The 35-year-old, Vancouver-born Moss, now five months pregnant, is talking about doing movies as physical as The Matrix trilogy for the Wachowski Brothers.

"Yeah, pretty much," she says of putting huge action films in her past just as The Matrix Reloaded is set for wide release Thursday (after sneak peeks in select venues later tonight).

The Matrix Revolutions is due Nov. 7.

"It's too much work. It really is. It's just physically too difficult. And it's hard on your body and you want to do things that take care of your body. You don't want to trash it."

As a future mother, Moss (who is married to actor Steven Roy) wants to look after herself better.

Usually dressed in form-fitting, black leatherette outfits, Moss, like most of the major actors in The Matrix trilogy, did most of her own stunts as the martial-arts expert and freedom fighter Trinity. That includes, of course, the relentless, stylized fight scenes. Like most of the major actors, she suffered injuries, including broken bones.

In Reloaded, her duties extended to a harrowing and spectacular motorcycle sequence in which she defied oncoming traffic at high speed without a helmet. It was even more of a challenge than participating in the famous helicopter sequence in the original movie.

Says Moss: "The motorcycle, for sure, was much more scary for me."

So much so that she needed help. Asked if that really is all her up on screen, Moss says:

"Yeah, for a lot of it, but not for all of it. For some of it, it was just too dangerous. And I had the most incredible stunt double who took a spill on that bike and walked away from it, which was a miracle. That was a dangerous sequence."

Moss, who has appeared in other films such as the successful Memento with Guy Pearce and the bomb Red Planet with Val Kilmer, became a movie star in The Matrix. She once joked that, when she put on sunglasses, fans instantly recognized her.

Moss' star will be burnished even brighter with the sequels. Even if she never does anything this rigorous again, the trilogy is the experience of her life, Moss says.

"A lot of it has to do with my attitude and my decision to have a positive attitude, because I've been on jobs that, when I look back, were great, but (while filming them), I wasn't in a great mental frame.

"Because the first Matrix was such a phenomenal experience, it was a real learning curve for me. I was really nervous and really scared and couldn't believe it."

For the sequels, she knew what to expect. "I really wanted to have this full experience. I really went into it saying: 'Okay, I know it's going to be really hard. I know it's going to be harder than the first one and I want to show up and really have this experience -- because my life will never be the same again.'

"I didn't want to look back and go: 'Oh, when am I ever going to be in a movie like this again? Never, probably. When am I ever going to work for two years of my life on one project? Never. It doesn't happen as an actor. You work three months (on most movies).'

"And I love the people so much. I love the story. I love the character that I'm playing and I really wanted to respect the whole process, in a way. I wanted to take it as school, I guess, and not just be kind of asleep through it. I wanted to really feel everything and be in everything."