Keanu Reeves on maintaining control of his image: deepfake land [is] scary

Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski have an interesting interview in Wired to promote John Wick 4, which opens in March. I love Keanu and Chad’s story because Chad was Keanu’s stunt double for The Matrix and then went on to direct Keanu in the John Wick series. I learned about them when Chad, who was also Brandon Lee’s stunt double, said he did the John Wick gun blasts in post-production for safety’s sake. And while they lean heavily on special effects for gunfire, Keanu and Chad are not that wild about AI taking over. Keanu is fine working with it, but not letting AI dictate how a scene or script will look. He also doesn’t want to be surprised by what is done with his image in post-production, so much so that he had a clause put into his contract that says they can’t manipulate his image without his consent.

He has final say over his image: I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit. But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed. [He won’t say which.] They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, “Huh?!” It was like, I don’t even have to be here.

Why deepfake scares him: What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency. When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary. It’s going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies. They’re having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied. There’s so much “data” on behaviors now. Technologies are finding places in our education, in our medicine, in our entertainment, in our politics, and how we war and how we work.

AI can be used in conjunction with art: Which is cool, because that’s what artists do, right? We take our influences and we synthesize them. But what’s the intention behind that synthesis?

On being the internet’s boyfriend: It’s nice when it’s nice, but I’m sure it’s super horrible when it’s horrible.

People made mods to have sex with his character in Cyberpunk 2077: Getting it on with Johnny Silverhand?! I hope it was good. I’m sure Johnny tried hard.

He doesn’t have a favorite Keanu meme: I don’t seek them out. Once in a while people show ’em to me when they’re fun.

[From Wired]

It’s interesting to hear subjects from different perspectives. My husband who teaches with much of this technology is fascinated by deepfakes and AI. But nobody is threatening to put his face in a performance he didn’t turn in. Actors make choices with their performances along with following a director’s orders. I understand why an unscripted tear would upset Keanu. It breaks the unspoken contract. To add an element like that would be like someone painting a dog into a portrait without the artist knowing until the unveiling. It’s a fascinating feature if you’re involved. But having a little cyber-Keanu being manipulated by someone else would be scary as all get out. Just look what they’re doing with poor Johnny Silverhand.

I like Keanu’s point about the intent behind the synthesis. This is where I fall on AI as well. It’s a tool and can be a valuable one. But why it’s being used and who is using it are important details to using it. Keanu and Chad talk a lot more about AI through the interview and how it could take over. The interviewer seems a little more worried than Keanu or Chad, but they recognize it’s getting good enough that their work will get manipulated. I think it’s smart for people like Keanu to be embrace that the technology is here but to remain skeptical enough to keep an eye on it.

Photo credit: Yuri Murakami/Fotoarena/Avalon and Cover Images

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