Matrix media scrum hits Cannes

By Helen Bushby BBC News Online entertainment staff

The Matrix has descended on Cannes, and although differences between the Americans and French were expected, the only conflict was among journalists queuing to see the film's stars.

There is nothing quite like a media scrum, and that is exactly what happened when US actors Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne gathered to talk about The Matrix Reloaded.

The stars were very much in demand

The buzz in Cannes for The Matrix has been huge, and I was not alone in arriving over an hour early for Thursday's 8.30am screening.

Having managed to see the film in a huge cinema - the one used for red-carpet ceremonies - the next trick was getting into a much smaller room for the press conference.

Hundreds of journalists hot-footed it to the queues and festival security guards shouted "doucement, doucement" ("gently, gently"), as elbows were out and expressions became more desperate as people tried to get in.

I managed to scramble to my precious seat partly because I was hauled up the steps by a gallant journalist from The Independent newspaper, who saw me getting stuck behind a mass of people.

I did my first fight scene and my legs felt like concrete boulders and every part of my body was aching

Jada Pinkett Smith

Once in, the film's star Reeves kicked off by insisting he "had not felt any tension with France" since arriving.

He, like many other actors at Cannes, appeared keen to avoid politics over differing French and US views over the war with Iraq.

He said the festival should be a place to "come together to celebrate the arts and humanity" - a view endorsed by the rest of the cast.

The film then became the focus, with Fishburne, who plays charismatic spiritual leader Morpheus, saying the months of gruelling physical training undergone by the cast also had a "great effect on the spirit".

He said the lengthy fight scenes had been "kicked up a notch" from the first film.

Carrie-Ann Moss said she feared for her life

"The stuff we did was much more sophisticated so we needed to be more flexible and stronger - there was also more wire work," he said, referring to the wires that make the actors appear to fly.

Ice bath

The actors were trained by martial arts expert Wo Ping, who was particularly proud of Moss' "scorpion kick" at the beginning of the film.

But the training was not without injury, with Moss breaking her leg and Fishburne damaging his wrist.

Jada Pinkett Smith, who is new to The Matrix films, said it did not take long for her to understand why she sometimes saw Reeves sitting in a bath of ice to reduce swelling in his joints.

"I looked at him like 'what are you doing that for?' and he said 'One day you'll know'," she said.

"And I swear, after I did my first fight scene and my legs felt like concrete boulders and every part of my body was aching, then I knew what that ice was for," she said.

Fear of dying

Reeves appeared to relish the physicality of the film, however, and said he really enjoyed flying "like Superman", even if it meant being suspended from a wire 30ft above the ground.

"It was fun coming down," he said, "even if it meant falling about 10ft when the wire relaxed - you just had to hope it was still connected."

Moss also does some incredible stunts with cars and motorbikes in the film, including riding a bike against the flow of traffic on a motorway - without a crash helmet.

"My biggest fear about it was, I guess, dying," she said. "So on that day, I knew I could not allow myself to question for one split second whether or not I could do it."

With worries about making the film out of the way, all that remains is to see what people make of it.

Producer Joel Silver was keen, unsurprisingly, to quash any negative comment about the film, and batted back suggestions that it had had a mixed reception from US critics.

"I've read many fabulous reviews - the film delivers on an enormous level for the audience - it works," he said.

Not everyone will agree, but then with a third film out in November, the film makers will only have to wait six months before they get to wipe the slate clean, and start all the hype and promotion once more.