‘I said I actually can’t’: Carrie-Anne Moss shares brutal ‘The Matrix’ audition story

Actress Carrie-Anne Moss recently recalled her grueling audition process to secure her iconic role as Trinity in the cult classic The Matrix.

For context, the film’s overall premise, which takes place in a dystopian future, is about artificially- intelligent machines conquering the humans that created them. The Matrix also stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Marcus Chong, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt Doran, and many others.

In a July 18 interview on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, the 55-year-old opened up about the many times she had to audition for the role and the pain she endured during the process. In the discussion, Moss disclosed that she had six different auditions for the part of Trinity, and each piece consisted of various tasks, one of which included “three hours of fighting” and working alongside the wire team. She said, 

“I think I did about six auditions for that and one of the pieces of the audition was three hours of fighting, was action. One part of it was that, getting with the wire team, the Hong Kong team. They would just sort of go through the motions and video tape the person just punching, kicking, doing this [and] doing that.”

Further into the conversation, Moss added that after filming the action sequence and sending it to the director, she was informed that when doing those particular scenes, she didn’t need to put as much force into fighting the individual helping her with the stunts. Because the actress was unaware of the fighting rules, she couldn’t move her body due to the extensive training.

“I remember it always made me laugh that the director said that when they got my video, every time they would cut back to the guy I was fighting, he was padding himself up more and more. I was actually hitting the guy. Like I didn’t know you don’t hit. I mean I don’t know how to do that. I could not walk.”

Moss’ inability to move ultimately became an issue when she had to do the acting audition with Keanu Reeves the day after completing the action sequence, because that scene required her to stand up and walk. She stated while recounting that moment,

“The next day I had the acting audition for it… I was with the directors and I’m sitting in the chair doing one of the big scenes of waking him [Keanu] up I think at the end of the movie and I did it one time. The directors asked me if I could stand up and I said I actually can’t. You think about it right you’re up for a big movie, you’ll do anything right. Like I actually couldn’t. I was in so much pain in places in my body I didn’t even know that you had muscles there. It was intense.”

Since The Matrix‘s theatrical debut in 1999, it earned positive reviews from fans and critics alike and generated over $460 million worldwide. The success of The Matrix led to various sequels, with the last being The Matrix Resurrections in 2021. 

The Matrix films are now available to stream on Max.