For a veteran star like Keanu Reeves, it is a surprise he never got to work with legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Fans would think they would have been a match made in heaven simply because they like doing a lot of takes, but the actor believes he would only break him for a hilarious reason.
Reeves is a perfectionist actor who takes his job seriously. He always wants to deliver the best possible performance, and that’s why he asks for several takes. Despite his talent and legacy, he doesn’t think he’s capable of just doing a single take.
Keanu Reeves would have given Stanley Kubrick the worst nightmare of his career
Before John Wick, we knew Keanu Reeves from the sci-fi action franchise The Matrix. He said that blockbusters like these films afforded him to do several takes compared to small-budget projects. Because of this, the actor felt like he would have been Stanley Kubrick’s worst nightmare.
The late director was also known for doing a lot of takes, but the Canadian star revealed in his interview with The Guardian that he would have pushed Kubrick’s limit and eventually get on his nerves.
I would’ve been his wet dream! After take 400, Kubrick would’ve been, [adopts grizzled Brooklyn accent] ‘All right, cut!’ and I’d be, like, ‘Stanley, can I do one more?’ ‘Whaaat?’ ‘Look, I know I’m just drinking this glass of water, but I think I can find another side to this. Let’s just do one more, OK?’
Reeves joked that he would have “broken” the filmmaker because a hundred takes is already too much. Nonetheless, it is a shame that we never got to witness the actor collaborate with Kubrick before the latter passed away in 1999. Reeves notably starred in The Matrix in the same year, which was the film that catapulted him to stardom.
Doing a lot of takes is quite common in the industry, although Kubrick was not oblivious to the fact that his reputation preceded him. One infamous detail about his 1980 film The Shining was that one scene took 148 takes to get it right.
Stanley Kubrick only did several takes when his actors didn’t take their jobs seriously
Kubrick was regarded as one of the most brilliant filmmakers in Hollywood, and while he admitted to the excessive amount of takes, he explained via Outstanding Screenplays that “actors are sometimes undisciplined enough not to go home and go to sleep at night and learn their lines.”
This makes a lot of sense, especially if we take into consideration how actors have enough time to rehearse and yet are not able to pull off the scene as expected. Regardless, it is all about teamwork and communication, and if there is a good rapport between the director and actor, then it is possible not to have too many takes for a single scene.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
