Secret Level: What Injury Did Keanu Reeves Have While Shooting?

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In a surprising twist, Keanu Reeves, who is known for portraying Johnny Silverhand in CDPR’s Cyberpunk, was also found to be leading the Armored Core project within Amazon Prime Video’s Secret Level.

Despite the fact that Reeves is renowned for executing his own stunts in action films, he took things a step further in the production of Secret Level, as he was dealing with a severe injury at the time.

Keanu Reeves was Injured While Shooting Secret Level

In their conversation with Collider, Tim Miller, creator of “Secret Level,” and director Dave Wilson shared that Keanu Reeves exceeded expectations while working on the series. It’s worth noting that merely mentioning his character was a ‘junkie mech pilot’ was enough for Reeves to eagerly sign up for the project.

Initially, things were set to begin, but just then, they received word from Reeves that he had incurred an injury. Wilson elaborated, “So, two weeks before filming, we got an email saying something along the lines of ‘Dave, Tim, I have some unfortunate news. I’ve fractured my kneecap.’ He went on about the details, but at the bottom of the email, he mentioned that he couldn’t participate. However, he had already memorized all his lines and could take off his brace for short shooting sessions. I was amazed when I read this, thinking he might still be able to perform. So, I reassured him, suggesting he keep the brace on, and we would make his character walk with a limp and wear a brace.

In the storyline, Reeves portrayed a pilot with enhanced abilities, tormented by his history. Throughout much of the installment, he’s seen battling mechanized suits controlled by individuals similarly augmented as himself.

Initially, Reeves felt intense discomfort as the filming started, yet he persevered and asked them to complete all his scenes in a single day. Wilson adds:

After two hours, it became clear that he was in pain. It happened quite recently, and his knee swelled up to be as big as Tim’s head. Around the same time, he asked me, “Dave,” to which I responded, “Would you like to reschedule tomorrow?” He replied, “Let’s finish it all now,” which took me by surprise. Despite having a brace on, he continued shooting for 13 straight hours without leaving the set. He only briefly stepped out for a cigarette, then returned with enthusiasm and exclaimed, “Let’s go again!

Apart from his injured leg, Reeves was battling a cold during filming as well. Wilson commented, “He was under the weather,” adding that his symptoms were genuine – the runny nose, cough, and so on. It wasn’t acting; he pushed through it all. His performance was impressive.

Reeves and Video Game IP

Apart from starring as Johnny Silverhand in “Cyberpunk 2077,” Keanu Reeves has lent his voice to another beloved character – Shadow, in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.” There’s also speculation that he might make an appearance in a future “Sonic” movie.

There’s some doubt about whether Reeves might rejoin the cast of Secret Level in the upcoming season, however, given that the series has attracted many talented actors, it’s possible he could fit a brief appearance into his busy timetable.

Secret Level(s)?

To be honest, when Secret Level initially dropped, it received a blend of positive and negative reviews. Some fans like myself felt that the series leans heavily on action, which is quite different from Miller’s previous animated anthology, Love, Death, and Robots. In contrast to the latter’s diverse genre exploration, the former seemed to focus primarily on action-packed stories.

Great news! The series has been renewed for another season by Amazon, which means there’s plenty of opportunity to enhance the variety of genres in each episode. As of now, we don’t know what types of games might appear in the next season, but it could be intriguing if Nintendo offered a less action-oriented intellectual property (IP) for a change.

Secret Level Season One is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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2025-01-06 17:42