Keanu Reeves is one of the most beloved actors in the world today, in part due to his charitable and giving attitude that has been seen for several decades.
While the 59-year-old actor, best known for his roles as Neo in the legendary 1999 film The Matrix and as John Wick in the John Wick Saga, is estimated to have a net worth of 380 million dollars, he’s also known for being very selfless when it comes to his funds.
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This is especially the case when it comes to acting itself - the soon-to-be Shadow the Hedgehog voice actor is known to treat staff and crew quite well. One such case of this was when he famously gifted each of the 12 men on his stunt crew for The Matrix Reloaded (2003) Harley Davidson motorcycles for their efforts.
“We were all in this thing, and we were training together beforehand," Reeves explained in a 2003 interview with Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“I just wanted...to give a bigger thank-you to all these guys who helped me make this, I think, one of the great movie fights in the history of cinema.”
His gift to his hardworking stunt crew is not the only way in which Reeves has invested his money back into his own movies. Beyond stories of Keanu giving up residual payments from The Matrix films so the special effects team could have a higher budget, he’s also reportedly taken pay cuts so that he can be joined by other top movie stars in his films.
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His admiration of Al Pacino led to Reeves gladly taking a 2 million dollar pay cut for his efforts in the 1997 film The Devil’s Advocate. The horror movie had a total budget of 56 million dollars, a limit that Pacino’s asking price would not fit into if Reeves had not made the decision to take the cut.
Reeves made a similar sacrifice in his 2000 movie The Replacements, in which he reportedly took a 90% pay cut to ensure that Gene Hackman was cast in the film. By this point, with the first installment of The Matrix already in his rearview mirror, Reeves felt even more comfortable about taking the cut.
When discussing both his work with Hackman and Pacino in a Total Film interview with Aubrey Day, Reeves had no regrets regarding either of his infamous pay cuts.
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“To hang out with him and just see how, both actors, just see how they go about their craft,” Keanu recalled in the 2008 interview.
“They are both just such beautiful actors.”
Dylan Murray