Decades after The Matrix changed movies forever, the franchise stars return for the year’s most timely sequel.
Getting his picture taken doesn’t rank high on Reeves' list of favorite things.
Moss calls their connection effortless.
Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss cover EW’s January 2022 issue.Dan Winters for EW
“We’ve been through this experience together as partners,” says the actress, 54.
“The only way I can describe it is like a soul friendship.”
with both Neo and Trinity dying at the end.
Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves pose for EW’s ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ photo shoot.Dan Winters for EW
The actual journey toResurrections, however, was a little more complicated than that.
LillytoldThe Hollywood Reporterin 2020 that corporate interference on her films pushed her to a “breaking point.”
“I hadn’t experienced it that closely.
From left: Toby Onwumere, Eréndira Ibarra, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Jessica Henwick in ‘The Matrix Resurrections.'.Warner Bros. Pictures
Profound personal change has always been central to theMatrixuniverse.
The Wachowskis came out as trans and underwent gender reassignment surgery in the years sinceReloadedandRevolutionsboth hit theaters in 2003.
“I think the studio wasn’t ready for that,” he says.
Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss headline EW’s ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ cover.Dan Winters for EW
She explains that “the story [forResurrections] exploded rather fully formed” from her mind.
They have no apparent memory of their past, yet Neo is haunted by it.
(There’s also a quite meta treatment of that very question in the film.)
Bugs (Jessica Henwick) leads Neo (Keanu Reeves) back down the rabbit hole in ‘The Matrix Resurrections.'.Murray Close/Warner Bros.
“Art is a mirror,” Wachowski writes.
I made this movie for them.”
It was Lana’s deep connection to the characters that resonated with her stars.
Jonathan Groff and Keanu Reeves spar in ‘The Matrix Resurrections.'.Murray Close/Warner Bros.
Reeves remembers the conversation when Lana first told him about her idea for another sequel.
A leap of faith?
We have a lot of faith in that leap."
Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reunite for ‘The Matrix Resurrections,’ 18 years after the original trilogy ended.Dan Winters for EW
She sat down at a table with her husband before the shoot to discuss it.
“He’s like, ‘You really gonna do this?’
And I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely.
“But Scott set up a situation where we could do it.
So, we did.”
“But I also enjoyed that challenge.”
Henwick had her own leap of faith to take.
Neither role was guaranteed.
“It was a red-pill/blue-pill moment for me,” she says.
Abdul-Mateen credits Reeves for “pushing us and setting the standard” for the work.
“When our fight was over, I felt deeply connected to him in a physical way.”
To the two actors who know her best, Lana felt like a different director in some ways.
It was less about prep and more about everyone’s readiness to find the unexpected in the moment.
Reeves confesses they “barely rehearsed, if at all.”
In other ways, working onResurrectionswas like reuniting with an old friend.
Once Lana called “Action!”
Moss says she went right back to where she was with Reeves in the original movie.
“He has a masterful understanding of action.
I’ve watched him grow in the last 20 years.
I’m in awe of it.”
Reeves shakes his head back and forth as she speaks, silently protesting.
“But you’ve got a flavor,” he responds.
“It’s Trinity!
It’s Carrie-Anne Moss, Trinity flavor.
All the fierceness and mind, focus, commitment is there in the gestures.
Untamed and wild and controlled.”
After all these years, it’s still a flavor we can’t get enough of.
They push through the studio’s back exit, flooding the darkened room with afternoon sunshine.
But that’s not quite it.
“They’re taking a cigarette break,” a crew member says.
In this universe, even the most casual of exits looks cool.
Motion direction and photography by Dan Winters for EW.
