Keanu Reeves Reacts To the New ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ Warning Over Homophobic Content
Did you hear there is now a disclaimer in front of the movie Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure? It was news to Keanu Reeves too. Reeves and Alex Winter were guests on the Kermode & Mayo’s Film Review podcast on Sept. 18 to promote the release of Bill & Ted Face the Music in the U.K. when they found out.
Simon Mayo informed Reeves and Winter about the new disclaimer and got their reactions to it. Bill & Ted Face the Music is available on VOD in the U.S.
Keanu Reeves’ movie ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ now requires a warning.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure came out in 1989. It was rated PG, so deemed appropriate for all audiences with parental guidance. Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves) traveled through time meeting historical figures for their high school history report.
In light of the sequel’s release, the original film has been upgraded to a 4K edition available on streaming services and 4K UHD. Mayo informed Reeves and Winter that the 4K edition of Bill & Ted’s Excellent includes a warning. He read the disclaimer to them: “This film reflects historial attitudes which audiences might find outdated or offensive.”
The ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ warning has to do with homophobia
The warning Mayo read did not specificy which scenes might be outdated or offensive. However, Winter suspected it was alluding to some homophobic slurs that were unfortunately common in the ’80s. Bill and Ted are accepting, loving guys, but like many teens of the ’80s, would call each other the F word if they expressed too much affection for one another.
“In terms of the caveat, that would only refer to the homophobic slurs that we had in both of the first two movies which we were extremely common but totally disparaging and not appropriate terminology back then,” Winter told Mayo. “Other than that, the first movies are extremely wholesome. I think the third one stays in line with that whole vibe. I would hardly look at the first two movies being radical, offensive films other than that, which no one was happy about. We certainly didn’t intend to repeat.”
As such, Winter and Reeves made sure not to continue using that word in Bill & Ted Face the Music. Bill and Ted would have outgrown such language too.
“All of the films have been made in an attempt to reflect the world around them, and put the characters into the world around them,” Winter said. “A lot of the comedy comes from how much Bill and Ted live in their imagination and how, in some ways, they’re really out of time and out of step with the world around them, and then they’re thrust into the world and history. I think there was very much a desire to bring Bil land Ted into adulthood. There wasn’t an attempt to make the film politically correct.”
Keanu Reeves weighs in on the warning
Hearing about the disclaimer for the first time, Reeves addressed it.
“I guess it’s a product that’s going out into the world,” Reeves began. “I guess it’s kind of reflecting some of the content and letting somebody who’s watching the film know exactly that, so they’re not taken by surprise by it.”
