"John Wick: Chapter 4" stars Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Laurence Fishburne (Bowery King), Lance Reddick (Charon), Ian McShane (Winston), Hiroyuki Sanada (Shimazu), Shamier Anderson (Tracker) and director Chad Stahelski discuss the latest "John Wick" film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Asst. Managing Editor Eric Eisenberg. Topics include the most intense "John Wick 4" stunts, Ana De Armas in the upcoming "John Wick" spinoff “Ballerina,” and even how Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt would stand up against John Wick. Plus, we tried to get something about "Constantine 2" out of Keanu Reeves.
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00:00Why don't we just go out and have a drink at a bar?
00:02That got you!
00:03I know!
00:04I have a stare fetish, in case you didn't get that from all the other movies.
00:07That moment, I'm left with kind of, f**k, really?
00:11It's like, ah!
00:12Oh my gosh!
00:13And so it begins...
00:14Well, speaking of just punishing sequences, the one that I really want to ask you about
00:23is the staircase sequence in this one, because, my god, that's a lot of stairs, man!
00:29I didn't get to do that.
00:31I had a wonderful stuntman.
00:32But, I mean, you're still going up those stairs.
00:35Oh, no, no, no.
00:36Don't get me wrong.
00:37There was a lot.
00:38I did, like, 90% of it, but there's a stair fall that was professional.
00:43Sure.
00:44But, yeah, that was very intense.
00:47The other sequence I'll ask about is the Arc de Triomphe, and just being surrounded by
00:50all those cars.
00:51I mean, are you taking those car hits, or, again, is that...
00:54Those are trained professionals.
00:56I'm throwing people into cars.
00:58I'm like, yeah.
00:59So, yeah, I'll leave that to the professionals.
01:03I have a stare fetish, in case you didn't get that from all the other movies about throwing
01:06stunt guys.
01:07It's either car hits or stairs, right?
01:08I can't figure out why.
01:09Or chopping things off hands.
01:10I don't know.
01:11It's very dynamic.
01:12I mean, it is.
01:13It's very stigmata, right?
01:14So, I think Keanu showed up on the first day, and showed up to the bottom when he runs up
01:17and checks his watch, and that's a real honest reaction.
01:21He looks up, and he's like, fuck.
01:23I just think he actually realized, like, oh, we're going to spend the next two weeks here
01:26running up and down.
01:27Yeah.
01:28It was pretty funny.
01:30How do you imagine their lives outside of this work?
01:31Like, do you guys have, like, built backstories for who they are outside of the assassin world?
01:36Oh, yeah.
01:37I think Winston goes back to his Eastside brownstone and plays a lot of Wagner.
01:41That guy!
01:42No!
01:43No.
01:44No.
01:45Because I was imagining, because I imagined him being...
01:47You didn't imagine they lived together.
01:48You don't say they lived together.
01:49No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:50no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:51no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:52no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:53no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:54no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
01:55no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:02no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:07no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:12no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
02:18Well, it's canon now. You said it. I'm curious just how you kind of went about filling in
02:23the gaps for yourself and his personal backstory.
02:26For me, what was the sort of defining sort of characteristic of Bowery King was when
02:38John Wick gets in trouble in that second movie and everything looks like it's going to go
02:43right into the toilet. And he pulls this marker out and he hands it to some guy. And
02:48then suddenly you're in this underworld that's underneath the Continental and way
02:56underneath the high table. You're like, what's going on? That he is the safest when
03:06he's with the Bowery King. Like when he's with the Bowery King, he's completely safe.
03:13That for me was sort of the defining thing.
03:18Man has to look his best when it's time to get married or buried.
03:23When you have a character who's introducing them to people as nobody, do you have a
03:27certain like extra feeling of responsibility to figure out who this person is behind all
03:32the mystery?
03:33Of course, of course. I think with any character, you have to do a lot of research for me at
03:37least. And for this one, because I find he's one of the most human characters in the
03:41franchise because he's the audience. He's the guy coming in from the outside world
03:46into their world. And so what I told Chad was, what if the Tracker was studying every
03:51John Wick film as if it was a documentary? And so I built this whole backstory that he
03:55was just a student and I would put photos of Keanu in my trailer from the different
04:00John Wicks. And it was like a timeline and like this was the movie that Tracker was
04:04going to have his moment. And then he'd go on to his next mission. So that was kind
04:09of like a bit of a backstory that I built for him, which was fun for me. And obviously
04:13that doesn't make it on the screen, but it helps anchor me and gives him those qualities
04:18that, you know, folks like you like.
04:20Well, now I'm going to be just thinking every time I watch the first three, I'm going
04:23to be like, oh, Tracker's out in the back.
04:25Tracker is definitely in every bush, behind every nook and cranny, you know, in all the
04:31John Wick films.
04:32You know, try to make audience happy. Even they watched one, two, three, and then a little
04:43pressure because we have to, they're going to be chair. And also we are new face, so
04:54some freshness bring into the movie. So that was a fun part.
05:01It's not lost. I mean, the magnitude of what this movie has done for people, but at
05:05the same time, you know, I rose to the occasion. I took responsibility and I said, all right,
05:09Chad, I'm ready to get down and dirty. I'm going to tussle with Keanu Reeves.
05:13Knowing how many bodies you're throwing at Keanu Reeves, I'm curious if there is
05:17a stunt person who has the record for being killed the most times by John Wick.
05:21They're actually, no lie, I swear to God. Keanu's very tight with the stunt team,
05:26obviously. Keanu actually gave t-shirts, like the under 10, how many times you died
05:31in a sequence. And then the 10 to 15. And then I think two of our guys, yes, we know
05:37who died the most in a sequence. I think it might've been one of our guys, Bruce.
05:41It's either Bruce or Jeremy. Maybe even Lee. The two biggest ones were the stair fight
05:46and the Arc de Triomphe fight. I think it was the same guy. And he got like eight king
05:49killings. But then our jujitsu instructor, Dave Camarillo, had the most number of dog
05:54attacks, both in rehearsal. He's crazy. I mean, he got a t-shirt, can't give it to you,
05:57but like a hundred dog attacks. He did like a hundred. He was like the dog guy. The dogs
06:01just love to play with him. So that was A.
06:03What is the recovery process for making a John Wick film? And also just, is there a
06:07sequence that left you with kind of the biggest ouch?
06:10Um, let's see. You know, I think for me, part of the pleasure of these films is the
06:16training and all the action because it's fun and it's a way to express the character.
06:24You know, his struggle getting knocked down, getting back up, fighting for what he wants,
06:28believes in, fighting for. Um, and in terms of the ouchies, uh, you know, we're doing
06:36action like 10, 10 hours a day. So for me, recovery is all about cold water.
06:41Last words, Winston? Just have fun out there.
06:47I think there's a comparison to make between you and Tom Cruise because both of you have
06:53just an extreme love of cinema. You guys love movies so much. And again, you both personally
06:58put yourself on the line. You throw yourself into this action so much. I'd love kind of
07:03your perspective on what he does in the Mission Impossible movies. And also, I mean, just
07:08your thoughts about how Ethan Hunt would, uh, step up against John Wick.
07:11Why don't we just go out and have a drink at a bar?
07:15They're on the same side.
07:16Yeah. Uh, no. What Tom Cruise does is extraordinary and special and something that, again, another
07:25legend in another universe, you know, he's, he's doing something. I'm more like on the
07:30ground playing in the mud and he's like flying and jumping and outside of buildings and helicopters,
07:39fighter jets. Um, so what he's doing in terms of the events that he's, he's, uh, participating
07:46in, um, I think is extraordinary and his passion for it, his skill, his talent, uh, just shines.
07:56And I think we're just the benefit, you know, the beneficiaries of his excellence, you know?
08:02Um, and he's inspiring. And, uh, I think one thing I could say is that I share, you know,
08:09as you spoke about the passion for movies and for, you know, we're lucky to be there
08:16and we're just trying to have fun and help people like what we do.
08:19And both of you are going to be in the upcoming John Wick spinoff, Ballerina.
08:22Yeah.
08:23Uh, and I'm just hoping you can talk about just working with Ana de Armas, kind of your
08:26character's dynamic compared to, uh, what Keanu did with John Wick and you guys.
08:30She was great. I was in Prague last November, December.
08:34It was December, yeah.
08:35She was terrific.
08:36I mean, we have a long scene together and she was great.
08:39Yeah.
08:40Well, I had a short scene, but, uh, um, I mean, she's just so, she's just so dynamic.
08:47Uh, and I mean, I haven't, I haven't, you know, I wasn't there for any of the action,
08:52but, uh, given what I read in the script, it's going to be a hell of a film.
08:56Yeah, Keanu's in it too.
08:58Yeah.
08:59So he'd done, yeah.
09:00He'd done all this action with her.
09:02She was really up for it.
09:03Yeah.
09:04Yeah.
09:05I'm stoked to see it.
09:06The director on that series, Len Wiseman.
09:07Um, Len was a director I worked for when I was just a stunt guy, when they were doing
09:10the Underworlds and Die Hard 4, I think it was.
09:12Um, so visually I think Len is, that's why we selected him.
09:16And then we kind of, one thing I wanted to be very clear of is I wanted to be kind of
09:21hands-free of anything to do with it.
09:23And that I just wanted, I think the true, the best way for a property to expand is to
09:28kind of bring in some ideas.
09:30I think Len was great wanting to understand themes and looks and how we do the process
09:36of jump because it is a little anti-systematic or anti-illogical probably, illogical.
09:42Um, and then Len kind of took that and kind of rolled it off.
09:45But then when, you know, I, I've gotten to meet Anna a few times and Keanu obviously
09:50I'd known her from other projects and she shares a lot of the same attributes that Keanu
09:55does.
09:56Like she's got that, I'm going to make this mine and do something cool with it.
09:59And Len is, I think the perfect director to let, let somebody expand that way.
10:03So I would say that's probably the most important thing is she gets it, but in her
10:08way.
10:09And I think that's what a franchise needs to, to, to expand.
10:11We are now at a point in this franchise, we are seeing multiple kind of spinoffs
10:15developing.
10:16I'm curious if that's something that you'd be interested in exploring.
10:19I wouldn't have a problem with that.
10:23I mean, certainly if that was, if that was on the table, I would be very excited about
10:28it.
10:29I read a script a long time ago, uh, of a movie that Keanu wound up doing that they
10:34wanted me to do a part in.
10:36And I opened the pages and I read it.
10:38I read the first two pages of it.
10:40And I had this premonition that I would work with him.
10:43It just wasn't going to be that movie.
10:45And it turned out that that was true.
10:46And then like, I don't know, maybe five or six years later, we wound up doing The Matrix
10:51together.
10:52So, you know, I, I, I'm grateful and, um, I'm really excited about this one because
10:59this one I think is the best one of the, of the Wix franchises.
11:03And, uh, whatever, you know, whatever the gods have for us, the cinema gods have for
11:08us out there.
11:09I'm just, I'm waiting.
11:11You and Donnie Yen, like that's just two legends right there on screen.
11:14Tell me just about the process of building that scene and working with Donnie Yen.
11:19It was so fun.
11:20Uh, we have no rehearsal, uh, before shooting together, but on set we put, uh, the idea
11:29together, um, matching for each character's emotion and choreograph everything.
11:36So he said, uh, how about this?
11:39Oh, if you do, I can do this.
11:41And then boom, boom, boom, boom.
11:43Okay, shoot.
11:44And then one take, two takes, done.
11:47And then high five.
11:49So collaboration was so easy and exciting and so much fun.
11:54At the end of the last movie, there's a bit of ambiguity regarding whether or not Winston
11:59shoots John Wick because he knows that he'll survive falling off that roof or whether he
12:03does it out of pure self-interest.
12:05And I'm curious, just your perspective on that matter.
12:08Well, I'm going to just say, of course he knew he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
12:12He said, Winston's an expert marksman and knew that he would survive, bounce off a car
12:1855 stories down and survive somehow.
12:20He'd be taken care of by the Bowery King.
12:22There was no way in self-interest whatsoever.
12:25Yeah.
12:26It's the bouncing on the way down and the landing that I had to question about.
12:31But, uh.
12:32Well, we looked over together, man.
12:34Well, I was going to say, Sharon fully accepts what he does.
12:37Yeah.
12:38So.
12:39When you say accepts, I mean, I mean, it's done.
12:42I mean, there's nothing to do about it.
12:44And he's Winston.
12:45He's like, you know, I'm his guy.
12:46Sure.
12:47But I mean, that moment, I'm left with kind of, fuck, really?
12:52Shit.
12:53And then, oh, I don't, that'll probably edit it out.
12:56But yeah, that was what I was thinking as a character.
12:58I'm a big fan of Constantine and the fact that you're going to be making a sequel is
13:03very exciting.
13:04We're trying.
13:05I don't know if it's going to happen.
13:06Well, I'm hoping it does.
13:07And just one question that I have is, do you think that you might go blonde this time?
13:11If it happens.
13:12I know.
13:13I'm playing a different Constantine than the comic, you know?
13:16And I do get in a bit of trouble for that.
13:18You could be spooked into bleaching that hair.
13:20I know.
13:21But then I would be gray.
13:22Or maybe he dyes it and he thinks blonde's a good color.
13:24Yeah.
13:25I don't know if I look good as a blonde.
13:27But I appreciate that.
13:29And I do.
13:31Yeah.
13:32Hopefully I get to do it.
13:33But I don't know.
13:35Hey, DC's working on some interesting things.
13:36They've got Elseworlds going.
13:37Yeah.
13:38Yeah.
13:39Hopefully we can play.