Keanu Reeves Says His Contracts Ban Digital Tweaks to His Performances

Keanu Reeves is content to stick to the red pill when it comes to the uncomfortable truths about acting deepfakes.

In a recent Wired interview to promote the upcoming release of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the “Matrix” actor explained why he refuses to allow digital tweaks to be made to his performances in post-production — and why he has an actual clause in his film contracts prohibiting them.

More from IndieWire

• Keanu Reeves Begged Warner Bros. 'Every Year' for a 'Constantine' Sequel

• Jonah Hill to Direct Keanu Reeves in 'Outcome'

“Yeah, digitally. I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit,” Reeves said. “But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed. They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, ‘Huh?!’ It was like, I don’t even have to be here.”

His comments arrive at a time of much fascination over the de-aging technology used on Harrison Ford for the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” to make the actor look like vintage Indy. And then there’s the kind of digital necromancy that’s becoming the province of franchise IP: As recently as “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” for example, actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994, was digitally brought back to life to play Grand Moff Tarkin.

“What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency,” Reeves said of deepfakes. “When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary. It’s going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies. They’re having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied. There’s so much ‘data’ on behaviors now.”

Reeves also cautioned against the technologies that allow for such manipulations. “People are growing up with these tools: We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art,” Reeves said. “It’s cool, like, Look what the cute machines can make! But there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we’re gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the non-value. And then what’s going to be pushed on us? What’s going to be presented to us?”

“John Wick: Chapter 4” hits theaters March 24.

Best of IndieWire

• Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies: 57 Films the Director Wants You to See

• The Best Romance Movies of the 21st Century, from 'High Fidelity' to 'Carol'

• Sundance 2023 Movie Deals So Far: 'Magazine Dreams' and 'Shayda' Find Homes After the Festival

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.