Key Insights
- Keanu Reeves experienced a name change early in his career due to his manager’s insistence.
- He briefly used the name K.C. Reeves for an appearance in The Magical World of Disney.
- Reeves found it difficult to respond to auditions under his new name.
- He will star alongside Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen in the upcoming film Good Fortune.
Like many young actors starting in Hollywood, Keanu Reeves was not immune to having his name changed, but thankfully, it didn’t last for long. While speaking on the New Heights podcast, Reeves revealed that his new manager immediately insisted that he adopt a new moniker.
“I was in Toronto, Canada, and then I got a manager who lived in Los Angeles,” he said. “At 20 years old, I drove in my car to Los Angeles. Got out of my car and my manager said, ‘We want to change your name.’ And so that’s like, a welcome to Hollywood [moment].“
He continued, “And I remember I was walking on the beach and I was just like, ‘My name? What if I change my name? What?’ My middle name is Charles, so I was like, ‘Chuck?’ And I grew up on a street called Spadina, Chuck Spadina. And then I was something Templeton. So then I became K.C. Reeves. I was credited as K.C. Reeves.”
It’s true. The actor was actually credited as K.C. Reeves for an appearance in The Magical World of Disney, but he didn’t stay with that name for long. “And then I couldn’t do it. So then I would be in auditions and they would go, ‘K.C. Reeves.’ And I wouldn’t even answer,” he said. “Six months later, I was like, ‘I’m not doing this.’ That’s a Hollywood moment.“
Even Leonardo DiCaprio faced pressure to change his name early in his career, as his first agent thought it was “too ethnic.“
Reeves will soon be seen starring alongside Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen in Good Fortune. The film follows a struggling gig economy worker (Ansari) who, losing hope, finds his reality switched with that of a tech bro (Rogen) by a misguided angel (Reeves), who thinks he’ll miss his old life—when that turns out to be the furthest thing from the truth.
Our own Chris Bumbray thought Reeves was easily the standout of the film. “While Ansari and Rogen alone would make this a comedy worth seeing, the movie’s secret weapon is the third lead, the angel Gabriel, played by none other than Keanu Reeves,” he wrote. “Perfectly cast, Reeves is hysterical as the spacey, none-too-bright angel whose responsibilities are limited to keeping people from getting into accidents while texting and driving. When he messes up, he finds himself demoted to being human, and a lot of the movie’s humour revolves around him adjusting to life as a mere mortal.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
