The director Keanu Reeves thinks he would have “broken”
It’s not easy maintaining Hollywood stardom for over 30 years, but Keanu Reeves has managed to make it look effortless, all while constantly facing accusations that he’s not a very good actor.
While that’s true to a certain extent, and straightforward dramatic performances aren’t his strongest suit, it’s foolish to suggest that he isn’t good at his job. For one thing, he’s one of the industry’s most formidable action heroes who anchored Point Break, Speed, The Matrix, and John Wick to cement his credentials.
Beyond that, he’s proven to be a dab hand at comedy on multiple occasions, and his hangdog looks can be effective weapons when deployed in the right project with the right filmmaker at the helm, as evidenced by his underrated work in Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly and Sam Raimi’s The Gift to name just two.
Accents are one thing he should never attempt under any circumstances, though, but regardless of his perceived limitations, Reeves was adamant that Stanley Kubrick wouldn’t have been able to handle him. Moving from blockbusters to smaller projects was a shock to him after becoming accustomed to multiple takes in order to get things just right, which is where his thought process began.
“Those films afforded me the chance to do, like, 40 takes,” he told The Guardian. “And you don’t oftentimes get to do that. On Henry’s Crime, it was, like, ‘Take three? Wow!'” Although Kubrick was famed for the exorbitant amount of takes he subjected his actors to, Reeves was adamant that he would have been able to push the meticulous master beyond the brink.
“I would’ve been his wet dream!” he continued. “After take 400, Kubrick would’ve been, ‘All right, cut!’ and I’d be, like, ‘Stanley, can I do one more?’ ‘Whaaat?’ ‘Look, I know I’m just drinking this glass of water, but I think I can find another side to this. Let’s just do one more, OK?’ ‘Argh, OK, Reeves.'”
Reeves was so confident, in fact, that he believed he had what it took to dissuade a director who gained equal measures of fame and notoriety for shooting the same setup dozens and dozens of times over from indulging in one of his favoured practices. “You know what? I would’ve broken Kubrick,” he suggested. “‘Please, sir, can I have some more?’ ‘Take 600. All you gotta do is walk across the road.’ ‘Come on, Stanley, one more!'”
The prospect of Reeves acting in a Stanley Kubrick production is nothing if not fascinating to consider, but there’s also the distinct possibility he wouldn’t have lasted more than a day on set after demanding a director who loved multiple takes more than anybody this side of David Fincher give him just one more.
