Highlights
- Keanu Reeves took a 90% pay cut for "The Replacements".
- Reeves valued the alternative to paintings with acclaimed actors like Gene Hackman and Al Pacino.
- Despite the film's shortcomings, Reeves won't have regreted his decision.
From securing a colossal $15 million for a mere 384 words of dialogue in John Wick: Chapter Four, to raking in a cumulative $156 million from The Matrix franchise, it's protected to mention that Keanu Reeves has had somewhat the lucrative appearing career.
However, not like most in his place, the Constantine superstar has discovered some somewhat endearing ways to spend his eye-watering $380 million net worth. From turning down big-budget projects in prefer of little-known indie motion pictures to donating chunks of his fortune to charitable causes, Reeves stands proud as considered one of the maximum magnanimous Hollywood stars out there.
Among his lesser-known benevolent gestures is hacking off a whopping 90% from his salary in the 2000s sports comedy, The Replacements, only so the studio may have enough money to hire Gene Hackman in a supporting role. However, not like Devil's Advocate, another film in which Reeves pulled a similar nice-guy stunt, The Replacements struggled to break even, scraping together a mere $100K in box administrative center earnings against its colossal $50 million price range. So, did Reeves remorseful about working for a fraction of his worth, given the film’s lackluster box place of work efficiency?
Keanu Reeves Took A 90 Percent Pay Cut To Star In The Replacements
Keanu Reeves lately ranks among the most bankable stars in Hollywood, along with his newest box workplace masterpiece, John Wick: Chapter Four, raking in a staggering $432.2 million towards a $100 million price range.
But the box administrative center hasn't all the time been so kind to Keanu. In the late 1990s, the now 58-year-old skilled a bit of a downturn in his career, starring in a slew of tepidly gained movies, together with Johnny Mnemonic, Chain Reaction, and Feeling Minnesota.
It was right around this time that Reeves took on the lead role in Howard Deutch's sports comedy, The Replacements. According to the New York Post, the John Wick big name was introduced a whopping $12 million to star in the film; an amount just about a quarter of the movie's price range.
However, issues weren't panning out reasonably as smartly for two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman, whose supporting role in the movie was nonetheless putting in the balance because of finances considerations.
Eager to work with the acclaimed actor, Reeves went forward and pulled yet any other legendary nice-guy stunt; giving up a staggering 90 percent of his wage in order that Warner Bros. Pictures may just manage to pay for Hackman's wage.
The Replacements Ended Up Making Just $100K In Box (*90*) Profits
Despite Keanu Reeves' valiant sacrifice, The Replacements did not exactly make a killing at the box office. Despite debuting in the 3rd position at the North American box workplace, the film went directly to gross a measly $50.1 million globally, slightly recouping its $50 million price range.
The film didn't dazzle on the vital entrance either. Esteemed movie critic Roger Ebert gave the film a mere two stars out of five, chastising each its cliché premise and overstated plot.
“The Replacements is slap-happy leisure painted in wide strokes, two coats thick,” he wrote. “It's like a same old sports activities movie, but with each level made two times or three times--as if we'd never noticed one earlier than. And the musical rating supplies such painstaking directions about feel right through each and every scene, it's like the booklet that tells you find out how to unpack your computer.”
While additionally unimpressed with the premise, Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum went a step further and questioned Reeves' suitability for the lead role.
“I’m charmed that Reeves, with his alt-rocker physique and Zen-adept’s emotionless face, chose to practice up his cult-hit luck as anyone who’s all mind in The Matrix by means of clamping a helmet over his soft, floppy, Pantene-shiny hair and speeding the box as somebody who’s supposed to be all body,” she wrote at the time. “The casting is weird and counterintuitive, bordering on preposterous, however I don’t thoughts; it may suggest a belief glitch on the big name’s part to think that is a position he’s if truth be told suited for, however I prefer to think of him as…unfazed.”
Did Keanu Reeves Regret Taking A 90 Percent Pay Cut To Star In The Replacements?
Despite its lackluster box place of work performance, Keanu Reeves had not anything however just right issues to mention about The Replacements.
“Even regardless that it jumps into cliché – like, there’s the underdog staff, the misfits, there’s a bar fight, the lady and the man looking at each different and falling in love, with the swooning – when I was gazing everyone do their performances, I didn’t think they were simply effects,” he shared with the New York Post. “I felt like every one was a particular person, and that the comedy was popping out of the humanity.”
Moreover, the John Wick superstar didn't harbor any regrets about working for scale in the film, as is evident from his 2008 interview with Total Film (UK), where he spoke candidly about slashing his salary for the film and relinquishing $2 million for Devil's Advocate, all in the pursuit of sharing the display screen with Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, respectively.
“[Gene Hackman] and I had lighter, much lighter, scenes to do,” he said. “But to hang out with him and to see how - each actors - simply see how they pass about their craft... They're both such gorgeous actors. We don't think of Al Pacino now with economic system, but that's what he has. He's simply a gorgeous actor and Gene Hackman is some other nonpareil, you understand?”
As for why losing such a colossal bite of cash didn’t faze him, Reeves admitted to New York Post. “For me, I assume I don’t connect the enjoyment and the cash. I work on a phase and confidently notice a part, and make just right films. Some of the successes I’ve had I’m grateful for, because it creates other alternatives. [The way] I look at it is I am getting to behave again.”
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