'The Matrix' director Lana Wachowski has opened up about her sex change for the first time.



In an interview with the New Yorker, she says she feared she would be rejected by her family on revealing her identity as a woman, and suffered depression during the production of 'The Matrix', which she directed with her brother Andy.



[Related story: Cloud Atlas trailer premiere]







She said that she would go swimming every day hoping to be hit by a boat or eaten by a shark to avoid confronting the situation.



47-year-old Lana, who was born Larry, began her transition into a woman in 2002, but only recently revealed to the public her full transformation, complete with purple dreadlocks.



“For years, I couldn’t even say the words 'transgendered' or 'transsexual',” she said. “When I began to admit it to myself, I knew I would eventually have to tell my parents and my brother and my sisters. This fact would inject such terror into me that I would not sleep for days.







“I chose to change my exterior to bring it closer into alignment with my interior. My biggest fears were all about losing my family. Once they accepted me, everything else has been a piece of cake.”



Lana split with her first wife after a bitter divorce, but is now married again, though the siblings' father Ron jokes that his children have 'the best marriage I have ever seen'.



“I know that many people are dying to know if I have a surgically constructed vagina or not, but I prefer to keep this information between my wife and me,” added Lana.



The Wachowskis are currently working on the massively ambitious 'Cloud Atlas', a screen adaptation of David Mitchell's best-selling novel.



It features Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant among a stellar cast, and takes place over multiple eras in multiple locations.



Watch the trailer below.























































