Celebrated filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, one half of the famed The Wachowskis alongside her sister Lana, has discussed her departure from Hollywood in recent years with THR.
Wachowski tells the trade that she began losing interest in the creative process of filmmaking following the demanding production schedules of her various studio efforts including co-directing”The Matrix” trilogy, “Speed Racer,” “Cloud Atlas” and “Jupiter Ascending” along with producing “V for Vendetta,” “The Invasion,” “Ninja Assassin” and Netflix’s “Sense8” series.
The failure of ‘Jupiter’ ended the pair’s deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, while Lilly left “Sense8” after the first season – handing over the reigns to Lana who took control on her own for the second season and telemovie finale. Lana is now directing the fourth “The Matrix” film also on her own.
Lilly Wachowski meanwhile took some time out for “personal world-building” and has since gone on to co-write and co-showrun Showtime’s eight episode drama comedy series “Work in Progress”. Speaking about leaving studio filmmaking behind to focus on her wellbeing and happiness, she says:
“I got in when film was at its peak, before boards and marketers found a way to wrangle movies. Eventually, all those people and institutions ended up in the room with you and specifically behind the typewriter and behind the lens and behind the Avid. It created a bit of tension for me personally. I got to this breaking point and I had to walk away.”
Wachowski added that “The Matrix” films themselves were: “born out of a lot of anger and a lot of rage [towards] capitalism and corporatized structure and forms of oppression…[the] seething rage within me was about my own oppression, that I [was forcing] myself to remain in the closet.””
Wachowski, who calls herself an “out and proud trans woman,” added that she now wants to be able to use her platform to tell more LGBTQ+ stories: “I’m getting more queer and trans folks on the screen to show what we’re capable of and what amazing artists we are. That’s a hard thing to give up.”
