The pre-production on The Matrix is one of those infamously convoluted Hollywood stories that tend to expand out into legend over the years, with some of the planet’s biggest stars—Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Will Smith, among others—all passing on attaching themselves to an extremely convoluted script, pitched to them by a largely unknown writing-directing sibling team whose only previous credit was a mostly unseen lesbian noir thriller. But the Wachowskis eventually managed to lure in Keanu Reeves, five years out from his last big-budget hit, Speed, and the rest is noodle-baking, bullet-dodging action movie history.
But as it turns out, Reeves wasn’t even the first member of the Speed cast that film exec Lorenzo di Bonaventura offered the part of Neo to. Desperate to find someone with enough star power to convince his colleagues at Warner Bros. to greenlight the film, di Bonaventura also turned to Reeves’ old pal Sandra Bullock, offering to make Neo a woman if it meant a big name like Bullock would sign on for the script. Bullock—who later said she was also offered the part of Trinity—turned the part down, but it’s a fascinating what-if: What would The Matrix even look like with Bullock in that lead role?
A big part of what makes Neo “work” as a protagonist, after all, is the laconic blankness Reeves brings to the role, a passivity that makes him the perfect recipient for the series of expositional speeches that make up the movie’s big, swing-for-the-fences twist. Bullock is an aggressively expressive actor—bordering on feisty—to the point that it’s hard to imagine her just standing there and “taking it” while Morpheus rambles on about batteries and pills. (On the other hand, we’d love to see her and Carrie-Anne Moss decked out in leather, taking apart a building lobby in glorious slow-motion.)
In any case, Bullock turned it down, telling The Wrap—which talked to di Bonaventura about all this—that “ultimately the right person was cast.” Which, fair enough. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love to see her moves on the Zion party-orgy dance floor.
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I think Keanu is good for sci-fi roles because his robotic blankness and ambiguously ethnic look give him a certain futuristic quality.
Based on his timeless looks and generally robotic demeanor, I’m like 93% sure Keanu Reeves is actually a cyborg.
This story just made me think of Carrie-Anne Moss with the pixie cut and the leather… ooh lawd!
Fun fact: in 1993 she was on the cast of a short-lived Canadian TV show called Matrix.
That’s what the Matrix would have us believe.
Interesting. Like how George Clooney was in a short-lived mid-80s TV show called E/R.
You’re thinking of the original Roseanne!
He played angst Ted in “RIver’s Edge” also. An excellent if not depressing movie.
Maybe she did. Maybe the Matrix told our brains that she looks like Keanu Reeves.
It would have made that movie even gayer than Fishburne and Reeves
I just saw a YouTube vid by Marcus Chong (who played Tank in the original Matrix) chronicling his career and discussing how things went south with the Wachowskis (he was cut out of the sequels, he took them to court…)Weirdest part for me was watching that clip of him and Jack Coleman (who you know as Stephen from Dynasty and/or The Cheerleader’s Dad from Heroes) on Broadway in the 80s – rapping!
We can be very thankful they decided to just recast Capheus from Sense8 rather than doing this again. I still don’t get why they even bothered creating a new character rather than just having Harold Perrineau take over the role.
Funny you mention Capheus cos I almost commented above that if Marcus Chong and Aml Ameen were to end up cast in the same movie together, you know nights after shooting would be spent knocking back drinks and exchanging war stories of being on Wachowski sets.I’m actually glad they made Harold Perrineau a whole other character -I find recasts distracting, and in this case the two actors look nothing alike. For Sense8 they had no choice but to recast – given the show wouldn’t be the same as Sense7. In both cases I preferred the original actor in the role.(I’m trying to think of a show where I much preferred the replacement – so for the second time in a Matrix thread I’m going to bring up … Jack Coleman as Stephen 2.0 in Dynasty)
Keannu Reeves was so right for that part. I’m trying to think of another actor who could play that character with the same level of blank slate he brought to it. Someone who could deliver the “I know kung fu.” line with that same sense of vacant surprise. January Jones is the only name I can come up with.
I think Summer Glau could have pulled it off. She can dial down her expressiveness rather a lot when the role demands it.
She would have been too young at the time.
This is one of those rare AV Club stories where the ending is “the white guy was cast and thank God.”But yeah, in all seriousness, I don’t know how you do the part of Neo without having it be a blankness-bordering-on-Zen-calm kinda actor.
Keanu’s hapa.
if true detective season 3 was any indicator ali could havealso:mark wahlberg (but that wouldve been terrible)guy pearceryan goslingron livingston
ron livingston…I could see it.
i was speaking to actors who are more deadpanned in their characters. as for dodging bullets and wearing a duster….?
Kurt Russel could do it. After seeing him in Soldier, I could see him doing the role.
Balsa Boy could have done it better.
So the directors of Bound direct the Matrix with Sandra Bullock and Carrie Anne Moss as love interests while wearing tight leather jumpsuits as The Chemical Brothers play in the background? Damn.
I’m guessing it’d pretty much be Demolition Man?
“She doesn’t know how to use the three seashells!”
The story i always heard is that it was David Duchovny that was supposedly first choice for the Neo role.
Too old, but I could definitely see Mulder’s laid-back, zen attitude being used well in the role.
#feisty
I’m too busy thinking about Sandra Bullock as Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula!
So in the alternate universe where we got Sandra Bullock in The Matrix, would we have also gotten Jane Wick?
I just watched The Matrix and The Crow back to back (was feeling nostalgic for the 90s, I guess) and I kept thinking Brandon Lee would have made an interesting Neo if he hadn’t died in 1993.
‘Laconic blankness’is a learned skill among actors and Bullock could have mastered it easily enough if told to. It has to do with film theory that the audience will transfer their own emotions onto a blank canvas. Blank = worried, blank = tense, blank = enraged, etc. We can tick off the names of well known actors who use this.
Bullock as Trinity? No.
Bullock as Neo? Yes.
Neo: I thought… I though you were a guy.Trinity: Most guys do.Neo: But I’m not a guy.Trinity: I thought you were a guy.Neo: Most guys do.Trinity: But I’m not a guy.