If you’re a fan of films and roughly my age, then you probably remember the first time you saw “The Matrix.” For me, I remember sitting in the theater, loving every second of the film. And when Neo flies at the very end, leading into the Rage Against the Machine song, my mind was completely blown. Of course, I came back to the theater a couple more times to fully try to wrap my head around what the Wachowskis did with that film. And now, with the sequels in the rearview mirror and a reboot in development (maybe?), it’s fun to look back at the 1999 film with new eyes.
And to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wachowski’s crowning achievement, The Wrap sat with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to discuss the film, and specifically, the incredible laundry list of actors that turned down the role before Keanu Reeves stepped up to the plate and changed his career forever.
“We went out to so many people I don’t remember. We were getting desperate,” di Bonaventura said. “We went to Sandy Bullock and said ‘We’ll change Neo to a girl.’ Joel Silver and I worked with Sandy on ‘Demolition Man’ and she was and continues to be a very good friend of mine. It was pretty simple.”
He continued, “We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it. And if she was interested in it we would try to make the change. It just wasn’t something for her at the time. So really it didn’t go anywhere.”
Sandra Bullock as Neo? At first, that seems completely nuts. But, at the time, she could have definitely pulled off the naive computer programmer type. Given how the series morphed into something really strange in subsequent sequels, the idea of a female Neo would have added a really interesting layer to the lore.
But Bullock wasn’t the only A-lister that was approached before Reeves.
“The first movie star who says yes is Brad Pitt, he’s doing ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ and then he’s coming out of it and he’s like ‘I’m way too exhausted to take this on,’ so he’s gone,” di Bonaventura said. “Then we go to Leonardo [DiCaprio]. He says yes, we have meetings with him and then he goes, ‘You know, I can’t go do another visual effects movie having just finished ‘Titanic,” and he drops out. Then Will Smith joins it and he drops out.”
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Pitt, DiCaprio, and Smith, during the late-’90s, are all obvious choices. The first two actors were at the peak of their heartthrob status and would have brought some interesting energy to Neo. Smith, on the other hand, would have done what Will Smith does. Not sure how that would have worked out, honestly.
However, of all those big names, the one that seems the most interesting would have been Bullock. That being said, obviously, Reeves was a great choice and honestly, let’s hope he sent those actors a gift basket after the film was released.
