Keanu Reeves Almost Didn't Play John Wick—Until a Famous Actress Stepped In

While there certainly would be Keanu Reeves without John Wick, we doubt the opposite is true. After successfully doing four John Wick movies, there is now room for a fifth, and fans are absolutely over the moon. As John Wick says in the first movie, “People keep asking if I'm back...Yeahh!! I'm thinking I'm back.”

While the excitement continues, there wouldn't be any John Wick movie, had one cool actress not stepped in to help.

The John Wick movie franchise has really taken off from the very first 2014 release, and now Ana de Armas stars in the spin-off, Ballerina, as well. With news of a fifth movie, there's also an animated prequel being planned, which means John Wick will continue to light up screens for quite a while. That being said, there was trouble during the very first movie.

The billion-plus franchise had its 10th anniversary in 2024, and co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (only the latter was credited) revealed how the franchise almost never happened, given the first film was being canned.

Chad Stahelski shared, “We were less than a week out, and we lost almost $6 million on a gap financing. We had all put in everything, including Keanu. And we were still short. So we were shut down.”

At that time, The Creative Artists Agency then offered the film to several actors as an investment opportunity, promising them returns from profits. One actress took it up, though she did not know the directors at the time.

Recalls Stahelski, “She came to the rescue and she provided the gap financing. Literally less than 24 hours before we had to lock the doors on the movie and walk away. Our producer said, 'We've got the investor, we've locked the gap.'” The rest is movie history.

The actress in question turned out to be Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria. The actress shared in an interview that it was not a planned or well-though-out decision. She recalls, “I would love to say I was an investment genius and I just knew, and I calculated my risk. No, none of that. An agent, and he wasn’t even my agent, he called me and said, 'You got money, you should put your money here.'”

Longoria admitted that while she had no idea about the movie, she loved investing in people. She said, “I mean, [directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch] did their work. They put in their 10,000 hours as stunt guys and second unit directors; they had seen all the bad movies and knew how to make a good one. It was that. They were undeniably passionate, and I knew they were going to make an undeniable product.”

Clearly, she was right, and still gets checks in the mail, having made approximately $6 million of profit herself.

Her only regret? The actress admits, “This was a one-time thing. [...] But that was my only mistake, not being attached to all of the films.”

That being said, she also revels in being the actual “hero” who saved John Wick, and that it's always fun to run into Keanu Reeves, or the directors. She said, “[Keanu and I] ran into each other because of his girlfriend, Alexandra. We know her through some friends, and we met her and Keanu at an art event. Keanu said, 'I’d love to take you to dinner; we should celebrate 10 years.' So we toasted to John Wick.”

We'd toast to Keanu Reeves and Eva Longoria too, anytime!

Hollywood has its happy secrets, just like any other industry. Here's another such story — Helen Mirren feels so connected to her co-star, she thinks they need to get a DNA test!