Image via Murray Close / Lionsgate //
Any chance you need a vocal coach, Keanu?
In what’s sure to be the craziest instance of being overpaid since his reprisal of Neo in The Matrix reboot (I said what I said), Keanu Reeves’ reported salary for his performance in John Wick: Chapter 4 has leaked, and it’s downright outrageous.
But first, for some context, the John Wick films know what they are, and they have never pretend to be anything more than an over-the-top action film with more gunfights than the 1961 Western, Gun Fight. And as the films have rolled on throughout the years, the emphasis on said gun fights have gotten more and more distinct. For instance, in the first John Wick, Keanu Reeves, said a total of 484 words, 13 of which being the iconic line “Tell them. Whoever comes, whoever it is, I’ll kill them… I’ll kill them all.” In John Wick: Chapter 4, he’s cut it down to 380 words, with his longest line of dialogue being, “You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend.”
Let’s be real, the latter quote is barely a line, but according to the accountants of Hollywood, that’s a bloody Shakespeare-length monologue, or at least that’s what you’d think after finding out he got paid $552,622 USD for it. That, and brace yourselves folks, is $39,000 USD per word, with his performance in the film earning him $15 million USD overall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjRHZEUamCc
It’s pretty cooked when you put it in those terms, which makes the fact that he allegedly played all the characters in the film’s pre-production table read all the more hilarious. Now, normally I’d be boiling with jealousy and envy over a Hollywood actor getting paid an insane amount of dosh for relatively nothing (never heard of that before), but considering that Reeves does literally all of these stunts himself and more often than not has several near-death experiences while making these movies, I’d say it all balances out in the end. For now, check out the trailer for John Wick: Chapter Four above along with his iconic line from the first film below.
