The Matrix Resurrections star, Jonathan Groff, thought he peed himself while filming a a scene. The actor known for David Fincher's Netflix series, Mindhunter, and his portrayal of King George in Hamilton, stars in the upcoming Matrix movie as Smith, a dastardly sentient program, originally played by Hugo Weaving, whose purpose is to destroy Zion and prevent humans from escaping the titular virtual world. Resurrections' cast also includes Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, and Christina Ricci.
Groff isn't the only one portraying a character originated by a different actor. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as an alternate version of Morpheus, the hacker originally played by Laurence Fishburne in the original trilogy, who helps free Neo (Reeves) from the Matrix and realize his fate as The One. In addition, Priyanka Chopra Jonas stars as an older version of Sati, an exile program who met Neo before the end of the Machine War. The character was first portrayed by Tanveer K. Atwal in The Matrix Revolutions.
During an interview for EW's Around the Table series alongside his Matrix Resurrections co-stars, Reeves, Chopra Jonas, and Moss, Groff shared a bizarre story that happened while on set that ended with him thinking he wet his pants. The scene in question involved an action sequence in an office setting in which Groff's character points a gun at Reeves' Neo and yells the familiar line, "Mr. Anderson!" all while the ceiling sprinklers are showering the room. After they cut, Groff thought he peed himself, though Moss clarifies that he didn't actually do it. Read how Groff told the story below:
When it was over, I was like, "I think I wet my pants. I think I peed myself." You know when you pee yourself you feel that, like, hot urine? ... But then, it didn't go away. When you pee yourself, it's hot for a second and then it gets cold, and so [the sensation] sustained. Then I thought one of the shells from the gun had come down my shirt, which they warn you might happen. I was reaching down there looking for this shell but it wasn't down there. But for like 10 minutes, I had this heat emanating from my [groin].
With The Matrix Resurrections' release right around the corner, the cast have been sharing various amusing anecdotes that occurred on set throughout the press tour. For instance, Reeves recently revealed that he and Moss jumped off a 46-story building for one of the film's most death-defying stunts. Luckily, Groff wasn't involved in that scene, as that feat might have actually caused him to wet his pants out of fear.
It's currently unclear why Groff and others are portraying different versions of characters first introduced in previous movies, rather than bringing back the original actors as in the case of Reeves and Moss. It is known that Resurrections finds Neo livingly a seemingly ordinary life again with no memory of the previous films, meaning his mind will have to be reopened to the truth of the Matrix yet again. All will be revealed when The Matrix Resurrections debuts in theaters and HBO Max on December 22.
Source: EW
