Keanu Reeves has played the lead role in many great movies throughout his career but the actor was kind of in a slump around 1995. After facing a few box office failures, the Canadian actor finally rose back to fame when he played the role of Kevin Lomax in the 1997 horror movie, The Devil’s Advocate. After his success in the movie, Reeves was offered the role of Neo in the cult-classic science fiction movie, The Matrix which went on to make the actor a household name.
Apart from the incredible plot and stunning performance of the actors, the iconic costume designs also played a major role in the success of the movie, especially the shades worn by the characters.
The reason behind the success of The Matrix
The Matrix will definitely go down in history as one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time that redefined a whole era of movies after the 90s. The spectacular costume designs of the characters played a very important role in the success of the movie, especially the shades of the characters.
Kevin Jones, the curator of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising’s museum once revealed in an interview how the shades of the characters in the movie captivated the audience in a distinct way as they were also able to see what the characters on screen were seeing. He said,
““What was interesting about those in The Matrix is the way they reflected back to the viewer what they couldn’t see on screen…In just about any film, when you see a person driving a car, they take the rearview mirror away. But here are these sunglasses acting as a rearview mirror so you know what’s going on behind you as well as in front of you.”
Keanu Reeves talks about Will Smith almost getting the part of Neo in The Matrix
Will Smith once revealed in an interview that he was also offered the role of Neo which was eventually played by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix but the Independence Day actor allegedly decided to portray the role of Captain James T. Jim West in Wild Wild West instead which turned out to be a massive critical and commercial failure. Smith further went on to express his regrets for choosing Wild Wild West over The Matrix in the interview.
Keanu Reeves once appeared in an interview where he was asked about how he felt about Will Smith expressing his regret over his role in Wild Wild West and the John Wick actor showed once again why is considered as the best person in Hollywood. He jumped in to compliment Will Smith and said,
“Hey, no, Wild Wild West is good…No, I thought it was good. It’s good. The production design, Ted Levine was the most amazing … Kevin Kline. It was good. I enjoyed it.”
The Matrix was a massive critical and commercial success at the box office as it went on to gross almost $467 million against a production budget of $63 million. The movie also went on to win won all 4 Academy Awards categories it was nominated in.
The Matrix is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Chicago Tribune and Uproxx
