Hugo Weaving says he spent too long on Middle-earth. But he’s not the first actor to detest a classic

All of which is sort of fair enough. Those movies might be untouchable totems of genre magnificence for those of us who watch them over and over – see also the original Star Wars trilogy, the early Terminator flicks and anything by Paul Verhoeven between 1987 and 1997 (except Showgirls) – but that doesn’t mean they are anything more than a time-consuming paycheque for those who actually have to film the damn things. And Weaving isn’t the first genre actor held in high regard by fans to have been about as fond of playing Elrond as Frodo Baggins might be of a night on the tiles with the Witch-king of Angmar.