Johnny Depp Couldn’t Beat Keanu Reeves for Career Defining Franchise Despite Getting Ahead of Brad Pitt and Will Smith

Without a doubt, the public adores Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves for who they are as individuals, and both performers are thought to have excelled in their roles. A devoted following of fans supports both performers relentlessly and eagerly anticipates their upcoming endeavors.

Johnny Depp was the first choice to play a very successful and popular character that Keanu Reeves eventually played and it became a career-defining project for him. Let’s find out.

Also read: “I started losing feeling and balance”: Keanu Reeves Chose to Hide His Injury for $465M Action Movie with Laurence Fishburne

Johnny Depp was the first choice for Neo in Keanu Reeves’ The Matrix 

1999’s science fiction action movie The Matrix, written and directed by the Wachowskis sisters, was the first installment in the Matrix film series and starred Keanu Reeves as Neo. Reeves made that character his own, which is one of the reasons why the audience still loves to go back to The Matrix.

But it has been known that Keanu Reeves was in fact not the first choice to play the lead in the movie, instead, it was Johnny Depp. According to an interview with Don Davis, the composer of The Matrix, it was revealed that Reeves was not the first choice for the creators to play Neo. He said,

“As far as casting goes, Keanu Reeves wasn’t Larry and Andy’s first choice, Johnny Depp was their first choice for Neo. Warner Bros. was going for this thing where they didn’t want Johnny Depp, they wanted Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. They told Larry and Andy if Brad Pitt would do the picture, they’d green light it right then.”

He continued,

“After Kilmer and Brad Pitt said no, Warner Bros. was willing to consider Johnny Depp, so it sort of came down to between Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, who Warner Bros. was pushing. Keanu was always really tuned in to the concept and that made a big difference to Larry and Andy. I think it was a brilliant choice.”

Lorenzo di Bonaventura mentioned that the makers also considered changing the character of Neo from male to female and had considered Sandra Bullock for the part.

Also read: Keanu Reeves Had To Scream in the Middle of an Ocean To Take Out His Anger After Hollywood Almost Robbed Actor of His Name

Keanu Reeves almost lost the role of Neo

In an appearance on The Art of Action podcast, Keanu Reeves revealed that he was afraid that he was going to get replaced as Neo in The Matrix if he disclosed his injuries, which is why he decided to keep it to himself. He said,

“One of the things they talked about in the meeting was training in Hong Kong-style martial arts and asked if I was okay with that, and that it was over four months and I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds okay.’ The only problem – I was dealing with a neck issue which was getting worse, I’d spent a couple of years fighting it off, I was getting tingling.”

The actor continued that he had a bulging and fractured disc which caused him to lose feeling and balance, but he wanted to play Neo in The Matrix, so he said yes to the movie, and went for four months of training until it was pretty bad and he decided to see a doctor.

Reeves noted,

“I went to a neck doctor, and basically I had spinal stenosis too. My spinal column was being sausaged basically, so I had to have a two-level fusion on my spine before training, and they put a plate in my neck. But I never actually told anyone because I didn’t want to tell anyone I wouldn’t be able to make the film.”

Keanu Reeves mentioned that the doctors had put the plate in his neck and told him to start moving right away and he trained for The Matrix in a neck brace.

Also read: Without Johnny Depp’s First Wife Nicolas Cage Would Have Never Changed Disney Star’s Life