Neil Patrick Harris Describes an 'Intimate' Experience Filming Next 'Matrix' Blockbuster
Out actor Neil Patrick Harris described what he called a "very intimate" filmmaking experience with openly transgender "Matrix 4" director Lana Wachowski.
In an interview with Variety's Marc Malkin, Harris talked about how Wachowski's approach to the upcoming blockbuster was totally different to what he would have expected.
"You would think that a giant movie would be 100% storyboarded, animatics, and we'd be checking off shots," Harris said. "I think she lived that before three times over, and I would suspect that she wants to do things her own way now."
Harris went on to add: "It wasn't often that you felt that you were doing something gigantic because she made it feel very intimate."
As an example, Harris talked about the way Wachowski was "filming on the fly, filming using natural light" when in production on the eagerly-awaited sequel, which is expected to open in theaters later this year.
"Sometimes you'd sit around for an hour waiting for the clouds to clear, and then you'd quickly film," Harris recalled, saying that this approach was Wachowski's "sweet spot".
"You'd film pages at a time in 30 minutes and then be done."
That doesn't mean "The Matrix 4" is being produced with anything less than the same groundbreaking vision that gave the original films such impact. Star Jessica Henwick teased fans last year by saying that Wachowski "is doing some really interesting things on a technical level" that, Henwick predicted, will "change the industry again".
The original "Matrix" trilogy remains a landmark, popularizing the idea that the world we live in may be nothing more than a digital simulation. In looking back on the first three films for "Netflix Film Club" last year, Lana's sister Lilly Wachowski talked about the "trans narrative" of the films, and how they allowed the characters - and, by extension, the audience - to engage with different aspects of their own identities.
Lilly Wachowski discussed one character in particular who embodied the "trans narrative," Switch, who was originally intended to be one gender in the computer-generated world of The Matrix, but the other gender in the dystopian real world. That, however, was not to be, because "the corporate world wasn't ready for it." Switch ended up being female in both worlds.
Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss, who starred in the original trilogy, return for the newest installment in the franchise. Neil Patrick Harris was not in the original trilogy; neither were out actors Jonathan Groff and Brian J. Smith, who are also in the new film, though Smith was in the Wachowski's television series "Sense8."
Harris is also featured in another high-profile upcoming project, the five-part HBO Max series "It's A Sin" by British writer Russell T. Davies, the creator of the original UK version of "Queer As Folk."