It’s been a busy 2021 for Keanu Reeves. A dangerous one too, it seems.
With the imminent release of the fourth entry into the Matrix franchise, “The Matrix Resurrections," the 57-year-old actor is opening up about the death-defying tricks he performed to give fans the action they’ve become accustomed to for his portrayal of Neo.
The latest stop for Reeves on the Matrix hype tour had him landing on Stephen Colbert’s couch for a fun interview on "The Late Show." As Yahoo reported, a high point -- figuratively and literally -- was when the two discussed the real life stunts Reeves endured during filming for “The Matrix Resurrections.”
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Colbert asked what was the craziest stunt he had to attempt, and Reeves flatly replied, “Jump off a building.”
To which Colbert queried, “How big of a building are we talking here?”
“I’m gonna say about 46 stories,” replied the action star.
Some might recall when that particular stunt was in the news last year, as fans gawked and took videos when Reeves and co-star Carrie-Anne Moss filmed the sky-high scene in San Francisco.
Given we live in a world where CGI can take all the chances, Colbert wondered why they didn’t leave the scary stuff to the green screen. “Because,” said Reeves, “it's [director] Lana Wachowski, and it’s The Matrix, and you need natural light and you want to do it real."
Now in case jumping off a 46-story building wasn’t daunting enough, this is a movie, so of course the actors had to do it a number of times. “How many times?” Colbert asked.
“We wanted to do it in the perfect light in the morning, so around 19 to 20 times,” Reeves responded.
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Of course there were still many green screen scenes shot for “The Matrix Resurrections,” and for that 46-story leap, both actors were wearing safety wires while attempting the jumps. But considering Reeves admitted to being afraid of heights and told Colbert he would never even do bungee jumping, this particular stunt is even more impressive.
“You can't think of the fear,” Reeves said.”You have to deal with it, absorb it, and then just be there and do…and that's what we did.”
"It was awesome!" Reeves added.
"The Matrix" star also turned the tables and asked Colbert about an odd occurrence when dealing with high-up sequences. “What happens when you get old,” he asked, “and you’re on heights, and then you start getting attracted to, like, wanting to jump? What is that?”
Colbert answered, “That is a reason to seek help.”
"The Matrix Resurrections" hits theaters and HBO Max on December 22.
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