Alternate Best Actor 1998: Hugo Weaving in The Interview

Hugo Weaving did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Edward Rodney Fleming in The Interview. 

The Interview follows the police trying to get a confession out of a suspected murderer...and rather tired police station politics that undermine the investigation.

Hugo Weaving is an actor who if you only ever watch Hollywood productions one would think he could only play a certain constricted villain type, where if you go to see his home Australian work you immediately have a greater variety of roles and chances for him to express his range as a performer. One such role can be found here in the role in The Interview, despite the fact that he's playing a suspected murderer, the part of Fleming isn't as a cackling villain. Rather his character is portrayed rather empathetically in the early scenes of the film whereas the police are presented in turn as rather cruel and abusive as we see them accost Fleming in his home, arresting him with guns drawn to his face, without explanation given and causing the man to wet himself in fear. Weaving delivers what can best be described as a visceral vulnerability, in that there is no ego or vanity in the depiction of this man, rather Weaving presents Fleming in this scene very much as the victim. He's nearly petrified in fear in his physical manner, he speaks as though he's just eeking out the smallest attempts at protesting his innocence, he is wavering in the states of confusion over what is going on with him and he's minimalized in his embarrassment over his state of needing replacement clothes. Weaving shows a man who seemingly could just simply be a man in a state of distress, which only begins as the "interview, more so interrogation begins. Weaving's performance again brings this sympathetic flair of what is a lost man in many ways, as he speaks with this real anxiety within everything as he speaks of only a lack of knowledge of any charge. When they speak of his daily routine, there is a quiet powerful somber quality to Weaving's performance as the man speaks of going to a local market as a chance to speak to people with this earnest but broken connection given the context in which he is revealing this pain. Something that Weaving cultivates in his performance as the police bring up a driving incident when he was young, with Weaving being rather moving in creating the sense of potent disbelief in Fleming as his eyes are that of a lost man unable to quite comprehend what is going on. 

After meeting with a lawyer finally, who tells him to say nothing until the police are required legally to release him, the police offer Fleming food and more so attention and suddenly we see a shift in the character. A shift that may happen too fast script wise, however performance wise Weaving is great in this shift, because he doesn't suddenly turn on the Weaving as a villain approach, something he certainly could do, rather he presents this connection to the attention granted to him. Weaving begins as Fleming begins to recount the alleged crime with a keen interest and his delivery is that of a man who is very much relishing the opportunity for storytelling. Weaving accentuates words and moments, with this understated kind of glee and his eyes are looking at the men with this sort of reaction to a kind of fascination. Weaving presents a man so much enjoying the way he is now the center of the minds of these men, and is suddenly a man of importance, even though the importance is attached to murder. The murder itself Weaving delivers as just the details of the event, no more, no less. Rather Weaving very much is the man playing for his audience, and in turn Weaving is quite captivating as Fleming becomes very much a showman for both the police and the audience. However the film then turns again to be about our central boring inspector and his interrogation methods, where the next time someone asks Fleming about something, he becomes again the fearful man. A difference however is Weaving let's see more performance due to the on a dime switch between the styles of the man as he becomes suddenly very articulate in his denials and his inability to understand why he is being persecuted for his innocence. Leading to sort of the summary moment of the character revealing his true nature in his scene as he leaves the police station, after his interview is ruled as inadmissible, where he walks and a diabolical smile finds itself onto Weaving face. Perhaps an indicator of what Hollywood will see him as for much of his career there, but regardless still here is an effective moment of his performance. A performance that is greater than his film, which really is only compelling when Weaving is onscreen. That's despite the part being very much written to whatever is needed per the plot point of the less interesting aspects of the film about the police officers, rather than what should've been the meat of the piece, the actual interrogation. Regardless, Weaving carries his weight and more, by delivering a captivating and chilling performance, even as he can't quite hold the whole thing up on his own.