Video: Eye up the 'Matrix Resurrections' with breakout star Jessica Henwick

Jessica Henwick sits on a velvet chair at London’s Little Mayfair House, her posture relaxed. The British actress is unassuming and tomboyish in an all-black ensemble: black leather jacket, black tee, black baggy velvet trousers. A practical black North Face backpack rests on the floor beside her. She looks a little bit like someone who just stepped off the set of The Matrix.

Henwick cuts a casual figure for someone on the precipice of Hollywood superstardom. Next year, the actress – who already has credits in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Game of Thrones – will take the screen alongside Ryan Gosling in action thriller The Gray Man as well as the sequel to star-studded whodunnit Knives Out. But first, she’ll star opposite Keanu Reeves in the highly anticipated sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix Resurrections.

In addition to sparking two decades worth of simulation theories, The Matrix leaves the legacy of a singular dystopian aesthetic. As everything early 2000s becomes relevant again, many Matrix elements have been, well, resurrected – the long leather trench, the steampunk combat boots, even Trinity’s signature short haircut. But the Matrix moment most relevant today are those era defining, ultra-slimline oval sunglasses.

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It's near impossible to replicate the cold blue metal of the original – they were custom made by an extensive hardware colouring process – but major fashion houses from Balenciaga to Saint Laurent offer their own take on the futuristic shades. One of the less risky early aughts fashion trends, the sunglasses are not just impactful, but look good on just about anyone.

Before The Matrix hit theatres in 1999, tiny oval sunglasses were the prevailing shape of the mid-nineties. Championed by iconic celebrity couples like Brad Pitt and Winona Ryder (and Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow) and future-thinking superstars TLC , the look was simultaneously grunge and hip hop. But as soon as the cast of The Matrix donned the Richard Walker-designed take on the slimline oval shape, the style became inextricably Matrix.

It’s an accessory that fits seamlessly into Henwick’s everyday look. On the day of our Vogue Scandinavia photo shoot, she appears makeup-free, wearing a black hoodie and a pair of men’s trousers that she had tailored to fit her waist. “I was raised with two brothers, I was always a tomboy,” she says. “I hated wearing dresses and skirts as a kid. I just lived in hand-me-downs. Just tracksuits and pants.”

By her own admission, the actress doesn’t carry herself in a way that ’s traditionally feminine. Her voice is quite low. Then there’s the way she walks, the way she holds her shoulders. “I think when I was younger, I wanted to be taken seriously a lot of the time,” she admits. “Im never wanted to be sexualised.” It wasn’t until she reached her twenties that Henwick felt comfortable embracing elements of her femininity. “I think it’s important to embrace both sides of yourself,” she says.

I ask her how she entered The Matrix franchise. The summer of 2019, Henwick started to think more practically about her career. She was debating whether to give up acting altogether and focus on writing and decided to take a break. She set off for a solo hike along the famous Camino de Santiago – a 600-mile pilgrimage route across the north of Spain.

Halfway through the journey, she turned her phone on to find an email asking her to do a self-tape for the fourth installment of the beloved science fiction franchise. “I was in the middle of the Spanish desert, who would I self-tape with?” she says. Henwick didn’t bother with the audition and left it to fate to decide.

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Upon her return to London in the fall, Lana Wachowski – the director of the original Matrix trilogy – invited her to LA for a chemistry read with Yahya Abdul Mateen II, of Black Panther fame. A couple of days later, Wachowski called Henwick to offer her the role. “I didn’t recognise the number nor her voice. I thought it was my Uber driver, so I picked up the phone and said: ‘Yeah, I'm around the corner,’” she recalls.

Fighting futuristic baddies was a physically demanding experience . “I’ve had more injuries on this film than all my other projects combined,” she says. “I like doing all my stunts, but there was this one scene where my character had to make a leap and fall 50 feet through thin air. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. They had to film it with my stunt double. I’m terribly afraid of heights. I tried. They wired me up, but I just started sobbing.”

Her character’s striking blue hair, which we revisited for this editorial, has sent the internet into full tailspin. With blue being the colour associated with deception in the Matrix world, many theorise that her character, Bugs, might have nefarious motives. Henwick debunks that theory quickly. “She is in many ways a stand-in for the audience, she idolises Neo and wants him to wake up. She admires Neo, just like I admire Keanu,” she says.

In an announcement of the new Matrix movie, Wachowski said that many of the ideas they explored over 20 years ago are even more relevant today. Henwick agrees. “The Matrix is all about choice. Never before have we been more cognisant of choice. The choice of how you identify yourself.”

Then there’s the choice of the red pill or blue pill, which in Henwick’s mind is related to fake news. “Some people choose to consume news, not because they want news, but because they want their own beliefs reinforced and affirmed. They watch news channels that align with their political views. Do you want to see the truth or do you want to see what you want to see?” She pauses. “I’d pick the red pill. Truth, always the truth.”