The Matrix 4 star Carrie Ann Moss recently revealed that she started receiving scripts for grandmother roles after she turned forty. While steadily working in the industry, Moss acquired fame after being cast in The Matrix in 1999. A science-fiction thriller starring Keanu Reeves, the blockbuster film follows computer programmer Thomas Anderson as he rebels against a simulated reality. Along the way, he teams up with Trinity (Moss), a clever survivor with a few tricks up her sleeve. Upon its release, Moss’s breakout role as Trinity garnered critical acclaim.
Over the years, many female actors have spoken up against the realities of sexism and ageism in Hollywood. In previous interviews, Jennifer Aniston has discussed the pressures to appear ageless in the industry. Pamela Adlon has similarly noted that roles for her began drying up soon after she entered her forties. In turn, casting younger actors to play the mothers of their male peers has also received greater scrutiny. In 2004, twenty-nine-year-old Angelina Jolie played the matriarch to twenty-eight-year-old Colin Farrell in the film Alexander. Going back even farther in the canon of cinema, Jessie Royce Landis was Cary Grant’s mother in the 1959 spy thriller North by Northwest, despite both actors being the same age.
According to ComicBook.com, Moss herself experienced the abrupt change in acting opportunities upon reaching forty. She described the jarring moment of realizing how Hollywood now perceived her quite differently due to her age:
"I had heard that at 40 everything changed. I didn't believe in that because I don't believe in just jumping on a thought system that I don't really align with. But literally the day after my 40th birthday, I was reading a script that had come to me and I was talking to my manager about it. She was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, it's not that role…it's the grandmother.’ I may be exaggerating a bit, but it happened overnight. I went from being a girl to the mother to beyond the mother."
As Moss revealed, she was no longer allowed to even audition for younger parts because of her age. At the same time, Moss noted that she still hoped to embody the confidence of other women in the industry, explaining, "I would look at these French and European actresses, and they just had something about them that felt so confident in their own skin. I couldn't wait to be that.” She added, “I strive for that. It's not easy being in this business. There's a lot of external pressure." Despite these hard truths, Moss will be returning to the role that made her a fan favorite across the globe, starring as Trinity once again in The Matrix 4.
As has been shown time and again, Hollywood certainly requires a systemic re-haul of its overall structure. Repeatedly, women have come forward to push for meaningful change in the entertainment industry, citing their own experiences as proof of broader bias and discrimination rooted in misogyny. Hopefully, this call for revolutionizing Hollywood’s mode of practice, including Moss's candid interview for The Matrix 4, helps transform the business and leads to a greater breadth of nuanced, inclusive storytelling.
Source: ComicBook.com
