Keanu Reeves and the movie that tainted his record: the actor was cheated on
Keanu Reeves is one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood, his unmatched charisma and his great talent on camera enchant anyone.
In more than two decades, Reeves has gifted the world with incredible performances, all thanks to films like The Matrix, Constantine or John Wick. Recently, he even made his debut in the field of video games, actively participating in the Cyberpunk 2077 project (scheduled for November 2020).
By now, Reeves has earned the success and respect of great figures in the film industry, but that doesn't mean he has an impeccable record. Like most celebrities in Hollywood, he too had a slight setback in his career, which left him with a bitter experience.
Reeves was part of the feature film The Watcher (2000). This one tells the story of an FBI police officer who pursues a femicide. The hunt becomes intense given the speed with which the criminal acts.
Keanu played David Griffin, the villain of the story, and although his performance was not bad, it is rare to see the actor in antagonistic roles.
So far everything sounds "promising", but the film only achieved a rating of 10/100 by Rotten Tomatoes. As if the film's zero popularity wasn't enough, it is known that Reeves was tricked into being on the project.
In an exclusive Screen Rant report, sources close to Keanu claimed that his appearance on The Watcher was thanks to his ex-friend Joe Charbanic, who was a poorly recognized director.
Joe proposed to Reeves that he appear in the film with "a small role", just so that his name would give the project good funding. Verbally, Keanu agreed, but everything went wrong and his character was rewritten to become the lead, appearing throughout much of the film (rather than just a small part as agreed).
Keanu considered retiring after the drastic changes, but his legal team advised him not to: breaching the agreement (even if it was verbal) could trigger a long trial.
Reluctantly, Reeves stayed, but the actor's annoyance increased by two more factors: his fellow co-stars (James Spader and Marisa Tomei) were paid considerably more than his; and on the other hand, Reeves had to turn down a film that he was enthusiastic about to fulfill the Joe tape.
To soften the situation, the distributor of The Watcher reached an agreement with Reeves: the actor would be excluded from the commercialization and press presentations, but yes, clarifying that he could only talk about his bad experience when a year had passed since the premiere.
As the agreed time span passed, Reeves revealed the whole story, including the fact that another likely ex-friend would have forged his signature on a secondary contract for The Watcher.
Sure the actor went through a lot of courage. Not only did his "friend of him" abuse his trust, but on top of that, he was faced with the fact that the film turned out to be a failure. What do you think about the director's actions? Tell us in the comments.
