The unlikely aliases that Keanu Reeves almost adopted

And if his name had been Chuck Spadina or KC Reeves, would he have become Neo and John Wick?

After Leonardo DiCaprio recently said that an agent had advised him to change his name, considered “too ethnic”, it is Keanu Reeves who in turn shares a similar anecdote about his beginnings in Hollywood.

Podcast guest New Heightsthe actor of Matrix And John Wick revealed that his manager insisted early in his career that he adopt a pseudonym when he arrived in Los Angeles at the age of 20.

“I had just left Toronto, I had just arrived in Los Angeles. And my manager said to me: ‘We’re going to change your name.’ That was my welcome to Hollywood. I found myself walking on the beach wondering: My name? Why would I change my name?”

Taken by surprise, Reeves began to think about alternatives:

“My middle name is Charles, so I was like… Chuck? And I grew up on a street called Spadina. So: Chuck Spadina?!”

The actor even tried another alias: KC Reevesbefore considering an even more absurd name: Templeton Paige Taylor.

Result ? A disaster. “I was in audition waiting rooms, people called me: “KC Reeves”! And I didn’t even answer. Six months later I said, “No, I’m stopping this.”

For the legend, Keanu Reeves was still credited once under another name, KC Reevesin a TV movie produced in 1986 for The Magical World of Disney. Fortunately, when he broke through Dangerous Liaisons Then Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventurehe had already taken back his real name.