Keanu Reeves Doesn’t Call His Stunt Work in Movies ‘Stunts’
Keanu Reeves is known for doing his own stunts to add authenticity to his many films. But at the same time, the actor wouldn’t call what he does ‘stunts.’
Keanu Reeves claimed he hasn’t ‘done any stunt work’
Reeves might belong in the same category as his contemporary Tom Cruise when it comes to doing movie stunts. But Reeves disagreed with defining what he did as “stunts.” Instead, he preferred to call his sequences “physical acting.”
“I get to do some physical acting. I get involved in some action but they’re not stunts. I flip over guys, I get flipped, I run, I jump, I play,” Reeves said in a 2014 interview with IndieWire.
Even at an older age, Reeves didn’t shy away from doing his physical acting. Reeves quipped that his experience doing film stunts helped him keep up with the physicality of his action roles.
“I’m at that wonderful line of experience, which helps when you can’t quite do what you used to be able to do. With the experience, you get it right faster so you don’t have to do as many takes. I just made that up,” he said.
Reeves also confided why he still preferred to do stunts nowadays even though he didn’t have to.
“I don’t know. I like it when it succeeds at making it emotional, or there’s a reason for the character that’s beyond escape. You know what I mean? Or survival. That it’s part of something. There’s character development and a character journey and it has an emotional component to it. It’s dramatic storytelling. Not just spectacle,” he said.
Keanu Reeves did some of his nastiest stunts in the ‘John Wick’ movies
Being pure action films, the Reeves’ John Wick franchise required the actor to perform some pretty dangerous stunt work. While doing these sequences, Reeves would not only be putting himself in danger, but also jeopardizing the safety of his co-workers. Reeves recalled two mistakes on the set of John Wick that resulted in a couple of gruesome injuries.
“So in terms of accidents: I made a mistake once – I cut a gentleman’s head open,” Reeves told ComicBook. “So that really f***ing sucked – excuse my language. But other than that…oh, one guy got hit by a car. He was in the car, so he had to go to the hospital, but he was okay. All of this to say that you do have to take care. But it’s great that everyone [on set] is watching out for each other.”
Keanu Reeves’ stunt work was very impressive according to this stuntman
Reeves has always had a huge respect and reverence for stuntmen, and vice versa. One of Reeves’ most recent stunt doubles, Vincent Bouillon, opened up about what it was personally like working alongside the actor. Buillon worked with Reeves in John Wick Chapter 4, and echoed what other stunt doubles thoughts about Reeves.
“He does a lot and he’s very impressive,” Buillon once told Express.
Bouillon was so impressed by Reeves’ performance that he considered the actor a fellow stunt man. But he also explained that being a stunt double is about more than swapping out with the movie star.
“It’s not just about doing the stunt that he cannot do because he can do a lot of things, it’s about caring. I try to copy his motion, his body [movements], and try to understand how he moves, why he moves like that, if he has any pains,” Buillon added. “So when you create the [fight choreography] you can say: ‘Oh maybe we should replace this motion with something different because he has some trouble with his shoulder’ or something like that.”
Buillon also reminded how important efficiency is as a stunt double, as one mistake could set an entire scene back.
“The goal is when Keanu or the other actors come up on the training day we can just go fast and be efficient to make sure everything goes in the right direction. If there’s a jump landing on the knees, the double makes sure he has pads on. Just taking care of the guy,” he said.
