This Would’ve Been a Different Movie
MovieStillsDb
Keanu Reaves was not the first choice for the iconic role of Neo. That honor goes to Will Smith, who turned the role down. The former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star once posted a video to Facebook where he describes, “The Wachowskis came in and it was like, they had only done one movie. There’s a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting. So, this is the actual pitch that they made for The Matrix.”
Smith then flips his hat backward, puts on a slow voice, and imitates the Wachowskis’ pitch: “So dude, imagine like, you’re in a fight and then you like, jump. Imagine if you could stop… jumping… in the middle of the jump. But then people could see around you 360 while you’re jumping. And then we’re gonna invent these cameras and then people can see the whole jump, while you stop in the middle of the jump!”
What movie did Smith make instead? That would be…Wild, Wild West. Whoops!
Being One With The Matrix
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Even though Keanu Reeves was perfect for Neo, the action star didn’t just walk on set and steal the show from the jump. He put in Christian Bale-like dedication before filming. In preparation for the scene where Neo wakes up in the pod like a newborn baby out of the womb, Reeves lost 15 pounds and shaved his whole body to give the character an emaciated appearance. But it wasn’t just the physical side of the role that he had to prep for. Reeves, as well as the other actors in the film, had to not only understand but explain the Matrix as a philosophy to the Wachowskis.
A Physical Toll
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Before filming on The Matrix commenced, Keanu Reeves nearly lost the role of Neo. Say what?! Reeves explained in The Art of Action podcast:
“I had spent a couple of years fighting it, I was getting tingles. I had a disc bulge and also a ruptured disc, and I started losing feeling and balance. I said yes to Matrix and four months into the training, but it was pretty bad so I went to a neck doctor and I also had spinal stenosis, my spine was being mutilated, basically. I never told anyone because I didn’t want to tell anyone I couldn’t do the movie.”
Reeves’ tight lips didn’t fool Stunt Coordinator Woo-Ping in pre-production training when the star was unable to kick much during training. If you look closely, Reeves is rarely seen kicking during the film.
Putting In The Work!
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Keanu Reeves wasn’t the only actor putting it all on the line. Carrie-Anne Moss’s legendary kick-butt opening fight scene as Trinity reportedly took six months of training and reportedly four days to shoot. The actress performed the entire scene and all the wire stunts herself. Okay, that’s pretty awesome, but let’s throw in that Moss twisted her ankle while filming one of her scenes and didn’t tell anyone out of fear of being re-cast. Just how much acclaim did all of this hard work net her? Moss said that after the film was released, she had to wear sunglasses everywhere otherwise she would’ve been immediately recognized.
Color Schemes
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Ever notice anything different between the scenes that took place in the real world versus the “Matrix” world? Maybe it was just a feeling? Well, that’s because all the scenes in the Matrix world have a green tint. The scenes taking place in the real world displayed a blue tint. This was because the Wachowskis thought blue was more akin to color found in real life. The Wachowskis didn’t stop there. The directors included scenes that didn’t fit their description of the Matrix or the real world, such as the memorable fight scene between Morpheus and Neo. That scene was tinted in yellow!
Costume Brilliance
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The film was a huge box office success, netting over 460 million dollars on a 63 million-dollar budget. Hmm… $63 million seems semi-cheap considering all of the state-of-the-art technology utilized to make the ground-breaking film. So where did the Wachowskis cut costs? According to costume designer Kym Barrett, Trinity’s costume was made with cheap PVC because of the much tighter budget. Similarly, Neo’s coat wasn’t an expensive fabric. It was said to be a wool blend purchased for little cost. Barrett did a masterful job and earned enough credibility that when filming subsequent Matrix films, actors had to come to her home to do their fittings to accommodate the birth of her newborn daughter.
International Issues
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Although the scenes in The Matrix are intended to depict the United States, the film was actually shot in Sydney, Australia. This wasn’t easy for the movie’s location scouts. Some of the less-savory sets were said to have been created from scratch. However, this wasn’t the only hiccup caused by location scouting. The film was nearly shut down when the Wachowskis had the brilliant idea to fly a helicopter through restricted Sydney airspace. But just how powerful is the pull of The Matrix? New laws were written in New South Wales to allow for filming to proceed. Now we know who to thank for the film’s historic helicopter scene.
Keeping It Real
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Actors such as Johnny Depp and Adam Driver have a reputation for not watching themselves on screen, and Carrie-Anne Moss is also a member of that group. When Moss saw the first cut of The Matrix, it was the first time she had ever seen herself on screen. So how did that go? Moss explained to Fandomwire.com that, “It was not a fun experience. It was so unnatural looking. I’m a very simple person. I don’t use computers, and all those special effects go against my natural instincts. It was just shocking to see myself so… out there.”
Important Influences
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Carrie-Anne Moss was not the only actor taken aback after seeing themselves on-screen in The Matrix. The first time Laurence Fishburne saw the film, he thought his character was terrifying. Hugo Weaving, aka bad-guy Agent Smith, had a much different reaction to his role in the film. Weaving reportedly said that the role was amusing to play. He wanted Smith to sound neither robotic, nor human, and also said the Wachowskis’ deep voices influenced Smith’s own way of approaching the role.
Being Creative
murraymomo/MovieStillsDb
The Matrix almost didn’t get made. The Wachowskis worked on the script for reportedly over five years. It was said that there were even 14 different drafts of the screenplay. While many film executives loved the script, they had difficulty conceptualizing how it would look on screen. This prompted the Wachowskis to hire top storyboard illustrators Steve Skroce and Geofrey Darrow. Upon seeing these monumental storyboards, studio heads got sold on the vision. But what about the colossal budget? To film the movie in the U.S. was estimated at a then-monumental $95 million. Many execs thought big-budget sci-fi was a waste of money at the time. That’s when production figured out it could move to the land down under for less than $65 million!
