Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss on making The Matrix Awakens with Epic Games

i sometimes miss this version of us epic games made an interactive matrix experience to show off its upcoming unreal engine 5 at this year's game awards we sat down with the two stars of the demo and the matrix movies keanu reeves and carrie anne moss to talk about how the technology is blurring the line between what's real and virtual what to expect from the new matrix resurrections movie and a lot more wait can you use unreal and pornography [Music] hi i'm thomas anderson so this interactive experience that you all shot it's very different from a lot of things that have been made before it's using cutting-edge technology i'd love to know what was the process like of of making this the idea was first propositioned to us by lana right and then it was proposition to me doing this presentation utilizing this new technology from epic and that we would be doing a kind of introduction to it right so what was that like doing that opening that she wrote and then also afterwards people don't know if it's the real you or the fake you the idea of doing something like this coming from the writer of the matrix and then taking this technology and you know marrying it and having a kind of you know what's real what isn't real conversation and what can that be and what might it turn into and you know here's kind of here with where we're at for this right and you're fully virtual in this experience what is that like seeing like a fully digital version of yourself like that because you've done games mass effects like but seeing that is it yeah because it's interesting it's trippy to see myself that way keanu the younger version of you they actually took footage from the original trilogy i think they found it in some vault somewhere and recreated it made it modern what was it like seeing like a younger version of yourself like that yeah i mean i kind of have to take my own kind of like oh that doesn't look real or not real but but also just to see the younger version of it yeah it's trippy i have to say just watching it just now and seeing your face more from now to then yeah i think you're even more handsome now oh my god sorry i mean i know i i can't i don't want to take it into that shallow place but i don't know if that is truthfully the idea of aesthetics and beauty is not a shower your likeness could then be used for other things though and that's the crazy concept of this right is that there could be digital versions of you as a performer that could theoretically be used in ways that are not you acting yeah no i mean i think that's part of like what's real not real and who's the architect who's the director of the material right marlon brando said that with the dick donner superman right so he was already thinking about oh wow why you know this is my you already videoed me you already filmed you already put in the computer um so i mean he was ahead of the game too like right now you can have your digital ip like i know for me in films i can't be digitally altered without approval and i did that way back when yeah you know you're kind of licensing in a weird way we're licensing our performances in a way too with editing in the first place right but i guess if you're creating it and like making that avatar then do whatever you want but then you could do multiple projects carry on you could just stay home you could just stay home or perform at a younger age or perform yeah when you're retired or whenever i mean i think that's the whole thing about this kind of world that's becoming more and more real um so you wouldn't need the actual physical experience of making it it could just be done in a computer it's puppetry right it's computer puppetry it's the man you could be wherever you want to be it's interesting what do you think about like the post humorous aspect of it like carrie fisher and star wars where potentially even after you're gone right like your likeness could be used have you thought about like you have that where you have to prove how your likeness is used yeah i mean i know a couple of years back my agency i mean there's agencies now where they'll capture your digital self to create digital content and you know you could perhaps transfer your likeness to the estate right they're already doing that right and there's also an aspect of this where games and movies are melding to a degree right and this experience gets at that a little bit but i mean with unreal i think part of what epic is doing is that you can take objects created for a movie and port them over to a game using the same objects and vice versa that's technology that they're creating so i mean what does that mean for say any movie where you could just make a game out of it and it's the same ip it's the same stuff that you made for the movie yeah yeah i guess it's the plasticity of images i don't know it depends i mean if we're talking from a capitalistic platform you know i think it's always going to be portioned and i think it's always going to be sold so it's just more things to sell i mean i'm sorry more things to create i'm sorry more things to sell but i mean they're also bringing the tool to the to to the user right so you know you could be able to create your you'll be able to license perhaps ips right so does the idea of like making a playable movie is that compelling to either of you yeah i guess so i mean i guess that's not the ending i wanted i don't know you literally can take the pill yourself right yeah i guess what i love about making movies is the being together being all together and that human part of it it's what i love about it that's what i always loved about the matrix was that i always felt so even though people would always assume that so much of it was green screen and so much of it was special effects and yet that wasn't my experience of doing it we did everything you know i feel like it's the first time in a long time that that the real world is almost ahead of our science fiction i mean the whole idea of trying to pursue like when can we make it photo real when can we fool i mean all of the deep fake you know technologies that are happening wow yeah it hurts the mind no no but i mean it's like it's it's it's almost you know it's like we're it's the why right we can't we have to keep the species has to keep creating the species is like oh i can do that let's keep going to do that you know and no one can predict the future i don't i don't know i was having dinner with a friend's house this director and he had some kids and there was like a 13 year old a 15 year old 17 year old and the uh they hadn't seen the film the matrix and so the director was like well why don't you just tell them what it's about so i start to say well there's this guy who's in a kind of virtual world and he finds out that there's a real world and he's really questioning what's real and not real and he really wants to know what's real and the young girl was like why and i was like what do you mean she was like who cares if it's real and i was like but you don't you don't care if it's real and she was like no isn't that wild it's awesome you think it's awesome i mean it's awesome i mean it's awesome i mean yeah this idea of that you know so in a way what you and i are kind of speaking about is kind of like a legacy feeling we're almost like oh you're older versions just let it go i know i'm the mom at the kitchen table like talking about the possibility of like a virtual world for my kids and i'm crying you know like that's how it feels for me but now i just i don't know just kind of like sitting around the table and talking no no but you'll be able to sit around at your table and talking and what if it's not a real table what if i don't know oh you royal or not well that's that's the other question too which which is one of the issues that we're being yeah confronted by very quickly a famous tech investor said something once that really stuck with me he said that for most people the virtual world will be more compelling than their real life so why would you not strap on a vr headset and be able to be with someone across the world at a virtual casino right oh yeah for sure i mean yeah definitely and so like what do you what i don't know what the world looks like when we get there but we're getting there i mean it's happening can we just not have metaverse be like invented by facebook you're not a fan no but just the concept of metaverse is like way older than it is old snow crash yeah it's like a way older and so for that moment to get to i'm just like come on man do you think it's dystopian like the way the original matrix kind of presented all this is like kind of dystopian where tech was headed like do you think the meta versus everyone's talking about it now i mean yeah because it's you know i mean it's also you know it's content creation it's fine it's economic creation right cryptocurrency are either of you into cryptocurrency personally a friend of mine bought some for me a while back so but you haven't done anything with it i haven't had to it's just sitting there appreciate it it's just like it's probably good just it's just it's they call that hotel just to sit there with it it's called hodl when you just don't touch your crypto even if it tanks a little bit you huddle it yeah so you're huddling your equipment yeah i have a little hole um did you guys see the matrix nft thing that they did for resurrections just a couple days ago they know they made uh nfts for the new movie and there were like 100 000 of them and the site broke like in the first few hours because there were over 300 000 people in the queue trying to buy these nfts for 50 um and so like when you think about the concept of digital scarcity and things that are you know they can't be copied that are easily reproduced well but they're not the same right it's not fake version of you i wonder what are do we get a cut of that oh no i don't actually i don't think we're in them they probably did other people you have to take that up with the studio i know there was a leak of the experience on like the playstation server and it got a lot of attention that there was this matrix experience happening that you guys were in and i was looking at the reddit thread where it was posted and everyone was just saying i want a matrix video game i want a modern day you know reimagining of the matrix video well it's so it's ridiculous that there isn't one would you do one if if they came to you and said i mean how i mean aren't there smart people who run these companies aren't they're supposed like the fans really want it right so if they came to you and they said we're going to do it brother's just like where's the ball uh oh you mean the ball you dropped 15 years ago so you would do it if they came to you and said let's do it let's do a full proper video game would you both do it yeah i mean we'd have to read the script i'm sorry i have to read this i'll do whatever he does anyway it's a very exciting time i would love to just kind of talk a little bit about the new movie and hear um kind of what drew you back to this iconic franchise so many years later what was it that got you both was it just a phone call from lana was it that simple for me it was like just like an immediate yes mm-hmm yeah it's lana rachelski yeah same thing totally it was exciting the trailers make it seem like it's a very meta so there's a lot of self-referential stuff going on so it's very funny it's funny yeah and it's it feels like a real experience you go in like this total from the minute it starts you're on this journey and it's it's i i think it's really fun really good romantique very romantic a lot of love great love story still some good old-fashioned matrix social cultural ideological commentary propositions good action good action wonderful performances yeah when you look back at like what the original matrix movies were saying about where tech was headed how does the new movie kind of fit into is it is it looking ahead again like decades out is it you know like is it more in the now is it answering the questions i don't know i mean i think the films have always been a kind of a tool that you could use like you got the matrix tool you know to think about the world you live in to think about the world itself i mean and what are the systems either of control or and then even looking at what love is or you know how we our community um rebellion what do we fight for looking at you know how do you think about self and selfhood and free will and choice and it gives you a way to consider things right and to look at the world and i think resurrections is definitely a tool that we can look at today and will probably take us into tomorrow if you were to think back on the original matrix backstory and canon would it look any different with knowledge of like how tech actually turned out in the year 2021 do you think it was kind of spot on with where we're headed or yeah when you say tech do you mean the idea of a virtual reality that is indistinguishable from reality yeah and you know computers that are approaching or surpassing actually you know human level intelligence right i mean i think even the trilogy gets into artificial identity artificial intelligence and then identity and even then kind of was taking this idea of being i'm going to use archaic but being digital into the real world into flesh and i think resurrections continues that technological concept of cell phone and identity for um i'll just call it artificial intelligence or programs which is kind of what we're doing even now when we're trying to have you know ethics in programs and moral controls and you know the basic version of don't hurt the human mm-hmm google and these big tech companies have ethicists right yeah digital ethics assists would either of you do like a vr project especially as these headsets get better are you interested in that from like a storytelling perspective because i liked your first answer it depends on the script i guess right the story so definitely know that i it's not that i i understand that i don't understand and that's sort of where i'm living i guess right now is being curious and also holding like well for my personal life like what i hold sacred you know which is the real yeah keanu what about you vr storytelling is it is it compelling to you um yeah yeah do you have a vr headset do you use it personally i do i don't um i know that any vr technology that i'm using is five years old and lame i'm sorry never used to be lame it's probably now modernly named lame but uh there's so much kind of data collection tools that are in these experiences to help make the product better [Laughter] being used for medicine of course these advances are important and great um do you play video games no no really no even cyberpunk no i mean i've seen um demonstrations but i've never played it did you know that in cyberpunk there they were hacking a character you were the most requested hack to make um a character that you could have sex with be you be your character yes and it got to a point where the the game developer said no you can't do this because we're not sure if we have permission to do this but i mean now that i have you like what do you think about that oh my god it's always nice when it's nice and you know yeah it was affection i on the other hand say no thank you so that's enough thank you but keanu's buying with us think of how much money is important right so you could not even have to be there and people could have digital sex with your digital avatar what's that what's it called right now for members only you could all do a whole thing oh my god and then you get the suit that's probably made in sweden or some german thing oh my god and then you've got the video i do not live to see this oh my god and then they've got the data on you with your like um your arousal metrics oh my gosh i did not see this conversation right here so then you're in the suit with arousal metrics through your members only metaverse x god help us and so then you're like take everything off and then how do you feel about the relationships you're in right great what is real what is not right but then you hold that real thing and you're like oh i'm so glad we have reality you're gonna be hit up as being like a chief creative officer of some porn tech company now oh my gosh he'd be huge um i'll be the ethicist or whatever well those are my questions i mean i feel like we covered a lot of ground yeah i hope that wasn't too painful no not all right thank you it was fun thank you thank you thank you the marketing people marketing i thought we were supposed to have total creative control welcome to the matrix

Channel: The Verge

Views: 2,039,715

Keywords: matrix, keanu reeves, keanu reeves interview, the matrix, matrix resurrection, matrix resurrections, the matrix resurrections, matrix awakens, carrie-anne moss, matrix reloaded, matrix philosophy, keanu reeves john wick, keanu reeves movies, carrie-anne moss interview, laurence fishburne, epic games, unreal engine 5, the matrix resurrections trailer, movies, games, lana wachowski, game awards, technology, tech, latest, tech news, verge, the verge

Id: 0OK80eljWrs

Length: 18min 55sec (1135 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Loldimorti]

One thing from the tech demo that I don't see being talked about much is temporal super resolution.

Is it just me who was blown away by the insane difference in image quality between it being toggled on and off? Went from super aliased and pixelated to looking really clean

[u/AlejandroSnake]

May I say, I hated how during the Game Awards Geoff made reference to and asked Keanu about his previous involvement in games but did not mention Carrie-Anne's arguably more successful involvement in titles such as Mass-Effect and so on.

[u/chiefrebelangel_]

That demo is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. It's truly the first thing I've seen that feels next gen

[u/melancious]

Surprisingly authentic interview. Keanu is very into this topic.

[u/Biffmcgee]

If we ever do get a matrix game could I get a game where I play as Neo instead of random matrix person?

[u/HiFiMAN3878]

Is there anything to do in the Matrix tech demo once you are given free reigns to wander around the open world?

I was exploring around a bit last night and it definitely looks very impressive. Just wondering if there's anything you can do or anything you can interact with besides parked vehicles.

[u/ballsosteele]

The expression on the pair of them when he starts banging on about "NFTs". They're excellent actors and still unable to hide their "the fuck is this guy on about?"

[u/Demonboy995]

He talks like hes doing sign language

[u/the-pessimist]

I love Carrie-Anne Moss. Keanu is actively spacing out on the idea of virtual selves, VR, and even sex suits and she's just trying to bring him back to Earth. Real life with real people at a real table? Actually sounds pretty nice. Maybe I shouldn't be on reddit.