In the new film, How To Make Gravy, a family is upended over Christmas when a father makes a split-second, and violent, decision at a family gathering and is sent to jail.
Thankfully for Hugo Weaving, his family Christmases growing up were anything but tumultuous, even if he did move countries every two years.
“I had an amazing childhood,” the 64-year-old tells TV WEEK. “I was incredibly lucky to have moved around the world. Almost every second year we’d be in a different country.
“School was always different, the homes we lived in would vary, but my family were the constant in my life. So Christmases were always special, because it was just the five of us: Mum, Dad and three kids. Our little family.”
Family is at the very core of How To Make Gravy, Binge’s first original film, which has been adapted from Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly’s famous 1996 song.
Like the song, the movie follows Joe (Daniel Henshall), a father who’s writing to his family from jail over the holidays, concerned about who’s going to make the gravy for Christmas lunch.
“It’s such a powerful and great song,” Hugo says. “It’s about missing and valuing the people you love. It’s Joe basically saying, ‘I’m sorry – I messed up and I’m going to make lots of gravy when I come back.”
It’s that theme of family and longing that Hugo admits resonates with him, given his international career has, at times, taken him away from his own family: partner Katrina Greenwood, and their children Harry, 35, and Holly, 31, during the holidays.
“I’ve always made a point of not working around Christmas and New Year’s, but sometimes I haven’t been successful,” he explains. “Occasionally I’ve been on stage on Christmas Eve and I’d be like, ‘What am I doing here?’”
In the movie, Hugo plays Noel,a formidable Father Christmas-type inmate who looks out for some of the more lost souls in the jail.
And while his performance would have you thinking otherwise, Hugo admits if he were to ever end up in jail, he couldn’t see himself becoming someone like Noel.
“I don’t think I’d do very well [in jail],” he says with a chuckle. “Who knows? Travelling around as a kid, I learned to adapt, and learned to reinvent myself every year or two, so I’m adaptable.
“I’d just have to adapt to that prison, and the individuals there, and do my best. But I don’t think I’d go very well.”
One thing Hugo has done exceptionally well is act. The star has been providing us with iconic roles in more than 100 projects for four decades.
Who can forget Elrond and his locks in The Lord Of The Rings, the suited villain Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy or the masked freedom fighter in V For Vendetta?
And yet, when asked which character is his favourite, the answer is surprising.
“I always loved Lionel in [2005 Australian indie film] Little Fish,” he says. “He was a fascinating Australian male. Like a rugby league star, but a gay man and heroin addict. A real fascinating mix; I loved [playing] him.”
In 2025, Hugo is set to reprise perhaps his most iconic role: drag queen Tick in The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.
“I was talking to the writer/director [Stephan Elliott] two nights ago and we had a long chat about the script,” Hugo says of the sequel, which will be set 30 years after the 1994 original and star the original trio of Hugo, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp.
“We’re hoping to do it next year. It’s an exciting and daunting prospect, though. You know – who is Tick now and where are these girls after such a long time?”
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