Jessica Henwick had her own “red pill, blue pill moment” coming intoThe Matrix Resurrections.
It began when she was on a hiking trip in the Meseta desert in Spain.
“I was on an extended trip and it wasn’t the place to go make a self-tape.”
Bugs (Jessica Henwick) leads Neo (Keanu Reeves) back down the rabbit hole in ‘The Matrix Resurrections.'.Murray Close/Warner Bros.
Once she was finally home a month later, she received another notification.
The self-tape worked out that time, but now she had a choice to make.
And there was no guarantee that I would get either," Henwick recalls.
From left: Toby Onwumere, Eréndira Ibarra, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Jessica Henwick in ‘The Matrix Resurrections.'.Warner Bros. Pictures
“It was a red pill, blue pill moment for me.”
She ultimately sided withThe Matrixbecause it felt like a rare moment.
“I’ve had a great working relationship with Marvel,” Henwick says of playing Colleen inIron Fist.
Jessica Henwick as Bugs in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’.Warner Bros.
“I’ve obviously done Marvel TV, so I was already in the universe.
I knew that joiningThe Matrixis not an opportunity that you get every day.
Lana has had so many offers to make moreMatrixfilms.
I just knew it was now or never.
Whereas, obviously, Marvel is a huge, wonderful company that makes films very, very regularly.”
“The only thing that was really new for me was working with weapons, specifically guns.
I’d never shot a gun in real life.
And you would get there on the day, and there would be eight extras carrying guns.
Like it was that minute,” Henwick recalls.
Now, it’s very fluid and very instinctive.
There were no storyboards for us to see, certainly.
There was no plan.
Lana shot 360 [degrees] all day.
And you better hope that you were in the scene and you were ready to go."
When the cameras weren’t rolling, Wachowski would take the actors on art excursions and throw dance parties.
It was about bonding the cast together, to verify they were each on the same creative wavelength.
“She’s a very interesting director,” Henwick remarks.
(No word on ifShang-Chidirector Destin Daniel Cretton made dance parties a part of Marvel’s prep time.)
The Matrix Resurrectionsdebuts in theaters and on HBO Max this Dec. 22.
For more onThe Matrix Resurrections,order the January issueofEntertainment Weeklyor find it on newsstands beginning Dec. 17.
