Joe Pantoliano doesn’t like steak.
“I’ve never been a beef lover,” the actor tells Inverse in an interview (to be published in full soon) promoting his role in Bad Boys 4, “and especially rare, super rare meat — it just makes me gag.”
Normally, the gastronomical preferences of Hollywood stars wouldn’t matter much to the fans of the movies they make, but in the case of Pantoliano and his The Matrix villain, Cypher, it almost ruined a crucial scene.
You can probably guess the one. Midway through the Wachowskis’ 1999 sci-fi classic, Pantoliano’s character (a member of the group of human rebels who recruit Keanu Reeves’ Neo to fight back against their robot oppressors) switches sides. While eating rare steaks at a fancy restaurant with the evil AI known as Agent Smith, Cypher cuts a deal with his enemies, trading key rebel information for a chance to reboot his life in the Matrix as someone rich and important... like an actor.
“You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist,” Cypher muses. “I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”
It’s a credit to Pantoliano’s acting abilities that the steak looks so delicious, because in real life, the actor could barely stomach it. Rather than cut the scene (which the studio apparently wanted to do anyway), the Wachowskis came up with a solution.
“I had to take a bite out of a couple of those steaks, but in the wider shots, they rigged the steak so that it was like shiitake mushrooms so that I could eat shiitake mushrooms,” Pantoliano says. “And a lot of time, they had the spit bowl where after the take I spit it out.”
In a movie full of memorable scenes, Cypher’s betrayal over steak has stood the test of time as one of the Matrix’s most quotable and relatable moments. But back then, not everyone got it, including Pantoliano.
“So with the steak scene, I never understood the allure of it,” he says. “Keanu loved that scene. At one point the Wachowskis mentioned that the studio wanted to eliminate the scene. They didn’t think they needed it, and everybody fought for it, but especially Keanu.”
Part of his hesitation may come from the fact that Pantoliano sees the scene as a direct commentary on his own life as a Hollywood actor.
“I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the Wachwoskis were talking about me,” he says. “I was blissfully ignorant in those days. And also the idea that Cypher would cut a deal where he said ‘I want to be somebody important like an actor.’ I always found that to be funny.”
On the day of shooting, Pantoliano says his co-stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne asked to watch from the sidelines, which may have tipped him off to how great the scene really was. But looking beyond that one moment, Pantoliano also recognizes how prescient The Matrix is in general.
“It’s more like a documentary than a movie,” he says. “It’s all kind of coming true.”
Cypher doesn’t survive the first Matrix movie, but in the quarter-century since plenty of “dead” characters have returned to the franchise. So would Pantoliano be game to revive his role in the next Matrix sequel?
“Sure, absolutely,” he says. “I want to return to any franchise that would have me.”
When I press for specifics, he replies bluntly — “not my department” — and as for anyone who’s not a fan of the more recent Matrix movies, Pantoliano is equally blunt.
“I saw the last Matrix movie and I really liked it,” he says. “I thought it was great, and I thought it was bullshit that people were turning on it.”
