MovieChat Forums > The Matrix (1999) Discussion > Why wasn't Carrie-Anne Moss' career so s...

Why wasn't Carrie-Anne Moss' career so successful after The Matrix?

posted 4 years ago by TMC-4 (19392)
17 replies | jump to latest

Do you agree with this summation:
https://www.quora.com/Why-wasnt-Carrie-Anne-Moss-career-so-successful-after-The-Matrix/answer/Dan-Holliday

One of the biggest reasons reasonably famous actors (like CAM) do not elevate to the A-List is that they simply don’t want it. Being that high on the A-List comes with costs. In a far more humble way, Mark Hamill explained this when asked one time about why he didn’t “get” bigger roles. He explained that he was offered whatever role he wanted but that he just didn’t want it.

We tend to look at people who are famous and project our desires/insecurities on to them (not saying you’re doing this) without realizing that they have their own life pressures. Sometimes they realized, “Wait … this just isn’t for me.” So, like Cameron Diaz or Sam Worthington, they just don’t chase it. Sometimes they get a slate of bombs and go away (which is common). But just as often, they simply never chase that life.

If you could work half the year for $2–3 million, be “C-List” or “D-List”, take the supporting roles mostly of your choice and still have a life (no crowds and crazy stalkers all the time) or be like Chris Pratt or Jennifer Lawrence and have to constantly be running from the paparazzi, have an entire office wing of support staff to manage your press and affairs, constantly be having to obsess over your image and sure, you get $30–40 million a year. I’d take the “C-List” any day.

[–] Ace_Spade (9334) 4 years ago

Maybe...

Hamill got typecast, though, and couldn't shake the ghost of Luke Skywalker.

Cameron Diaz was pretty famous, too.

As for Carrie, I think she's got an unusual look for Hollywood. I think she's got a great look, but she's more masculine than a lot of typical leading ladies.

Maybe there was some typecasting there, too?

I don't know if she personally stayed away from it or not.

It's all down to the "next" move, though. Like, she was Red Planet and what? Memento, Chocolat...? Great films, but not the catapult to fame that they might have been. If that was her intent...well...unless there's a quote about it, it's all just speculation.

[–] BooBooCat (652) 4 years ago

Can I go on ONE board on which I wouldn't see one of your click-bait annoying post? 🙄

[–] LiquidOcelot (2300) 4 years ago

Tell me about it, this guy is so annoying.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 4 years ago

I'm trying to figure out what the benefit is for him to create a thread and drop a link and then never actually participate in the discussion.

I feel confident he's getting paid to drive traffic to these sites.

[–] LiquidOcelot (2300) 4 years ago

I'm trying to figure out the same thing. Either he's getting paid or he's just trying to up his post count.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 4 years ago

I suppose it's possible that he could just enjoy dropping some info and then lurking and seeing what kind of discussion results. But that's weird to me.

[–] BooBooCat (652) 4 years ago

Hahaha definitely, I just wrote it at the bottom of the page. It might be a posts count thing as well, like LiquidOcelot said.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 4 years ago

One thing that leads me to believe that he's getting paid is that if you call him out he usually won't respond. That makes it seem like it's just a job he's doing.

I mean, who cares about their post count on MovieChat?

[–] redban (5157) 4 years ago

Was there any reason to suppose that Matrix would elevate her career to A-level?

[–] LiquidOcelot (2300) 4 years ago

Dude, STOP SPAMMING EVERY BOARD WITH YOUR STUPID LINKS. Do you have any thoughts of your own? Honestly someone report this guy to the admins. I don't even understand what his intention is because he's not promoting a single website with his links. I think he's just trying to up his post count which is even more pathetic.

[–] BooBooCat (652) 4 years ago

Yeah, right? It's like if someone was paying him to promote excessively those shitty click-bait gossip links. -.-

If one of those website was mine, I would definitely hire him to promote it for me.

Learn to express yourself and debate with your own arguments or stop posting.

[–] Utpe (658) 4 years ago

You must not have been around when the old boards existed on IMDb. The OP did the exact same thing there for years.

I doubt they're in it for the post count. Seems like a hobby for them more than anything else.

[–] LiquidOcelot (2300) 4 years ago

I was around in the IMDb days, I must've blocked him out of memory. Though the IMDb boards were way busier so someone like him wouldn't stand out as much.

What kind of hobby is that? It's so peculiar.

[–] mitzibishi (1615) 4 years ago

Some of it's interesting. Quite a lot is not.

It is weird that he never participates, I assumed it was a bot posting a never ending supply of movie related links compiled and drip fed into the boards as conversation starters.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

Everything that made her perfect for the role of Trinity worked against her having a big Hollywood career.

As Trinity she seemed mature, intelligent, able to wield authority, and a total badass. Unfortunately, Hollywood is more interested in glam young women who can gaze admiringly at some guy as he does the badass stuff.

[–] TearofLys (2398) 4 years ago

Maybe in the 50s and 60s that was true, but not in the 90s and beyond. GI Jane, Ripley from Aliens, Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight, Thelma and Louise, Clarice Starling, Jackie Brown,Marge Gunderson (Fargo), Ellie Sattler (Jurassic Park)/

Also, I take umbrage with OPs definition for "successful". Carrie Anne Moss may not have been in blockbusters after the Matrix, but she has had steady work as an actress to this very day. Ask any of the thousands of aspiring actresses in Hollywood how hard it is to get even one substantial role in a minor movie, let alone cast as a star in a major studio film. As such, if we are measuring success by number of roles and money made, Carrie-Anne is in the top one-tenth of one percent of all actresses who ever tried their luck in Hollywood....so very successful.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

Then as now, most jobs available to leading actresses involve playing "the girl", where the film is more about what the male character does to get the girl than the girl herself. Of course there were a lot of big female-led films during the 1990s, usually starring Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock, but they did tend to center around girly stuff and wouldn't have suited Moss.

Of course, there were a few roles available for a cool, badass, mature woman... but they all went to Sigourney Weaver. Maybe that was the problem.