The Matrix' Director Andy Wachowski Comes Out as Transgender, Just a Few Years After Famous Sibling Did the Same

The director of the "The Matrix," formerly known as Andy Wachowski, has come out as transgender. Wachowski announced Tuesday via a statement that he will now go by Lilly Wachowski.

The announcement follows one by Wachowski’s older sibling and co-director of "The Matrix," formerly known as Larry Wachowski, who said in 2012 that he's transgender and would be going by Lana.

Lilly Wachowski (Image source: GLAAD)

The statement that Lilly, 48, issued to Windy City Times began with the forceful lede "SEX CHANGE SHOCKER — WACHOWSKI BROTHERS NOW SISTERS!!!"

The Times reported that a popular media outlet threatened to reveal Lilly’s secret, which led to the announcement that the famed director had been anticipating with "dread and/or eye rolling exasperation."

"The 'news' has almost come out a couple of times," Wachowski wrote. "Each was preceded by an ominous email from my agent — reporters have been asking for statements regarding the 'Andy Wachowski gender transition' story they were about to publish."

Wachowski’s statement mentions an incident in which a Daily Mail reporter showed up at the filmmaker's residence in the hope of snagging an exclusive gender-transition story.

"After he had given me his card, and I closed the door it began to dawn on me where I had heard of the Daily Mail," the statement said. "It was the 'news' organization that had played a huge part in the national public outing of Lucy Meadows, an elementary school teacher and trans woman in the U.K.”

Instead of taking the reporter up on the offer, Wachowski decided instead that it was time to come out independently.

"So yeah," the director wrote. "I'm transgender."

Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski at the Chicago International Film Festival�s screening of "Jupiter Ascending" Feb. 4, 2014. (Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP)

"I'm out to my friends and family. Most people at work know too. Everyone is cool with it," Wachowski continued. "Yes, thanks to my fabulous sister, they've done it before, but also because they're fantastic people. Without the love and support of my wife and friends and family I would not be where I am today."

In the statement, Lilly mentioned the popular 1991 film "The Silence of the Lambs" as a work that "demonized and vilified" the transgender community in the way it portrayed the serial-killer character "Buffalo Bill" and explained that though the media has come "a long way" in its openness to transgender issues, "so-called bathroom bills ... do not keep children safe. [T]hey force trans people into using bathrooms where they can be beaten and/or murdered."

"We are not predators, we are prey," Wachowski wrote, referring to measures some states have taken to mandate that transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex.

Besides "The Matrix," the Wachowski siblings have directed other films together such as "V for Vendetta" and "Cloud Atlas." The duo also co-created the Netflix series "Sense8,” a sci-fi show starring transgender actress Jamie Clayton that explores transgender themes.

Lilly concluded by explaining that the transition will not be something that operates within a certain time frame; rather “the reality, my reality is that I've been transitioning and will continue to transition all of my life, through the infinite that exists between male and female as it does in the infinite between the binary of zero and one.”

(H/T: Hollywood Reporter)