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The 3 Keanu Reeves Movie Roles That Johnny Depp Almost Played

Johnny Depp has turned down a bunch of movie roles for different reasons, but there are three that ended up being played by Keanu Reeves, and these were key in boosting his career. Johnny Depp’s acting career began in 1984 when he played Glen Lantz in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, and even though he has appeared in movies from a variety of genres – such as the crime movie Donnie Brasco and the drama Chocolat –, he has become best known for playing “weirdos” and outcasts, mostly in his many collaborations with director Tim Burton.

Keanu Reeves’ acting career began in 1985 with the short film One Step Away, but his first lead role arrived three years later in the drama Permanent Record. Reeves’ breakout role happened in 1989 when he played Ted Logan in the sci-fi comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and while he played a variety of roles after that (though not all of them well-received by critics and viewers), his career went through a turnaround when he starred in the sci-fi movie The Matrix. Reeves is now one of the most popular and beloved action stars in the entertainment industry, and surprisingly, three of his most notable roles were almost played by Johnny Depp: Johnny Utah in Point Break, Jack Traven in Speed, and Neo in The Matrix.

Related: Why Keanu Reeves Was Recast For Speed 2: Cruise Control

It’s Good Johnny Depp Wasn’t In Point Break, Speed & The Matrix

Keanu Reeves as Neo in the Matrix movies

According to the notes on the Point Break DVD, and as noted by many other sources, the production crew of Point Break had other actors in mind for the role of Johnny Utah when the movie was close to production in the late 1980s. Among the names considered for the role was Johnny Depp, but production fell through and the project was picked up again four years later. Not long after, when the action movie Speed was in pre-production, Johnny Depp was offered the role of Jack Traven but he turned it down, and director Jan de Bont cast Keanu Reeves after seeing his performance in Point Break.

Last but not least, Johnny Depp was the Wachowskis’ first choice for Neo in The Matrix (according to composer Don Davis), but Warner Bros. was pushing for Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. After Pitt and Kilmer turned down the offer, it came down to Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, the latter being the studio’s choice, and so Reeves ended up getting the role. None of these roles actually fit Johnny Depp’s style, as he’s a lot better suited to play outcasts and weirdos, and he isn’t an action star – and while Neo is an outcast, Keanu Reeves perfectly understood the concept of The Matrix and fit the Wachowskis’ vision, so much so that it’s hard to imagine someone playing a better Neo than Keanu Reeves.

Hollywood Would Be Very Different If Depp Had Played These Keanu Reeves Roles

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

By the time Point Break came out, Johnny Depp was already widely known thanks to his roles in Cry-Baby and Edward Scissorhands, the latter marking the beginning of his collaborations with Tim Burton and setting the tone for the type of characters he would become best known for. However, had he starred in Point Break and/or Speed, and supposing these were a success, Depp would have become an action star in the early 1990s, which would have surely taken his career on a different path.

Adding The Matrix to the mix would have impacted Pirates of the Caribbean as Depp might have made different choices and thus pass on the chance of playing Jack Sparrow (or not been considered for it at all) and many other now-famous Depp characters. As for Keanu Reeves, he might not be the big action star he’s now and he might not be playing John Wick at all if Johnny Depp had taken all those roles, but given Reeves’ talent and charm, he would have still become one of the most beloved actors of his generation.

Next: Every Major Movie Role Keanu Reeves Turned Down

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‘I am officially off the market’: When Margot Robbie revealed she made the ‘conscious’ decision of not dating actors


Margot Robbie revealed her decision to not date actors because of the media scrutiny that came with a public relationship of two high-profile actors
Back in 2015, A-lister Margot Robbie made a declaration that she would not be dating any actors. The actress may have alluded to her fiance Tom Ackerley, who she married the following year in 2016. In an exclusive interview with Marie Claire, she revealed that being in a relationship as an actor herself came with its own set of challenges. She believed that dating someone who was popular would add on to the media scrutiny.

Margot Robbie opened up on why she made a conscious decision to not date actorsTalking to Marie Claire, she claimed, “I am officially off the market.” She then shared the reasoning behind her decision and added, “I made a conscious decision not to date actors.” She continued to explain, “But not because I hate actors. That’s a nasty generalization to make, and that’s not the case. People take such an interest in your love life when you have a profile, it puts a lot of stress on a relationship.”
The Barbie actress continued, “So two people with profiles, I figure it’s just double the amount of scrutiny, and I’d like to avoid that at all costs.” This came after reports of her locking lips with Tarzan co-star Alexander Skarsgard started making rounds. It was reported that she was caught kissing the actor during the Sundance Film Festival.

Margot Robbie revealed she opted for a minimal lifestyle even after becoming an actorIn the interview, Robbie also opened up about how she was adapting to fame. She shared, “I have a normal 24-year-old life. If I were a waitress, I’d probably have the exact same lifestyle. I’d go to the same clubs I go to already, live in the same house with the same housemates, hang out with the same people.”
However, Margot Robbie tied the knot with Tom Ackerley who is an English producer and actor. The duo met on the sets of 2013 movie Suite Francaise where Tom was working as an assistant director. Post marriage, both of them launched their production company LuckyChap Entertainment.

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Monica Bellucci and Tin Burton at lunch in the restaurant in Selci Lama


For All Saints’ Day, the Hollywood star from Tiferno returned to his native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and then visit his parentsOn the occasion of the All Saints’ Day celebrations, the Hollywood star of Tiferno origin, Monica Bellucci, returned to her native Umbria to enjoy a moment of relaxation and to visit her father Pasquale and her mother Brunella.Flanked by her current partner Tim Burton, she went to lunch, together with about twenty old friends, at the Osteria del Musicista, which has always been her favorite restaurant, in Selci Lama.Menu dedicated to typical dishes of the area, which includes an appetizer with breadsticks lined with coppa, duck in porchetta and grilled pork livers, polenta with wild boar sauce accompanied by the very typical cappelletti in broth.To conclude, a dessert based on fried “ciaccia” with Nutella and roasted chestnuts.
Having paid the bill and greeted the restaurant owner and lifelong friend, Roberto Polchi, Monica brought home cappelletti and broth for a family dinner.

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‘Rocky’ Was Quite Different In His Original Screenplay, Sylvester Stallone Claims


Sylvester Stallone took his friend’s advice on a rewrite of the original screenplay to Rocky. A few tweaks later, he was on his way to major success.
In the new Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone discussed how he initially conceived of the project, which had a much harder edge. In the early version, Rocky was depicted as a “thuggish” character, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s crime drama, Mean Streets.

But Stallone’s perspective changed when a friend read the script and thought the boxer was too cruel for audiences to actually care about him.
Stallone recalled her crying.

“She goes, ‘I hate Rocky. I hate him. He’s cruel. He hits people. He beats them up.’”
Stallone took it to heart, and asked what he could do to soften the character.

“I said, ‘what if you stop short of it?’ Like, maybe he almost did. He could have, that’s his job, but he doesn’t?’ ‘That’d be nice,’” he added. “I said, ‘What if he had a girlfriend or something?’ ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’ So I go back, start writing that: ‘Girlfriend. Nice.’”
$117 million in box office later, a franchise was born.

Stallone also revealed that actor Dolph Lundgren sent him to the hospital during one fight scene in Rocky IV.
“Dolph Lundgren… he pulverized me,” Stallone says in the documentary. “Later that night, my heart started to swell—which happens when the heart hits the chest—and then my blood pressure went up to 260, and they thought I was going to be talking to angels. Next thing I know, I’m in intensive care, where I’m surrounded by nuns, and I thought, ‘OK, that’s curtains.’”
Stallone was in the hospital for nine days following the incident, praying for “one more round.”
“For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all,” Stallone told Lundgren. The Swedish actor joked in a separate interview that all he did was “obey orders,” explaining, “[Stallone] was the boss. I did what he told me.”
Doctors allegedly told Stallone that he received a blow to the ribs that made his heart rattle around in his ribcage, a condition typically seen in head-on collisions. “I did hit a bus, of sorts,” Stallone joked.

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