The Matrix Resurrections’ Jonathan Groff thought he peed himself on set
Taking part in a roundtable to discuss the film, the actor opened up about one of his first action set pieces in the new film.
Words: Alastair James; pictures: YouTube/Warner Bros
Jonathan Groff, who we all know and love from his work on Glee, the Frozen films, and of course, Hamilton, has revealed that he thought he’d had a… personal accident while filming The Matrix Resurrections.
Taking part in a roundtable with the rest of the film’s principal cast, Jonathan, who plays Agent Smith, said he thought for a while that he had peed himself after taking part in one of his first action set pieces in the film.
Thankfully, it is clarified that he didn’t, but it’s a fun story nonetheless!
“It sustained”
Recounting the experience as part of an Entertainment Weekly roundtable, Jonathan explains that he had been gearing himself up for the scene involving Keanu Reeves’ Neo, a gun, and shouting “Mr. Anderson!”
It’s probably worth mentioning that the scene takes place under active water sprinklers. The scene seemed to go ok, Jonathan said the line, he shot his gun but was then left with an odd feeling.
“When it was over, I was like, ‘I think I wet my pants. I think I peed myself,'” he says. As his castmates burst into hysterics Jonathan continues, “You know when you pee yourself and you feel that, like, hot urine?” with his co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II pointing out that that was the soundbite from the press tour.
And here we are!
Determined to explain himself fully, Jonathan carries on saying, “But then, it didn’t go away because when you pee yourself, it’s hot for a second, and then it gets cold, and it’s chafing. So, it sustained.
“So, then I thought that maybe one of the shells from the gun had come down my shirt, which they warn you might happen and dangerous things can happen. I was reaching down there looking for this shell but it wasn’t down there. But for like 10 minutes, I had this heat emanating from my groin.”
Turning to Reeves to see if he recalls the moment Jonathan asks if he remembers him asking him about it in the moment. Keanu says that he does and that he remembers suggesting Jonathan could have opened his root chakra.
Jonathan then turns to Carrie-Anne Moss, who appears to have offered a different explanation.
“Whenever I shoot a gun, I can look really cool in a scene, but afterward it’s like my body doesn’t know that it’s not real, and it’s really intense,” says Moss adding there can be a physical reaction to shooting even a fake gun if you’re not used to it.
But for everyone’s sake, she clarifies that Jonathan didn’t really pee his pants, which Jonathan also confirms.
The Matrix Resurrections is in cinemas from 22 December.
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