t's been four years since a young hacker named Neo learned the answer to the question that drove him: What is the Matrix? On May 15, Neo (Keanu Reeves) and his rebel friends re-entered the virtual world in the most anticipated movie of the year: The Matrix Reloaded, the first of two sequels to open in 2003, completing the story of the war against the machines. (The third installment, The Matrix Revolutions, opens in November.) Writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski are again behind the camera; they shot the two movies back to back for nearly a year in Sydney, Australia, and in Alameda, Calif.
Returning with Reeves are Carrie-Anne Moss, reprising the role of Neo's true love, Trinity, and Laurence Fishburne as the prophecy-haunted Morpheus. Joining the cast are newcomers Jada Pinkett Smith, as the intrepid Capt. Niobe, and Monica Bellucci as the mysterious Persephone. Joel Silver again produces.
In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo, Trinity and Morpheus must deal with a new threat, a vastly increased Machine Army, which has discovered the location of the last human settlement, Zion. At the same time, Neo takes a journey to discover his true destiny and his role in the salvation—or destruction—of Zion.
Reeves, Moss, Fishburne, Smith, Bellucci and Silver all took a moment recently to speak with Science Fiction Weekly about The Matrix Reloaded. (The Wachowski brothers, famously, don't do press interviews.)
Keanu Reeves, how tough was it physically to do this sequel?
Reeves: It took a lot of training, the usual four or five months before, and then just training while [shooting]. I would have a fight, do some acting, the choreography would come in, and then the training with that. I mean, it's demanding, but it's also one of my favorite parts of the piece.
Did doing the first one help?
Reeves: Oh, certainly. Yeah. I mean, I was a lot better, more proficient at the wire work, and also it seemed that I was able to catch on to the choreography much quicker. When they would come in with the choreography for the fights, I was able to just pick it up. I guess, just because my body had the memory of those kinds of movements and knew how to kind of absorb them.
In one major fight, Neo battles with dozens of Agent Smiths, all played by Hugo Weaving. What was it like to do that?
Reeves: It was great. I got to work with 12 of the stuntmen. So for three weeks we just did that, the fight. The other thing was just trying to learn the weapons [in another fight]. There was a lot of different weapons: The scythes and the swords. ... There was a lot to learn. So I was busy.
Your new costume looks like a clerical outfit.
Reeves: I think that's what they were going for. ... It really does inform a lot of the character. It's so iconoclastic. I have something like 23 different versions of that costume, depending on the lighting, the fighting, the acting, rain or no rain. But ... when I put it on, it's like, "OK. Neo in the Matrix."
This movie is more philosophical than the first. Do you think that the brothers wanted to make a more philosophical movie the first time?
Reeves: I disagree with you. Certainly, the narrative of the first one is straighter. ... You're following Thomas Anderson, Neo. I don't know if the ideas are so straight ahead in terms of dual realities and what is reality? And what is truth? And what is fate? And dealing with man and technology, and what is A.I? And what is the real? And if real is just sensory perceptions, why can't the Matrix be as real? And the whole aspect of trying to find an authentic life. I don't know if that's so straight ahead.
The first movie was kind of a messiah story.
Reeves: And I think that's still alive. Reloaded is much more ambitious. It fractures out. It splinters out, and there's many more ... stories being told. There's a lot of new characters and things.
How comfortable was it doing the love scenes with Carrie-Anne Moss?
Reeves: Those scenes are tough, but also everyone really cultivated a lovely environment for us to perform it in. There's nice support from the crew and from the brothers. We worked it out a little bit before we did it. And then Carrie-Anne and I have a great trust between each other, so it was great to share that. And it's also, it's great to love someone. So with Neo and Trinity and to go into that scene and like to be able to open up and like give that to someone and to share that with someone and to get it from someone is a beautiful day, you know? And we tried to do that, to get that on screen.
Carrie-Anne Moss, was this movie as fun to make for you as the last one?
Moss: It was even more fun. It just was harder, just because I knew what to expect. The first time I didn't know what to expect, so it was sort of that ignorance-is-bliss kind of thing. But no, it was incredible. It was the greatest experience.
But you broke your leg?
Moss: I broke my leg right away. Week one. I broke my leg on a wire. ... I broke my leg in the first week of training. It was a challenge to overcome right off the bat, because I came in really gung-ho and really ready to do it, and then I got an obstacle given to me right in the very beginning. But I'm all for obstacles to overcome.
That's a big obstacle.
Moss: Well, we were training. We trained for six months before we started shooting.
How long did you have to sit out for?
Moss: Six to eight weeks I sat out. But I came to work every day and watched them train and did what I could.
You didn't get pregnant while you were doing this? [Moss is expecting her first child this year.]
Moss: Oh, no. No, no, no. I just got pregnant a few months ago.
Your character has revolutionized how women are seen in movies. How do you feel about being the pioneer?
Moss: Well, I never really think of myself as the pioneer, because I guess I look at people like Sigourney Weaver, and there were so many women that came before me. I don't know how I feel. I definitely acknowledge that The Matrix and that Trinity has an impact on female action-oriented characters in television and in film. And I think it's awesome, and I think it's a big testament to the brothers much more than it is to me. I'm just the hired gun.
Did you keep Trinity's shiny latex outfit?
Moss: No, I didn't. But the brothers gave me a gift, which was, they encased in glass my coat, my jacket and the glasses and some photographs of my journey on the movie. You plug it in, it's like a light. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it's pretty cool.
Can you talk about your love scene with Keanu?
Moss: I was pretty nervous about it, leading up to it. And then in the end, Keanu's a good friend of mine. I trust him. I respect him. I like him. The brothers were right there telling us what they wanted. It was important to execute the scene as I would any other scene, to give it the truth of what it needed to have. The relationship between Neo and Trinity, their love is important to me, that that is there in the film. I thought it turned out beautiful and tasteful.
Did they put the plugs in you? [Reeves and Moss perform the scene sans clothing, revealing electronic "plugs" from their pod lives.]
Moss: Yeah. That was hours of prosthetics before we would shoot every day. ... It's kind of erotic in a way, too, because you're kind of like, "What is that? What did I just see?" You're not seeing any body parts, but you're seeing these plugs.
Reloaded has a massive freeway chase scene, in which you ride a motorcycle.
Moss: It's such a great scene. We shot that in Oakland, [Calif.,] and I asked the brothers why, and one of the reasons that they shot it in Oakland [was], first of all, they built ... a two-mile freeway. ... It was such a dangerous scene that they really needed to have the best stunt people in the world, and we happen to have them here in America. So that's one of the reasons that they did it there. ... It was ... a very dangerous scene, and you really could feel that every day that you went out there, that you couldn't be airy, spacey. You had to be really focused. And I trained for a month to learn how to ride a motorcycle. I have a major fear of them. I have a major fear of going at fast speeds without any kind of protection: no helmet and an actor on the back with no helmet. And I felt very afraid to do it. But I love that I did and that I overcame the fear and was able to do that.
I did have a stunt double for really dangerous stuff. But it was important to the brothers that they had those shots of me to establish me on the bike, and they wanted me to do as much as I could do. And when they want something, and they want a lot, they want everything from you, and you want to give it to them, because you love them and you respect them so much.
Laurence Fishburne, in one scene, Morpheus addresses the crowd in Zion and appears very kinglike.
Fishburne: The interesting thing is, he is a classical character. ... I can tell you that the speech in Zion was like being on stage. I was playing to 1,500 people. ... It was wonderful. Oh, it was fun. It was great.
What attracts you to the character?
Fishburne: I was really attracted to the piece because of the ... dual-reality thing. I was really, really fascinated by the idea that there was a Real World, and then there was another world that existed inside your head. And that means that anything's possible. Because if you can imagine it, you can do it. So I thought that that was the thing that really hooked me about the piece. And the character, the wonderful thing was he didn't die. And I die a lot in the movies. And here it was, I got to play this character who is a major force, and I didn't have to snuff it, so that was good.
This is a lot different from the first one.
Fishburne: It's a little bit more complex. I mean, it takes you to the next level, if you will. It's deeper. And so the third movie will be even deeper, because I think the third movie, 60 percent of it takes place in the Real World.
You do a fair amount of fighting this time around as well. Was the training harder this time around?
Fishburne: Yeah.
How come?
Fishburne: Because I was older.
Did you get injured on this?
Fishburne: I had a hyper-extended wrist about four or five weeks into the training. Slowed me down a little bit.
Has Keanu changed over the period that you've known him?
Fishburne: Yeah. He's a lot lighter. ... He's a lot less guarded.
There are a lot of people of color in this film, as big as it is. Is that something deliberate on the part of the directors?
Fishburne: Yeah. It is. It's absolutely deliberate. ... I think the brothers are trying to reflect the world that they live in. We all live in a world that's full of color. And TV, unfortunately, doesn't like to deal with it that way. And a lot of times the movies don't like to deal with it that way. But these guys are people who live in the real world and want to reflect the world that they live in. So they tried to be as inclusive as they could be. And I have to applaud them for that.
Do we see more of you and Jada Pinkett Smith together in the next film? [Morpheus has a history with Niobe.]
Fishburne: Yeah. You get to see kind of what their relationship is like.
Jada Pinkett Smith, can you describe your character, Niobe?
Smith: The boys would refer to her as the Han Solo of the movie. You know what I mean? She ain't about no bullsh-t. Excuse my language, but she's not for a whole bunch of mess. You know what I mean? And that's one of the things I loved about her character. And I mean, you'll get to see more facets of her personality in the video game [Enter the Matrix] and in the next movie. Because right now, in this one, watching it, I was like, "Damn. She's just hard." But it's just because you're only seeing part of her story right now. You see more of her story in the next one.
What was the worst part of the physical training?
Smith: I think maybe the weight training was really difficult for me. But as far as the kung fu training was concerned, loved the wires, loved the kung fu team. I love the whole process. The stretching was bad.
How long ago was this after you had a baby?
Smith: I started two months after Willow was born.
How did this happen for you? Did the Wachowskis write Niobe with you in mind?
Smith: They did, actually. I met the Wachowskis ... several times for the first Matrix. Saw the storyboards. Saw the script. So when two and three came around, they basically said, "We have this character that we created for you, Niobe. Only problem is that you're nine months pregnant." So they worked it out so that it could work for me, which I'll be forever grateful for. ... They just pushed some things back that they felt like might be too strenuous physically until they felt like I was really strong enough.
Do you have a lot more to do in Revolutions?
Smith: I don't know. ... I'm getting kind of a better gauge after seeing this. There are some things that I thought were in this movie that weren't. And some things that I thought weren't going to be in this movie that were in this movie. I'm not clear. I've got to see the video-game movie. [Niobe is the main character in the upcoming Enter the Matrix video game.] Because you have to understand, we have three different scripts going on, so I'm not sure where they're putting stuff. They're spreading stuff around.
Aaliyah was going to play the role of Zee when she died in a plane crash during production. How did that affect you?
Smith: That was tough. That was tough on all of us, just as a whole. ... You talk about shaking up some faith. You talking about diving into like some of these concepts in this movie. And I just felt like, what a brilliant light to take so fast.
Monica Bellucci, how did you get involved in this movie?
Bellucci: It happened because [the Wachowskis] saw Malena [Bellucci's 2000 breakout film]. Actually the way [Persephone] dressed was like Malena. Like a woman from the '40s. And they saw the film, they wanted to meet me, and we did the casting, and I did the test, like all the actresses, and they chose me, and I was very happy. Very happy, because I'm a big fan of Larry and Andy Wachowski from when I saw Bound. And then, of course, when I saw The Matrix I fell in love like everybody. ...
As I say all the time, this film is much more than a beautiful, visual movie. There is ... a deep meaning. It's a man who is looking inside himself. Like when the Keymaker said, "I'm here because I have to be here." I'm here because my story, what I am ... means something. Like all of us. There is something very religious about the movie.
You first met Keanu Reeves on Bram Stoker's Dracula. In Reloaded, you got to kiss him again.
Bellucci: We kissed for two days. ... It was fine. It was fun to me. It worked, because we talked. We didn't know how they wanted the kiss. And they're getting very close, and then closer and then closer. So they wanted to do the kiss from many points of view. It's a real fake kiss. It was acting. It's so funny, because in the business sometimes you have to go so intimate with someone that you don't know very well. ...
Actually, I met Keanu a long time ago, eight, nine years ago, when I did Dracula, and I was still a model at the time. And also at the time I had to kiss him. So it's incredible. Each time I meet him, I'll be kissing him. Maybe in eight years we're going to do another film together.
In Reloaded, Persephone is a woman scorned.
Bellucci: I love this character. ... Persephone, as you know, I'm sure, in the Greek mythology, she was the daughter of the king of the gods and the goddess of fertility, Demeter. And she was kidnapped by the king of the underworld, Hades, to be his queen. And she was allowed to come back into the living world just part of the year. And this means a lot. It's like a woman who is between two worlds some ways. ... [This Persephone is] like a vampire of emotions. So there is something really tragic, really sad about her, because she doesn't have any feelings. She can have feelings just through the others, which is something horrible. There's something tragic.
Joel Silver, what can you tell us about Keanu's performance?
Silver: The thing about Keanu is that he's so passionate about everything he does that he wants just everything to be perfect. I said a couple days ago, and I told him I said this ... I've made three films now with Jet Li, and I'm not trying to incite anything, but I think that Keanu could take him. ... And Keanu always says, "Don't say that." ...
One of the things the boys wanted to do is ... they didn't want to have to say, "OK, now we'll cut [the fight scenes] down here." They want to go as long as they want. ... At the same time Keanu wanted to go as long as he could. So he would do 20 combinations, which is outrageous. ... [In] what we refer to as the "burly brawl" [in which Neo fights 100 Agent Smiths,] ... there were a lot of guys there, and [Reeves is] moving at a constant pace. And he just wants it to be perfect. He wanted to make [the fights] longer and longer and longer.
Were you concerned that this movie has so much conversation and philosophy?
Silver: No. I mean, I think the movie has all things for all people. I think it has fantastic action beats, I think it has a great love story, and I think it has a lot to think about. I think it does drag you back into the theater to see it again, but when you see it again a lot of it is a little clearer.
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