Ask the AfterElton Flying Monkey! (May 20, 2008)

Q: I just watched The Matrix again and I just want to know if one (or both) the Wachowski Brothers is/are gay. I know there wasn't any truth in the rumor that Larry (one half of the brothers) had a sex change, as was reported by some major news outlets. But I just want to know if there is any news about the brothers' personal lives. – Mark, Castro Valley, CA

Andy and Larry, the notoriously reclusive writer-directors of The Matrix trilogy (not to mention the sublime lesbian film noir Bound), grant no interviews (their contracts for the Matrix sequels specifically allow them to opt out of all press junkets and interviews of any kind). So when discussing their oft-rumored personal lives, it’s a little like, “Do you want the blue pill or the red pill?” As with The Matrix, things may not necessarily be as they appear.

Left: Larry Wachowski in 2003
Right: Larry and Andy Wachowski in 1999

Did Larry Wachowski have a sex change? “It’s all untrue,” producer and Wachowski friend Joel Silver told FOX News. “They just don’t do interviews, so people make things up.”

Joel Silver shielding Larry Wachowski at the 2003 Matrix Reloaded premiere
Photo credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

But others insist that even if there’s been no sex change, Larry (who is married) sometimes appears in public dressed as a woman. Rolling Stone published a story in 2006 that said that Larry was a cross-dressing heterosexual involved with a prominent Los Angeles dominatrix. Still others say that, yes, there was a sex change, but the brothers (and Silver, who produces their movies) conspired to suppress the news until after the release of their God-awful-looking family film Speed Racer (which tanked anyway, restoring the Flying Monkey’s faith in humanity, at least a little).

What’s the truth? I’m opting for the blue pill and taking a pass.

Q: Is it true that in the upcoming Watchmen, Captain Metropolis, who is the ONLY gay character of the series, would be the ONLY character that would NOT appear in the film adaptation?... WTF?!?! Is it too early to hate this film? -- Markie, Castro Valley, CA

A: It is true that Captain Metropolis (who was in a relationship with another gay superhero, Hooded Justice) did not appear in at least the first drafts of the Watchmen screenplay, nor is he credited in the IMDB cast list for the film, currently in production. So it’s a good bet that he has, in fact, been eliminated from the movie (as has Hooded Justice).

The Monkey was outraged when he first heard that too, but let’s calm down a bit and think this through. Captain Metropolis made a big impression on the Monkey when he read Alan Moore’s landmark graphic novel Watchmen in the 80s, mostly because the idea of a gay superhero was such an incredible novelty back then. But the fact is, he is a very incidental character in the story. He’s not a member of The Crimebusters, the current group of superheroes that make up the bulk of the plot, but is rather the retired, deceased founder of The Minutemen, the vigilante superhero group that pre-exists The Crimebusters. Captain Metropolis is also portrayed as racist and an insecure, ineffectual leader terrified of being outed (all of which serves to reinforce the series’ theme of realism and moral ambiguity).

Now it’s true that the gay element is small in V for Vendetta (2005), another Alan Moore graphic novel-turned-movie (written and produced by the Wachowski brothers, incidentally), but it is still central to the plot. But that isn’t really true of Watchmen. Trust the Monkey when he says that here at AfterElton.com, we’re always on the look-out for bias on the part of television or movie producers, so we can scream “The sky is falling!” to you, our dear readers (and for the record, we can now point to several real-world changes in television programs that we think were, at least in part, the result of our bullheadedness).

But in the case of Watchmen, the sky probably isn’t falling. Captain Metropolis may very well have been eliminated because he’s so peripheral and the there just wasn’t room in the movie.

In any event, the producers of the film did not respond to the Flying Monkey’s repeated inquiries.