Carrie-Anne Moss is a distinguished theatre and film actress, as well as a model from Burnaby. She began her career in Vancouver theatre and went on to become one of Canada’s most famous performers. Additionally, Carrie-Anne has established herself as a talented television host. Read on at vancouver-trend.
She is best known for her roles in The Matrix trilogy (1999, 2003) and the Marvel series Jessica Jones (2015). In 1997, the actress was nominated for a Gemini Award for her guest role in the comedy-drama Due South, won a Genie Award for her performance in the film Snow Cake (2006), and received a Film Independent Spirit Award for her role in Christopher Nolan’s neo-noir film Memento (2000).
Early Life: A Lesson in Resilience
Moss was born on August 21, 1967. As a young child, she moved to Vancouver with her mother, Barbara. It was there that her career as a performer began. As a teenager, Carrie-Anne performed with the Vancouver Children’s Musical Theatre. She travelled across the city every day to Magee Secondary School to attend acting classes in the drama department. She also sang in the school choir.
In a 2015 interview with the Georgia Straight, Moss shared a formative experience from her youth. She was certain she would get the lead role in a musical, but it didn’t happen. The actress was cast as a supporting character, which came as a real blow to her. However, her mother comforted the young Carrie by telling her that a supporting role is often better and more important than the lead. This helped the young performer recover and immerse herself fully in her character’s role. At the end of the interview, she added that this situation prepared her for the constant rejection inherent in her professional career.
Training and Early Television Roles
She began her modelling career after moving to Toronto at age 18 and also worked extensively in Europe. It was there she began studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena. After this, she landed numerous roles in Canadian and American television series, but it was in Barcelona in 1991 that she secured her first leading role. Her debut in such a capacity was in the Spanish television series Dark Justice.
Dark Justice became a hit in Spain and was moved to Los Angeles to tap into the North American market. Although the series only lasted two years in syndication, Moss’s career quickly gained momentum. This was, of course, influenced by appearances in many other high-profile series filmed in Los Angeles and Canada, including projects like L.A. Law (1993), Baywatch (1994), and Paul Gross’s comedy-drama Due South (1996). Her guest role in the latter earned Moss a Gemini Award nomination in 1997. Following this successful start, the actress was almost immediately cast in the Canadian syndicated series Matrix (which has no connection to the Hollywood franchise she would later star in), as well as in the Melrose Place spin-off Models Inc. (1994–95) and the series F/X: The Series (1996–97).
Film and Television Career
In 1999, Moss landed her most famous role as Trinity in the Wachowskis’ science-fiction epic The Matrix, starring alongside Keanu Reeves. Moss’s performance as the tough, melancholic, and cynical hacker-turned-freedom-fighter trying to free humanity from its own robotic creations became the emotional core of the film. For this role, Moss underwent a gruelling training regimen that lasted several months. The Matrix was a massive success for everyone involved, winning four Academy Awards, grossing over $460 million at the worldwide box office, and becoming one of the defining films of the 1990s. Moss reprised her role in the sequels The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). She also voiced Trinity in the animated series The Animatrix (2003) and in the franchise’s video games.
Following her success in The Matrix, Carrie-Anne Moss was cast in Christopher Nolan’s indie thriller Memento (2000). Playing a cruel and manipulative bartender who exploits the main character’s amnesia, Moss showcased the full range of her dramatic abilities and won a Film Independent Spirit Award. Carrie-Anne also appeared in the box-office hit Chocolat (2000), for which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble cast. Her other film credits include the sci-fi drama Red Planet (2000), the thrillers Disturbia (2007) and Unthinkable (2010), and the horror film Silent Hill: Revelation (2012).
Moss’s Canadian work includes Marc Evans’s film Snow Cake (2006), for which she won a Genie Award for her seductive and mysterious supporting role. She also appeared in the award-winning zombie comedy Fido (2006); Carl Bessai’s suburban dramedy Normal (2007); the Mexican-Canadian co-production Treading Water (2013), where she starred alongside Don McKellar; and the horror-comedy Compulsion (2013) with Heather Graham. In 2014, Moss appeared in two more major Canadian projects: Charles Binamé’s chamber drama Elephant Song, with Bruce Greenwood and Xavier Dolan, and the disaster epic Pompeii. Filmed in Toronto, Pompeii earned over $4 million at the Canadian box office and more than $100 million worldwide.
Moss spent most of the late 1990s and 2000s focused on her film career but returned to television in the 2010s. She had recurring roles in the action-comedy Chuck (2011–2012), the crime series Crossing Lines (2014) with Donald Sutherland, and the science-fiction series Humans (2016). Additionally, she starred alongside Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis in the gangster drama Vegas (2012–13).
In 2015, Moss was cast as lawyer Jeri Hogarth in the acclaimed Netflix series Jessica Jones. The character was a breakthrough for female action heroes, as she was Marvel’s first openly gay character in its screen universe (the character is a man in the comics). Moss’s character also appeared in other series within the Marvel Television Universe, including Daredevil (2016), Iron Fist (2017), and The Defenders (2017).
Personal Life
Moss is married to actor Steven Roy, with whom she has two children. She is also a certified yogini and in August 2014, she founded the lifestyle brand Annapurna Living, which provides spiritual guidance to help empower women.
Awards
- Best Actress (The Matrix), Csapnivalo Awards (2000);
- Best Debut (The Matrix), Empire Awards (2000);
- Best Supporting Female (Memento), Film Independent Spirit Awards (2002);
- Best Actress in a Canadian Film (Fido), Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards (2007);
- Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Snow Cake), Genie Awards (2007).
Her captivating role as a hacker-turned-freedom-fighter in The Matrix trilogy helped Carrie-Anne Moss build a dynamic career in film and television. However, it all began in a small theatre in Vancouver and with rejections from numerous projects. Her life story is truly noteworthy, as Moss inspires us not to give up, even when things seem impossible at first.
