The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss says she was offered a grandma role the day after her 40th birthday

Carrie-Anne Moss, star of The Matrix franchise, has spoken out about ageism in Hollywood that she experienced after turning 40. 

Moss shared the anecdote while in conversation with actor-turned-filmmaker and author Justine Bateman to mark the release of Bateman's new book, Face: One Square Foot of Skin, about the ways in which society responds to women as they age.

"I had heard that at 40 everything changed," Moss said. "I didn't believe in that because I don't believe in just jumping on a thought system that I don't really align with. But literally the day after my 40th birthday, I was reading a script that had come to me and I was talking to my manager about it. She was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, it's not that role [you're reading for], it's the grandmother.' I may be exaggerating a bit, but it happened overnight. I went from being a girl to the mother to beyond the mother."

She added: "I would look at these French and European actresses and they just had something about them that felt so confident in their own skin. I couldn't wait to be that. I strive for that. It's not easy being in this business. There's a lot of external pressure."

We can next see Moss in The Matrix 4, the first Matrix movie since 2003's The Matrix Revolutions, in which Keanu Reeves and Jada Pinkett-Smith will also reprise their roles from the original trilogy. Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jessica Henwick have also been cast in undisclosed roles and Lana Wachowski returns in the director's chair.

While we wait for The Matrix 4 to arrive in theaters and on HBO Max, make sure you've caught up with all the best movies of 2020 first.