When the fourth installment in The Matrix franchise hits theaters, you’ll notice that there will be one director at the helm instead of one. Lilly Wachowski, who has co-created films and TV shows such as The Matrix trilogy, Bound and Sense8, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about why she walked away from Hollywood.
Wachowski said that she began losing interest in the creative process of filmmaking following her demanding production schedule beginning with 1999’s The Matrix, the following sequels which were filmed back to back), the 2012 movie Cloud Atlas, and Netflix’s Sense8 series.
“I got in when film was at its peak, before boards and marketers found a way to wrangle movies,” she says. “Eventually, all those people and institutions ended up in the room with you and specifically behind the typewriter and behind the lens and behind the Avid. It created a bit of tension for me personally. I got to this breaking point and I had to walk away,”
After Sense8 was canceled almost five years ago, Lilly left the industry to do a bit of soul searching. She enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, experimented with stand-up comedy, and started the process of her gender transition.
Lilly explained how the idea of The Matrix was “born out of a lot of anger and a lot of rage” towards “capitalism and corporatized structure and forms of oppression…[the] seething rage within me was about my own oppression, that I [was forcing] myself to remain in the closet.”
Wachowski added that she wants to use her platform to tell more queer stories, such as the comedy Work in Progress, the hit Showtime series which Wachowski executive produces. Work in Progress is Wachowski’s, an “out and proud trans woman,” first venture back into Hollywood.
“I’m getting more queer and trans folks on the screen to show what we’re capable of and what amazing artists we are. That’s a hard thing to give up,” she said.
I love that we have queer people in powerful positions who want to tell compelling stories on the screen, because it’s long overdue. I would love to work with Lilly one day. I also hope with Lana directing the next Matrix film that since there are openly queer actors appearing in the new film (Brian J. Smith, Neil Patrick Harris) that there will be some queer inclusion in the new movie.
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