JEAN RENO - RENO SAID NO TO THE MATRIX

French actor JEAN RENO turned down the role of villainous AGENT SMITH in THE MATRIX movies - because he didn't like the idea of leaving his native France for months of filming in Australia. The LEON star was offered the role ahead of Aussie actor HUGO WEAVING, but took the tough decision to stay in Europe rather than travel half way around the world to shoot the film. He recalls, "There was a period of my life where I couldn't move from France, and they were shooting in Australia for four-and-a-half months, which is a long time."