Keanu Reeves has been known in Hollywood as a generous giver. The actor has been reported to give expensive gifts to people he’s worked with before. Well, not only is the John Wick star generous, but he’s also thoughtful. Reeves reportedly gave the John Wick: Chapter 4 stunt crew shirts as a gift, but it’s a pretty special shirt. As per The New York Times, the print on the shirt given was the number of times the crew died on the film.
In an article published by The New York Times, the site detailed the film bit by bit. The details reported include the shirt given by Reeves and some of the stunt crew’s shirt apparently had numbers over 20 which meant they were part of numerous scenes on the film. This isn’t surprising as the scenes on the film work with a lot of opponents. And Reeves probably wanted the crew members to remember peculiar details of their time working for the film.
John Wick: Chapter 4 fight coordinator Jeremy Marinas shares that in the fight scene where John Wick heads up on the 222 steps to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, they had to use a total of 35 stunt crew. Marinas further added that it was director Chad Stahelski’s idea, although he was initially hesitant, he just said,
“It’s like, of course that’s what you want,” Marinas said. “You want 100 guys falling down the stairs and you want me to make every reaction and fall different. Of course you do. It was like we were just another day at work.”
Commemorating The Stunt Crew’s Hard Work
Filming for the said scene took place over seven nights, and sometimes they even had to film on wet nights. The 35 stunt crew that were involved in the fight scene had to be knocked down by Reeves multiple times to make the scene look great.
Stunt coordinator for the film Scott Rogers shared that some stunt crew had to die five or six times for that scene alone. So giving the shirt was probably Reeves’ way of commemorating the hard work of the stunt crew.
Of course, Reeves is no slouch, as he also performed everything on the stairs himself. Except for the big fall on the stairs which had to be done by his stunt double Vincent Bouillon. Bouillon got the perfect execution in just two takes with the cable camera capturing the jaw dropping scene.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is now in movie theaters.