‘John Wick’ producer explains Lance Reddick cameo in ‘Ballerina’ spin-off
Erica Lee, the producer of the John Wick franchise, has revealed more information regarding the Ballerina spin-off and discussed the late Lance Reddick’s cameo in the project.
During a new interview with Collider, Lee discussed the cameos of Reddick and Ian McShane, as Charon and Winston, respectively. She also noted Keanu Reeves’ appearance as John Wick. She said: “Ian has a little bit more to do, and John Wick is an extended cameo. He shot for about a week. Lance shot for a day. Those were last minute adds in a way, too. How do we merge the worlds a bit more, so there’s a bit of more of brand continuity? Because obviously, she’s a ballerina in the Ruska Roma School, so that was having Anjelica [Huston] as The Director was always an organic way in, and she always did check into a Continental. But then it was fun to have Ian and Lance come.”
Continuing, Lee added: “I didn’t know if Keanu was going to do the movie. I think we had always hoped he would. Then the timeline thing became a thing because we were still in post on ‘John Wick 4,’ and it was like, is he dead? Is he not? Is he dead? Yeah, let’s do this, so it makes sense chronologically and gives us a minute to figure it all out.”
Lance Reddick passed away aged 60 earlier this month. His wife, Stephanie, tweeted: “Thank you for all your overwhelming love, support and beautiful stories shared on these platforms over the last day. I see your messages and can’t express how grateful I am to have them”.
Paying tribute to his co-star, who played Charon in all four John Wick films, Keanu Reeves said: “Lance is a people person, a special artist, a gentleman of grace and dignity. It’s just really something special, every time he stepped on set, to watch the passion he had for his work. It’s really easy to work with him.”
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