The role Keanu Reeves only agreed to play if he wasn’t going to be made fun of
Comedy titans Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key surprised audiences with their 2016 film Keanu, coming just three years before Peele’s total pivot into the world of horror filmmaking. The actors teamed with Peter Atencio for this feline tale about two friends who plan to retrieve their stolen cat by pretending to be drug dealers in a street gang. However, perhaps more bizarre than the existence of the film itself, is the fact that the starring cat was named after Keanu Reeves and intended as a parody of the actor’s work, with Reeves later agreeing to cameo in the film, but only on one condition.
When the kitten comedy first went into production, the team reached out to Reeve’s agents, asking if he would like to make an appearance in the film. A definitive and resounding ‘no’ was given, and so the team carried on with the movie without their stamp of approval from the person on which it was loosely based. However, they weren’t sure whether this response had come from Reeves himself or his representatives.
But after the project had been completed, Reeves was sent a text message from his sister with a link to the trailer, imploring that he should take part in the action comedy. However, the timing was not ideal, with the film set to premier at South by Southwest in a matter of weeks and a nationwide release the following month. The director was desperate to involve Reeves in the film, and the team quickly began to hatch an elaborate plan on how to make it happen.
However, before agreeing to participate in the film, Reeves wanted to clarify on the tone of the movie and whether or not it was mocking of him and his work. Atencio assured him that this wasn’t the case, talking him through the story and how he could add to it.
Eventually, Reeves agreed to lend his voice to one scene in which Peele’s character is on a drug trip, with the cat appearing in his strange hallucinations. At the time, Reeves was in Rome filming John Wick 2, but the studio set up a recording suite for him in order to record a few lines for the film.
The film never explains why the cat is called Keanu, but the presence of Reeves in this one scene is their own version of a reveal, with the director saying, “We didn’t want it to be something where you’re just kind of waiting for the big Keanu payoff, which is why it’s cool that he’s involved in this way — it’s a subtle way of acknowledging that of course he’s the direct inspiration for that name. The cat was named after him as an act of love for his movies, and especially the kind of movies that he makes. He has become an iconic movie star on a level that most people don’t ever attain”.
Reeves’ enthusiastic participation in the project is not something many would do, especially when the character influenced by you is a cat, which only makes me love him even more.
