You try not to judge the characters you're playing.
— Carrie-Anne Moss
You never know, especially on episodic television, you just don't know week to week what's going to happen.
Not for one second do I not, like, pinch myself that I've had a successful acting career for 24 years. I am so grateful. But it's unfortunate that we live in a society that really puts a lot of pressure on women to look a certain way and to age a certain way. I think that sucks.
I like stories about the world, where we're at. I like to explore humanity. I like to explore my own humanity.
There was a day when doing TV was like, oh my God, the end of your career. Now it's just like, we all want to do TV; we all want to do great TV.
That first year after a child, I kind of just hunker down at home - I surrender to that side of me. I don't try to get my body back or be in the world; I go the opposite way.
I've become a lot wiser over the years.
You're in another reality when you're looking down at your phone, walking across the street, and almost getting hit by a car.
Technology is just so fast. As convenient as it is, it's stressing a lot of us out. It's just too much, too quick. And I'm interested in that conversation.
With scripts I've always looked at them and thought about kids, you know? Thought about the world and the impact... I won't do nudity and I never felt comfortable with that whole idea or things with huge sexual content - not my thing.
As an actor, you really want to respect and honor the script. You want to try to be in the moment and you also realize that you're one part of a bigger picture and when they call action, you have your dance.
When I did the first 'Matrix,' after it came out, I had a woman come up to me and just thank me for Trinity because she was an action writer. She said she was getting really good opportunities now.
I'm such a private person, and sexuality is such a private thing. A sex scene is much harder than a fight scene. It's one thing to say, 'Kick higher,' but 'Kiss harder' - that's just crazy.
Where it gets clear for me about the privacy issue is with my kids because they didn't choose this kind of life. I'm an incredibly open person, though - I'll tell anyone anything.
Eventually I want to be a full-time mother who works occasionally - and being an actor you have that freedom.
I shoplifted. I was about five years old, and I took a candy from a store. We paid for three of them, but I took four, and I went home and cried. My mom took me back, and I paid for the missing piece.
After 'The Matrix,' I cannot wear sunglasses. As soon as I put them on, people recognize me.
It's never a surprise to me that a job that I'm doing reflects what I'm going through or what I'm thinking about.
You'll have a guy, and they're aging however they're aging, and nobody really cares. If you're a woman, it's different.
I think it's great that we're living in a time when everyone is being represented on TV and film.
Every time I hear about a new show, and I see a show that is being created that is nothing like I've ever thought about, I just get so excited about that expansion. Because I started working when 'L.A. Law' was on. It was lawyers and cops.
In real life, I'm the kind of person that if I use Siri, I thank her afterwards.
I remember, when I was modelling in Japan, the agency would tell us that some guy wanted to take all the girls out to dinner, and I would be the one girl who didn't go - I didn't want to go out with a stranger.
I think everything happens at exactly the time it's supposed to.
I think we all have mechanisms that we use, each of us individually, to deal with pain that we've had or just dealing with life or whatever. Everyone's story is different, but we all have some kind of mechanism that we use to deal with stuff, that we create pretty young.
When I was a kid, I didn't know Canadians could be actors. I thought just Americans could get acting jobs.
I don't have any huge desire to show you all that I'm not tough and strong, that I'm all feminine and soft. That's not a huge longing that I have because I know who I am.
When you play a doctor, you have to look like you can do it but you don't actually go and do it. It's not like you learn how to cut open somebody and go do surgery. You have to think of a human being and not play the idea of what that would look like.
I definitely acknowledge that 'The Matrix' and Trinity had an influence on female action-oriented characters in television and in film. I think it's awesome.
I love to play women who are strong and unapologizing and kind of rough around the edges and don't care what anybody thinks about that.
My husband jokes that I'll invite people over for dinner and he won't know who they are or where I met them. But in my work world, I've never really been tempted to tell too much of my story.
I just can't stand the sound of my voice sometimes, or how my face looks. There are always a few times at every premiere when I just have to cover my eyes when I'm up there.
People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.
I've had moments where it's like being in the Matrix.
When I was younger and I was getting older, I remember thinking that if I couldn't do it gracefully, then I would have to quit. You know, looking at yourself aging onscreen, it can bring up stuff. It's one thing to be aging in a job where your looks don't matter, but as an actress, it's so much part of your image.
I've never been attracted to sci-fi per se. People tell me I'm in a genre kind of movie, but it never crossed my mind that 'The Matrix' was genre.
I love storytelling. I love characters that are complicated and layered, real people, that you see why they do what they do.
Parenting takes a lot of creativity, and I embrace it fully.
Modelling asks you to be conscious of your outer self, but with acting, you have to let that go.
It's really hard to make a living as an actor. I'm grateful as I drive to work every morning.
If you think about 'The Matrix' and how high-concept it was, it had these incredible ideas that really penetrated people's consciousness. It really was a film of awakening. I think a lot of people woke up around that film.
To experience life you have to kind of face a lot of fears.
I tend to play strong characters and people just assume that I would want to play romantic comedies, which I would love to do, but there are other women that do it so great and they maybe couldn't do what I do, play the kind of characters that I play.
Are you gonna fuel your faith or fuel your fear? I'm all about fueling my faith, especially when it's hard to do so.
I'm a very simple person. I don't use computers.
I was 30 when I did 'The Matrix.' When you turn 30, your life and your world view change. I remember feeling relieved - it was like I was seeing things in a deeper way.
I don't believe in being typecast. If I believed it, it probably would have happened to me. You attract what you make.
I've never been interested in action movies. Definitely not interested in sci-fi.
For me, the biggest thing is someone who's kind. I'm not into the bad-boy thing.
