Keanu Reeves Tearfully Remembers Late 'John Wick' Co-Star Lance Reddick
Keanu Reeves is still mourning and remembering his “John Wick” co-star, Lance Reddick.
The beloved action star delivered a heartfelt speech Sunday after winning the inaugural Lance Reddick Legacy Award at the 51st Saturn Awards and poignantly spoke about his late friend — who died of heart disease at 60 last year — on the red carpet afterward.
“He’s such a remarkable person and such a remarkable artist,” Reeves told Entertainment Tonight. “You can see over 25 years he gave such amazing performances and groundbreaking television shows. He did voice, he did like animation, cinema, television, video games, he just did it all.”
“Obviously he passed away too soon,” he added.
Sunday’s ceremony in Burbank, California, arrived one decade after Reeves first worked with Reddick on “John Wick” (2014) and mere weeks before the one-year anniversary of his death on March 17. The fourth “John Wick” film premiered one week after Reddick died.
“He was kind, generous, creative, insightful, authentic,” Reeves said of the late actor during his acceptance speech at the Saturn Awards. “He had a special grace, strength, along with a vulnerability that drew us in, supported us, inspired us. He had a fire, creative fire. A light from within him that could not be denied.”
The “John Wick” franchise is best known for its hyper-stylized fight scenes and bone-breaking choreography, but Reeves noted Reddick’s character, Charon, was just as integral — as the loyal hotel concierge humanized Wick’s cold-blooded desperation for revenge.
Reeves and Reddick made four "John Wick" films together.
“I once … wrote him a letter and I said, ‘people love John Wick because Charon loves John Wick,’” Reeves told People at the ceremony. “Because that character loved John Wick, that made John Wick OK. And so when I got to act with him, we had such an affection.”
Reeves and Chad Stahelski, the stuntman who created the franchise, released a joint statement after Reddick died to express their “heartbroken” loss.
Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie, and children, Yvonne Nicole and Christopher.