“Speed” starring…Chuck Spadina?
Crazy? Yes. But it almost occurred.
Keanu Reeves appeared on the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast with brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, and the actor revealed that he almost glided by the stage name “Chuck Spadina.”
The “Matrix” star, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon and grew up in Toronto, recounted transferring to Los Angeles as a 20-year-old and discovering a supervisor who needed to alter his name.
The actor, who’s selling his new movie “Good Fortune,” didn’t love the thought and seen it as “a welcome to Hollywood (moment).”
“I remember I was walking on the beach, and I was just like, ‘My name? What if I change my name? What?’” he recalled.
Reeves then tried to give you some alternate options.
“My middle name is Charles, so I was like, ‘…Chuck?’” he stated. “And I grew up on a street called Spadina, (therefore) Chuck Spadina.”
Ultimately, he turned KC Reeves, which didn’t thrill him.
“And then I couldn’t do it. So then I would be in auditions, and they would go, ‘KC Reeves.’ And I wouldn’t even answer,” he stated. “Six months later, I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.’ That’s a Hollywood moment.”
Jason and Travis Kelce have an excellent observe document of getting Hollywood stars to share tales about stage names that by no means got here to be.
Last month, Leonardo DiCaprio appeared on the podcast together with his “One Battle After Another” costar Benicio del Toro and spoke about being advised his name was “too ethnic” as a toddler actor. He was as an alternative dubbed “Lenny Williams.”
“I was 12, 13. I said, ‘What is Lenny Williams? We took your middle name and we made it. Now you’re Lenny,’” DiCaprio stated.
Thankfully, that one didn’t stick both.