John Wick: Chapter 4' Interviews with Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane
"John Wick: Chapter 4" stars Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Laurence Fishburne (Bowery King), Lance Reddick (Charon), Ian McShane (Winston), Hiroyuki Sanada (Shimazu), Shamier Anderson (Tracker) and director Chad Stahelski discuss the latest "John Wick" film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Asst. Managing Editor Eric Eisenberg. Topics include the most intense "John Wick 4" stunts, Ana De Armas in the upcoming "John Wick" spinoff “Ballerina,” and even how Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt would stand up against John Wick. Plus, we tried to get something about "Constantine 2" out of Keanu Reeves.
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00:00Why don't we just go out and have a drink at a bar?
00:02That got you!
00:03I know!
00:04I have a stare fetish, in case you didn't get that from all the other movies.
00:07That moment, I'm left with kind of, f**k, really?
00:11It's like, ah!
00:12Oh my gosh!
00:13And so it begins...
00:14Well, speaking of just punishing sequences, the one that I really want to ask you about
00:23is the staircase sequence in this one, because, my god, that's a lot of stairs, man!
00:29I didn't get to do that.
00:31I had a wonderful stuntman.
00:32But, I mean, you're still going up those stairs.
00:35Oh, no, no, no.
00:36Don't get me wrong.
00:37There was a lot.
00:38I did, like, 90% of it, but there's a stair fall that was professional.
00:43Sure.
00:44But, yeah, that was very intense.
00:47The other sequence I'll ask about is the Arc de Triomphe, and just being surrounded by
00:50all those cars.
00:51I mean, are you taking those car hits, or, again, is that...
00:54Those are trained professionals.
00:56I'm throwing people into cars.
00:58I'm like, yeah.
00:59So, yeah, I'll leave that to the professionals.
01:03I have a stare fetish, in case you didn't get that from all the other movies about throwing
01:06stunt guys.
01:07It's either car hits or stairs, right?
01:08I can't figure out why.
01:09Or chopping things off hands.
01:10I don't know.
01:11It's very dynamic.
01:12I mean, it is.
01:13It's very stigmata, right?
01:14So, I think Keanu showed up on the first day, and showed up to the bottom when he runs up
01:17and checks his watch, and that's a real honest reaction.
01:21He looks up, and he's like, fuck.
01:23I just think he actually realized, like, oh, we're going to spend the next two weeks here
01:26running up and down.
01:27Yeah.
01:28It was pretty funny.
01:30How do you imagine their lives outside of this work?
01:31Like, do you guys have, like, built backstories for who they are outside of the assassin world?
01:36Oh, yeah.
01:37I think Winston goes back to his Eastside brownstone and plays a lot of Wagner.
01:41That guy!
01:42No!
01:43No.
01:44No.
01:45Because I was imagining, because I imagined him being...
01:47You didn't imagine they lived together.
01:48You don't say they lived together.
01:49No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:50no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:51no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:52no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:53no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:54no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:55no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:02no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:07no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:12no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:18Well, it's canon now. You said it. I'm curious just how you kind of went about filling in
02:23the gaps for yourself and his personal backstory.
02:26For me, what was the sort of defining sort of characteristic of Bowery King was when
02:39John Wick gets in trouble in that second movie and everything looks like it's going to go
02:43right into the toilet. And he pulls this marker out and he hands it to some guy. And
02:48then suddenly you're in this underworld that's underneath the Continental and way
02:56underneath the high table. You're like, what's going on? That he is the safest when
03:06he's with the Bowery King. Like when he's with the Bowery King, he's completely safe.
03:13That for me was sort of the defining thing.
03:18Man has to look his best when it's time to get married or buried.
03:23When you have a character who's introducing him to people as nobody, do you have a
03:27certain like extra feeling of responsibility to figure out who this person is behind all
03:32the mystery?
03:33Of course, of course. I think with any character, you have to do a lot of research for me at
03:37least. And for this one, because I find he's one of the most human characters in the
03:41franchise because he's the audience. He's the guy coming in from the outside world into
03:46their world. And so what I told Chad was, what if the tracker was studying every John
03:51Wick film as if it was a documentary? And so I built this whole backstory that he was
03:55just a student and I would put photos of Keanu in my trailer from the different John
04:01Wicks. And it was like a timeline and like this was the movie that Tracker was going
04:04to have his moment. And then he'd go on to his next mission. So that was kind of like
04:09a bit of a backstory that I built for him, which was fun for me. And obviously that doesn't
04:13make it on the screen, but it helps anchor me and gives him those qualities that folks
04:19like you like.
04:20Well, now I'm going to be just thinking every time I watch the first three, I'm going
04:23to be like, oh, Tracker's out in the back.
04:26Tracker is definitely in every bush, behind every nook and cranny, you know, in all the
04:31John Wick films.
04:32You know, try to make audience happy. Even they watched one, two, three, and then a little
04:44pressure because we have to, they're going to be chair. And also we are new face, so
04:55some freshness bring into the movie. So that was a fun part.
05:01It's not lost. I mean, the magnitude of what this movie has done for people. But at the
05:05same time, you know, I rose to the occasion, I took responsibility and I said, all right,
05:09I'm ready to get down and dirty. I'm going to tussle with Keanu Reeves.
05:13Knowing how many bodies you're throwing at Keanu Reeves, I'm curious if there is a stunt
05:18person who has the record for being killed the most times by John Wick.
05:21They're actually, no lie, I swear to God, Keanu is very tight with the stunt team, obviously.
05:26Keanu actually gave t-shirts, it was like three different t-shirts, like the under 10,
05:30how many times you died in a sequence, and then the 10 to 15. And I think two of our
05:35guys, yes, we know who died the most in a sequence. I think it might've been one of
05:40our guys, Bruce, it's either Bruce or Jeremy, or maybe even Lee. The two biggest ones were
05:45the stair fight and the Arc de Triomphe fight. I think it was the same guy. And he got like
05:4918 kills. But then our jujitsu instructor, Dave Camarillo, had the most number of dog
05:54attacks, both in rehearsal. He's crazy. I mean, he got a t-shirt, Keanu gave him a t-shirt
05:57for like a hundred dog attacks. He did like a hundred. He was like the dog guy. The dogs
06:01just love to play with him. So that was A.
06:03What is the recovery process for making a drama film? And also just, is there a sequence
06:07that left you with kind of the biggest ouch?
06:12Let's see. You know, I think for me, part of the pleasure of these films is the training
06:17and all the action because it's fun and it's a way to express the character. You know,
06:24his struggle getting knocked down, getting back up, fighting for what he wants, believes
06:29in, fighting for. And in terms of the ouchies, you know, we're doing action like 10 hours
06:38a day. So for me, recovery is all about cold water.
06:42Last words, Winston? Just have fun out there.
06:49I think there's a comparison to make between you and Tom Cruise because both of you have
06:53just an extreme love of cinema. You guys love movies so much. And again, you both
06:58personally put yourself on the line. You throw yourself into this action so much. I'd love
07:03kind of your perspective on what he does in the Mission Impossible movies. And also, I
07:07mean, just your thoughts about how Ethan Hunt would step up against John Wick.
07:11Why don't we just go out and have a drink at a bar?
07:14They're on the same side.
07:16Yeah. No, what Tom Cruise does is extraordinary and special and something that, again, another
07:25legend in another universe, you know, he's doing something. I'm more like on the ground
07:31playing in the mud and he's like flying and jumping and outside of buildings and helicopters,
07:39fighter jets. So what he's doing in terms of the events that he's participating in,
07:49I think is extraordinary. And his passion for it, his skill, his talent just shines.
07:56And I think we're just the beneficiaries of his excellence, you know, and he's inspiring.
08:04And I think one thing I could say is that I share, you know, as you spoke about the
08:11passion for movies and for, you know, we're lucky to be there and we're just trying to
08:17have fun and help people like what we do.
08:19And both of you are going to be in the upcoming John Wick spinoff, Ballerina. And I'm just
08:23hoping you could talk about just working with Ana de Armas, kind of your character's dynamic
08:27compared to what Keanu did with John Wick and you guys.
08:30She was great. I was in Prague last November, December.
08:34It was December, yeah.
08:35She was terrific.
08:36I mean, we have a long scene together and she was great.
08:39Yeah. Well, I had a short scene, but I mean, she's just so, she's just so dynamic.
08:47And I mean, I haven't, you know, I wasn't there for any of the action, but given what
08:53I read in the script, it's going to be a hell of a film.
08:56Yeah, Keanu's in it too.
08:58Yeah. So he'd done, yeah, he'd done all this action with her. She was really up for it.
09:03Yeah. I'm stoked to see it.
09:04The director on that series is Len Wiseman. Len was a director I worked for when I was
09:08just a stunt guy, when they were doing the Underworlds and Die Hard 4, I think it was.
09:12So visually, I think Len is, that's why we selected him. And then we kind of, one thing
09:18I wanted to be very clear of is I wanted to be kind of hands-free of anything to do with
09:22it, because I, and that, I just wanted, I think the best way for a property to expand
09:28is to kind of bring in some ideas. I think Len was great wanting to understand themes
09:34and looks and how we do the process of jumping, because it is a little anti-systematic or
09:40anti-illogical probably, illogical. And then Len kind of took that and kind of rolled it
09:45off. But then when, you know, I've gotten to meet Anna a few times and Keanu obviously
09:50had known her from other projects, and she shares a lot of the same attributes that Keanu
09:55does. Like she's got that, I'm going to make this mine and do something cool with it. And
10:00Len is, I think, the perfect director to let somebody expand that way. So I would say that's
10:04probably the most important thing is she gets it, but in her way. And I think that's what
10:09a franchise needs to expand.
10:11We are now at a point in this franchise, we are seeing multiple kind of spinoffs developing.
10:16I'm curious if that's something that you'd be interested in exploring.
10:19I wouldn't have a problem with that.
10:23I mean, certainly if that was on the table, I would be very excited about it. I read a
10:29script a long time ago of a movie that Keanu wound up doing that they wanted me to do a
10:35part in. And I opened the pages and I read it. I read the first two pages of it. And
10:40I had this premonition that I would work with him. It just wasn't going to be that movie.
10:45And it turned out that that was true. And then, like, I don't know, maybe five or six
10:49years later, we wound up doing The Matrix together. So, you know, I'm grateful and I'm
10:58really excited about this one because this one, I think, is the best one of the Wicks
11:02franchises. And whatever, you know, whatever the gods have for us, the cinema gods have
11:08for us out there, I'm just I'm waiting.
11:11You and Donnie Yen, like, that's just two legends right there on screen. Tell me just
11:15about the process of building that scene and working with Donnie Yen.
11:19It was so fun. We have no rehearsal before shooting together. But on set, we put the
11:29idea together, matching for each character's emotion and choreograph everything. So he
11:37said, oh, how about this? Oh, if you do, I can do this. And then boom, boom, boom, boom.
11:43OK, shoot. And then one take, two takes. Done. And a high five. So collaboration was so easy
11:52and exciting and so much fun.
11:55At the end of the last movie, there's a bit of ambiguity regarding whether or not Winston
11:59shoots John Wick because he knows that he'll survive falling off that roof or whether he
12:03does it out of pure self-interest. And I'm curious, just your perspective on that matter.
12:08Well, I'm going to say, of course, he knew he was wearing a bulletproof vest. He said
12:13Winston's an expert marksman and knew that he would survive, bounce off a car 55 stories
12:18down and survive some months and be taken care of by the Bowery King. There was no way
12:23in self-interest whatsoever.
12:27It's the bouncing on the way down and the landing that I had to question about.
12:33We look good together, man.
12:34Well, I was going to say, Sharon fully accepts what he does.
12:39When you say accepts, I mean, it's done. And he's Winston. He's like, you know, I'm his guy.
12:46But I mean, that moment, I'm left with kind of, fuck, really? Shit.
12:53And then I don't know, probably edit it out. But yeah, that was what I was thinking as a character.
12:58I'm a big fan of your Constantine and the fact that you're going to be making a sequel is very exciting.
13:04We're trying. I don't know if it's going to happen.
13:06Well, I'm hoping it does. And just one question that I have is, do you think that you might
13:10go blonde this time?
13:12I know I'm playing a different Constantine than the comic, you know, and I do get in
13:18a bit of trouble for that.
13:20I know, but then I would be gray.
13:22Well, maybe he dyes it and he thinks blonde's a good color.
13:24Yeah, I don't know if I look good as a blonde, but I appreciate that. And I do.
13:31Yeah, hopefully I get to do it, but I don't know.
13:35Hey, DC's working on some interesting things. They've got Elseworlds going.
13:38Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hopefully we can play.