Filmmaker Andy Wachowski has joined sibling Lana (previously Larry) in coming out as a transgender person. In a statement published by the Chicago LGBT newspaper Windy City Times, the 48-year-old director, now known as Lilly, claimed that she was forced to go public after a Daily Mail journalist landed up at her doorstep and tried to bully her into an interview. The British newspaper has denied the allegation.
My sister Lana and I have largely avoided the press. I find talking about my art frustratingly tedious and talking about myself a wholly mortifying experience. I knew at some point I would have to come out publicly. You know, when you're living as an out transgender person it's … kind of difficult to hide. I just wanted—needed some time to get my head right, to feel comfortable.
But apparently I don’t get to decide this.
— Lilly Wachowski in her statement.
The Wachowski siblings rose to fame with the Matrix trilogy (1999-2003), and have a reputation for movies set in fantasy worlds and featuring advanced special effects, stylised action and an aesthetic inspired by gaming. Their post-Matrix films include V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. They have also co-created the Netflix series Sense8.
Lana, the older of the two by two-and-a-half years, came out in 2012. She won the Human Rights Campaign’s Visibility Award for her courage that year.
The siblings collaborated as writers on the 1995 action thriller Assassins, and unsuccessfully fought to have their names taken off the project after their screenplay was rewritten. They made their debut as filmmakers the following year with Bound, a thriller about two women who become lovers in the process of carrying out a million-dollar heist.
News of the gender reassignment is likely to cast a whole new light on their filmography. The adjective “macho” has frequently been used to describe the Matrix trilogy, in particular, which just goes to show how fluid gender identity is.
Reports on the transition is especially likely to revive interest in Bound, which stars Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly. Reviews praised Bound for its non-exploitative and frank depiction of a same-sex relationship. “Bound may become the first lesbian/gay crossover hit where characters of the same gender have active sex lives that the camera actually captures, rather than turning away from at the first suggestion of a kiss,” wrote film journalist Barry Walters in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
