Keanu Reeves had a sweet – if slightly macabre – gift for the stuntmen who worked with him on John Wick: Chapter 4. Here’s the trailer for Reeves and the gang’s latest action-packed outing, just to get you in the mood:
Reeves is famous for being one of Hollywood’s nice guys.
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Despite being one of the most recognisable and bankable stars of the silver screen, he always seems to have time for fans and co-workers alike, and certainly doesn’t seem like your typical big-screen diva.
During filming for the latest instalment of the John Wick franchise, Reeves did most of the stunt work himself, shooting and driving at the same time, fighting with various goons, and even conducting some pretty impressive work on a set of stairs.
However, there are times when the stuntmen had to step in, either for Reeves or for someone else, and that meant they all developed a bond – a type of camaraderie if you will.
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That friendship and comradeship will be remembered forever by all parties, especially after Reeves had t-shirts made for the stuntmen that showed how many times each of them had died throughout the making of the film.
For some of the crew, that was above 20 deaths.
This is because some of the stunt workers had to be reused.
For example, during that one scene on the stairs – which we won’t spoil for you – they had to reuse stunt performers because there were so many deaths.
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Speaking about that scene, the movie’s fight co-ordinator Jeremy Marinas said: It’s like, of course that’s what you want,
“You want 100 guys falling down the stairs and you want me to make every reaction and fall different.
“Of course you do. It was like we were just another day at work.
“We all know how hard it is just to walk up stairs when we don’t want to.
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“Just to think about how well Keanu — not John Wick — Keanu was able to do shooting upwards while stepping. It’s hard enough to be a marksman on flat ground.”
As per the New York Times, the staircase scene alone took a week to film, with each stunt performer getting ‘killed’ numerous times.
That report claims: “At the end of the shoot Reeves made T-shirts for the stunt performers emblazoned with the number of times they were slain over the course of the entire movie.”
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Director Chad Stahelski explained how Reeves took on his own stunt detail on the stairs with customary application, even alluding to the fact that one moment might have been as much about his own tiredness and despair as that of his character.
“That look John Wick gives when he looks at his watch and actually looks up the staircase, I think that’s maybe 50 percent John Wick and 50 percent Keanu Reeves going, ‘Ugh, Stahelski did it to me again'," the director said.
“You got to suffer. That’s what’s fun about John Wick. He suffers and he keeps going.”
Well, suffer he did.
It just goes to show the work that goes into making these all-action blockbuster movies, but it’s all in a day’s work for Reeves and his fellow performers.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, John Wick, Keanu Reeves
Tom Wood