Keanu Reeves has established himself as an action megastar after his blockbuster sci-fi franchise The Matrix. Of course, he has a whole bunch of different movies to his resume but he is wildly popular as Neo, and John Wick for featuring as the lead in the John Wick franchise.
Reeves is a different actor, he has the image of being down to earth and living with certain principles. As an actor, Reeves does not compromise his principles. Following a movie’s digital edits, the actor was highly offended. Later, created a strict clause for his future movies.
No Digital Edits to Keanu Reeves’ Performance
Hollywood star Keanu Reeves
Several celebrities have different clauses in their contracts. Vin Diesel has it added in his clause that he would never lose an onscreen fight. Keanu Reeves, however, is more keen on his performance. He does not want to contaminate his performance with digital edits that would, as he believes, undermine his validity as an actor.
Talking to Wired, Reeves stated that he forbid digital edits to his performance recalling a performance change in one of his early movies.
“Yeah, digitally. I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit. But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed. They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, “Huh?!” It was like, I don’t even have to be here,” Reeves said.
On top of that, Reeves is committed to minimal special effects, especially to the expression of the actors. Further, joining the conversation, John Wick director Chad Stahelski added,
“We’re not, like, at war with VFX. It’s super handy, it’s a great tool. But you can’t beat the blood, sweat, and tears of real people.”
Reeves highlighted the originality of John Wick.
“When you watch John Wick action scenes, it feels different. There’s so much choreography. It’s out on the edge.”
Certainly, digitally enhanced filmmaking could mess up with actors’ abilities and talent. Reeves is worried about that and added the fine line in his clause that can not be crossed by the makers.
Also Read: “I don’t think it was his fault”: Keanu Reeves Nearly Had Romantic Relationship With Will Smith’s Wife In ‘The Matrix’ Before Carrie-Anne Moss’ Casting
Keanu Reeves on Technological Integration in Modern Life
Keanu Reeves
As an actor, Reeves is all concerned about how humans interact with technology. Technology also made its way into cinema. New AI tools are now capable of creating deepfakes. When asked about Bruce Willis being deepfaked, the actor said how scary it can be.
“What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency. When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary. It’s going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies,” Reeves said.
“They’re having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied. There’s so much “data” on behaviors now. Technologies are finding places in our education, in our medicine, in our entertainment, in our politics, and how we war and how we work.”
Further, the actor highlighted the complexity of human and technology interaction. There has been a debate among intellectuals that AI might come for our jobs. Reeves highlighted people’s association with art and culture.
“The people who are paying you for your art would rather not pay you. They’re actively seeking a way around you because artists are tricky. Humans are messy.”
Integration of technology in art and culture, as Reeves believed, is scary. This could alter the integrity of the actors and other artists. But human emotion is a different thing and Reeves intended to stick with that.
