Lilly Wachowski Reflects on the Crazy Ideas Inspired by ‘The Matrix’ and the Importance of Moving On
More than 25 years after the release of The Matrix, co-writer and co-director Lilly Wachowski has expressed no surprise at the film’s misinterpretation by right-wing groups.
The film’s infamous “red pill” has inadvertently become a symbol for the MAGA movement, leading Wachowski to reflect on the phenomenon as a manifestation of "what fascism does." In a recent appearance on the podcast So True with Caleb Hearon, she acknowledged the challenge of distancing herself from the interpretations of her work.
"You have to let go of your work. People are gonna interpret it however they interpret it," Wachowski explained. She added, "I look at all of the crazy, mutant theories around The Matrix films and the crazy ideologies that those films helped create and I just go, ‘What are you doing? No! That’s wrong!’ But I have to let it go to some extent … You’re never gonna be able to make absolutely every person believe what you initially intended.”
In a pivotal scene from The Matrix, Laurence Fishburne’s character Morpheus presents Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, with a choice between a blue pill that symbolizes ignorance and a red pill that signifies enlightenment and the truth.
Wachowski has previously remarked that the entire trilogy serves as a metaphor for the transgender experience. During her podcast discussion, she noted, “Right-wing ideology appropriates absolutely everything. They appropriate left-wing points of view and they mutate them for their own propaganda, for their own to obfuscate what the real message is. This is what fascism does. And so, of course, that’s going to happen.”
She further elaborated, “That is what fascism does. It takes these things, these ideas that are generally acknowledged as questions or investigations or truisms about humanity and life, and they turn them to something else so that they remove the weight of what those things represent.”
The red pill’s distortion into a symbol for supporters of Donald Trump during his presidency has prompted Wachowski to publicly address figures like Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump for their misinterpretations of the film.
