Keanu Reeves reveals the strange stage name he was told to adopt
Keanu Reeves has revealed that his manager tried to force him to change his name when he first arrived in Hollywood.
Chatting on the New Heights podcast, Reeves explained, “I got paid when I was like 16, so I was a professional actor around 16, 17 [years old]. I was in Toronto, Canada, and then I got a manager who lived in Los Angeles…”
He reminisced, “At 20 years old, I drove in my car to Los Angeles. Got out of my car and my manager said, ‘We want to change your name.’ So that’s like, a welcome to Hollywood [moment]. I remember I was walking on the beach and I was just like, ‘My name? What if I change my name? What?’”
In response to the bizarre suggestion, Reeves began brainstorming what he might want his new Hollywood name to be. “My middle name is Charles, so I was like, ‘…Chuck?’ And I grew up on a street called Spadina, [therefore] Chuck Spadina, And then I was something Templeton.”
As reported by EW, Reeves revealed in 2017 that he had strongly considered “Templeton Paige Taylor.” However, this didn’t quite stick. Instead, he chose KC Reeves.
For half a year, he went by KC Reeves. He shared, “I was credited as KC Reeves… And then I couldn’t do it. So then I would be in auditions and they would go, ‘KC Reeves.’ And I wouldn’t even answer. Six months later, I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.’ That’s a Hollywood moment.”
This is a familiar story in Hollywood. Recently, Leonardo DiCaprio revealed that he was told by his first agent that his name was “too ethnic” when he was starting out in acting. They tried to rename him “Lenny Williams”, but his father was not convinced.
Del Toro, who stars opposite DiCaprio in the new comedy action thriller film One Battle After Another, had a similar story. He was asked to change his Puerto Rican name to “Benny Del” when he began his acting career.
Reeves will next star in Good Fortune, in which he plays a well-meaning but inept angel named Gabriel, who meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker and a wealthy venture capitalist. He stars alongside Seth Rogan, Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh in the Aziz Ansari project.
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