor in Andrew Kotatko's award-winning film
Everything Goes (2004). He starred as a heroin-addicted ex-
rugby league player in the 2005 Australian
indie film Little Fish, opposite
Cate Blanchett. Weaving played the title role as
V in the 2005 film
V for Vendetta, in which he was reunited with
the Wachowskis, creators of
The Matrix trilogy, who wrote the adapted screenplay. Actor
James Purefoy was originally signed to play the role, but was fired six weeks into filming over creative differences. Weaving reshot most of Purefoy's scenes as V (even though his face is never seen) apart from a couple of minor dialogue-free scenes early in the film while stuntman David Leitch performed all of V's stunts. Weaving reprised his role as Elrond for the video game
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II. He regularly appears in productions by the
Sydney Theatre Company (STC). In 2006, he worked with Cate Blanchett on a reprise of the STC production of
Hedda Gabler in New York City. '' premiere in 2003 In a controversial move by director
Michael Bay, Weaving was chosen as the
Decepticon leader
Megatron vocally in the 2007 live-action film
Transformers, rather than using the
original version of the character's voice created by the voice actor
Frank Welker. Weaving himself was unaware of the controversy, having accepted the role based on Michael Bay's personal request; in a November 2008
Sun Herald interview, he said he had never seen
Transformers. Though Weaving reprised his role in two sequels, he does not have much personal investment in the
Transformers films. In February 2010, Weaving revealed to
The Age: "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." In 2012, Weaving said to
Collider: "It was one of the only things I've ever done where I had no knowledge of it, I didn't care about it, I didn't think about it. They wanted me to do it. In one way, I regret that bit. I don't regret doing it, but I very rarely do something if it's meaningless. It was meaningless to me, honestly. I don't mean that in any nasty way." Weaving played a supporting role in
Joe Johnston's 2010 remake of the 1941 film
The Wolfman, starring
Benicio del Toro. Immediately after
Wolfman wrapped in spring 2008, he returned home to Australia to film a lead role in the film
Last Ride, directed by Glendyn Ivin. In early 2009,
Guillermo del Toro, then director of
The Hobbit films, prequels to
The Lord of the Rings, confirmed his intent to again cast Weaving as
Elrond of
Rivendell in a BBC interview. When asked about reprising the role, Weaving replied that he was game, but had not officially been approached. Del Toro eventually left the project; Peter Jackson decided to direct the films himself but Weaving was not officially confirmed in the cast until May 2011. Weaving spent the summer of 2009 starring in the
Melbourne Theatre Company's production of
God of Carnage, portraying the caustic lawyer Alain Reille. He returned to the stage in November 2010 in Sydney Theatre Company's
Uncle Vanya, co-starring Cate Blanchett and
Richard Roxburgh. Weaving filmed a guest role on Roxburgh's Australian TV series
Rake in May 2010. In May 2009, Weaving accepted a co-starring role in the docudrama
Oranges and Sunshine, about the forced migration of thousands of British children to Australia in the 1950s. Filming began in autumn 2009 in
Nottingham, England, and
Adelaide, South Australia, and continued through January 2010. The film premiered at the
Rome International Film Festival on 28 October 2010 and garnered positive reviews. 2010 saw the release of
Legend of the Guardians (formerly ''The Guardians of Ga'Hoole''), in which Weaving has another high-profile voice role, portraying two different owls named Noctus and Grimble in
Zack Snyder's film adaptation of
Kathryn Lasky's popular series of children's books. On 4 May 2010, it was officially confirmed by
Marvel Studios that Weaving would play the
Nazi supervillain
Johann Schmidt / Red Skull in the superhero film
Captain America: The First Avenger. Weaving completed filming his role on the project in September 2010 and returned to Sydney to prepare for
Uncle Vanya. It is unlikely he will sign on for any further installments in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU); in an August 2011
Baltimore Sun interview, the actor confided he is weary of typecasting and of "blockbuster" films in general: "I think I've about had enough... I'm not sure how many more of them I'll make. It doesn't feel to me as though they've been the majority of my work, though that's probably the way it seems to most other people." Red Skull returned in the MCU films
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and
Avengers: Endgame (2019), with
Ross Marquand replacing Weaving in the role.
2011–present in 2013 On 13 March 2011,
The Key Man, which Weaving filmed in 2006, finally debuted at the
South By Southwest Festival in
Austin, Texas. The child migrant saga
Oranges and Sunshine opened in the UK on 1 April, the culmination of months of success on the festival circuit in late 2010-early 2011. In March, the
Sydney Theatre Company and
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that STC's 2010 production of Chekhov's
Uncle Vanya would be reprised in Washington, D.C., during the month of August. In April, months of speculation finally ended when Weaving appeared on
The Hobbit's New Zealand set, shortly before a production spokesman officially confirmed the actor's return as Elrond in Peter Jackson's prequel trilogy to
The Lord of the Rings. He was part of the cast of the Wachowskis' adaptation of
David Mitchell's novel
Cloud Atlas. The project, co-starring
Tom Hanks,
Ben Whishaw,
Halle Berry,
Jim Broadbent, and
Susan Sarandon, began filming in September 2011 and was released in October 2012. 2012 found Weaving re-focusing on his theatrical career, with a return to the Sydney Theatre Company to star in a new adaptation of
Christopher Hampton's play
Les Liaisons Dangereuses in March. He portrayed the notorious Vicomte de Valmont, a character he first played onstage in 1987. His frequent stage foil
Pamela Rabe costarred. Weaving and
Cate Blanchett reprised their roles in STC's internationally lauded production of
Uncle Vanya for a ten-day run at
New York's Lincoln Center in July. The busy actor joined the cast of three forthcoming Australian films in summer 2012. The Western-tinged police thriller
Mystery Road, written and directed by
Ivan Sen, began filming in June 2012. Weaving appeared in the prison drama
Healing for director Craig Monahan, with whom he previously made
The Interview (1998) and
Peaches (2005). He appeared in a segment of the Australian anthology film
The Turning, based on
Tim Winton's collection of linked stories, entitled "The Commission", directed by
David Wenham. He ended 2013 co-starring with
Richard Roxburgh and
Philip Quast in
Samuel Beckett's
Waiting For Godot, for the Sydney Theatre Company. In the spring of 2013, Weaving reprised the
Agent Smith role for a
General Electric television commercial for their "Brilliant Machines" innovations in healthcare management technology, which was slated to air during a break from 13 April's edition of
Saturday Night Live, and subsequently continued to receive multiple airings on major cable networks. From 26 July to 27 September 2014, Weaving played the titular role of
Sydney Theatre Company's production of
Macbeth. In an unusual treatment of the Shakespearian tragedy by young Sydney director
Kip Williams, Weaving's performance was described by Peter Gotting of
The Guardian as "the role of his career". In October 2015, Weaving joined the cast of the film adaption of
Craig Silvey's novel
Jasper Jones. In 2018, Weaving starred as Thaddeus Valentine in
Mortal Engines. In the same year, he appeared alongside
Benedict Cumberbatch in the miniseries
Patrick Melrose. In 2020, Weaving starred as Alfred in
Tony Kushner's adaptation of
The Visit. Since 2021, Weaving has starred as Glen Mathieson in the Australian intergenerational drama series
Love Me. In 2024, Weaving played character Frank Harkness in season 4 of
Slow Horses. In February 2026, Weaving was named as the lead for SBS drama series
The Airport Chaplain. On 23 April 2026, Weaving was announced as part of the cast for Paramount+ series
Dalliance. ==Other ventures==