Transformers star calls films 'meaningless'

Actor Hugo Weaving says providing the voice for evil robot Megatron in the hit Transformers film trilogy was "meaningless" to him.

Speaking to Collider.com, Weaving owned up to knowing nothing about the three films, which raked in millions at the box office in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Weaving, who stars as elf Elrond in Peter Jackson's upcoming Hobbit trilogy, even admitted he had spent only two hours providing Megatron's voice in each film.

"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," Weaving said.

"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. I did it.

"It was a two-hour voice job, while I was doing other things."

Weaving also said he had never read a script for the films, didn't know what his lines meant, and hadn't met Michael Bay, who directed all three films and is planning a fourth film for release in 2014.

"Of course, it's a massive film that's made masses of money. I just happened to be the voice of one of the iconic villainous characters. But, my link to that and to Michael Bay is so minimal. I have never met him ... I just went in and did it.

"I never read the script. I just have my lines, and I don't know what they mean. That sounds absolutely pathetic! I've never done anything like that, in my life. It's hard to say any more about it than that, really."

Transformers star Shia LaBeouf has previously spoken about his disapointment in Transformers 2, saying the "heart" of the original film had disappeared.

"When I saw the second movie, I wasn't impressed with what we did," LaBeouf told news agency AP during the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

"We got lost. We tried to get bigger. It's what happens to sequels. It's like, how do you top the first one? You've got to go bigger."

- nzherald.co.nz