The legendary filmmaker has opened up about his experience of working on ‘The Matrix’, revealing he felt pressure when making the sequels.
Bill Pope, during his appearance on the ‘Team Deakins’ podcast, reflected upon his experiences as director of photography on the sci-fi trilogy, explaining that the two follow-up films paled in comparison to the Oscar-winning 1999 original.
The 68-year-old filmmaker said: “Everything that was good about the initial experience was not good about the last two.” The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both released in 2003.
“We weren’t free anymore. People were looking at you; there was a lot of pressure,” he recalled.
“In my heart, I didn’t like them. I felt we should be going in a different direction. There was a lot of friction and a lot of personal problems, and it showed up on-screen, to be honest by you.”
Pope — who’s worked on several large-scale productions, of 2004’s Spider-Man 2 to 2016’s The Jungle Book — explained that writer/directors Lana and Lilly Wachowski insisted on a lengthy shoot to the sequels.