Keanu Reeves hid a spinal injury from the directors so as not to lose his role in The Matrix

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Keanu Reeves is the newest guest on The Art of Action podcast. In the issue, he talked with his colleague in “John Wick 4” Scott Adkins. Keanu revealed that he hid a spinal injury from the directors of the Wachowskis in order to star in The Matrix. Reeves liked the script of the film, so he agreed to participate and began to discuss the project. The Wachowskis asked him if he was ready for martial arts training, but the actor had a neck problem at the time.

I was filming Chain Reaction in Chicago and they gave me a couple of epidurals, shots in my spine. I had a herniated and fractured disc, I was already losing sensation and balance,” Reeves explained.

He nevertheless accepted the role and prepared for four months of training. After a while, Reeves had to go to the doctor, who found he had spinal stenosis.

My spine was like a sausage, so I had to put on a neck brace before training, and they also put a plate in my neck. But I didn’t tell anyone about it, because I wanted to act in the film. It turned out that at that time the way to recover from spinal surgery was different: they put a plate in my neck and told me to immediately start moving, Reeves said.

Recall that on the air of the Smartless podcast, Keanu Reeves admitted that at the beginning of his career, his agent advised the future star to change his name. According to the manager, Keanu was too “ethnic” for Hollywood. The young actor hesitated and decided to try the name Templeton. However, this pseudonym did not take root, and instead of the name Keanu began to use his initials (K.S. Reeves).