As some know, actor Keanu Reeves was approached to star in the sequel to the 1994 action hit Speed. But at the time, the actor turned down the offer. Among his reasons for rejecting the role, Reeves felt that rejecting Speed 2 was a life-or-death moment for his career.
Keanu Reeves felt that doing ‘Speed 2’ would ruin him
The original Speed, directed by Jan de Bont, was a commercial hit when it came out in 1994. Not only did it make a lot of money at the box office, but it helped further launch Reeves’ career. So a couple of years later, it’s no wonder why The Matrix star was offered a chance to do the sequel. However, Reeves turned down the opportunity.
“When I was offered Speed 2, Jan came to Chicago and so did Sandra, and they said, ‘You’ve got to do this,’” Reeves recalled in an interview with Telegraph. “And I said, ‘I read the script and I can’t. It’s called Speed, and it’s on a cruise ship.”
But this wasn’t enough to completely dissuade others from trying to recruit Reeves. The former head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, William Mechanic, tried to offer Reeves $12 million to change his mind. But Reeves stuck to his guns, as he felt if he did the film, his career would sink.
“And I told him, ‘If I do this film, I will not come back up. You guys will send me to the bottom of the ocean and I will not make it back up again. I really felt like I was fighting for my life,” he added.
But even though Reeves turned down the script, there were certain elements about the original Speed he wouldn’t have minded revisiting.
“I really wanted to work with Sandra Bullock, and I really loved playing Jack Traven,” he once said on The Graham Norton Show.
Keanu Reeves believed he was blacklisted for 14 years after turning down ‘Speed 2’
Turning down the sequel came with swift consequences for Reeves. The actor believed he was blacklisted from working with Fox for 14 years, and only finally reunited with them for The Day the Earth Stood Still in 2008. But Reeves held no regrets. In fact, if he had to make the decision all over again, he asserted that he wouldn’t change anything.
“That’s a good old Hollywood story! That was a whole, ‘Hey, kid, this is what happens in Hollywood: I said no to the number two and I never worked with the studio again,’” Reeves explained.
Would Keanu Reeves be interested in doing ‘Speed 3?’
The last couple of years have seen an older Keanu Reeves return to breathe new life into old franchises. He recently starred alongside Alex Winter in Bill & Ted Face the Music. He continued this trend by reprising his role as Neo in Matrix Resurrections. Because of this newfound run of him bringing back franchises, some have questioned if Reeves would further the tradition with Speed. However unlikely the idea may be, it’s not something he’s ruling out.
“I can’t say never because I’m standing here on Matrix Resurrections and at the end of the trilogy, I did die, so you can’t say never… I was pretty dead… But now I’m back… Find out why,” Reeves said in an interview with Extra.
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