Keanu Reeves revealed that he was tricked into doing his $47M disastrous James Spader film that he is grateful didn’t land him in Hollywood jail.

Keanu Reeves is not only Hollywood’s sweetheart, with all his chivalrous deeds poking through to establish him as one of the most beloved gentlemen in the entertainment industry, but also one of the most talented actors of all time. That’s not all, for he is also incredibly kind and humble even in the roles he gets to embody on the screen, be those from the action genre or any other.

Keanu Reeves in the John Wick lore. | Credits: Lionsgate.

But among all the masterpieces he has been perfectly cast in, there have also been some major mishits that could have seriously disrupted his career because of just how out of place he looked in them. One of these was his $47 million piece with James Spader, The Watcher – the very one that Reeves was tricked into doing and is grateful didn’t land him in Hollywood jail!

Keanu Reeves Was Tricked Into Doing The Watcher

Released in September 2000, The Watcher saw James Spader as FBI agent Joel Campbell, who runs around in a taut cat-and-mouse game after a serial killer. This would be Reeves’ villain, David Allen Griffin. But what could have given as a psycho who preyed on young girls for years, his character was just underdeveloped enough to make Reeves feel like a Zodiac Killer clone.

Reeves as David Allen Griffin in The Watcher. | Credits: Universal Pictures.

Of course, Keanu Reeves had his own reservations about the role from the beginning. To say the least, he “never found the script interesting,” meaning that he had no interest in playing it, right from the start. But what took off with him agreeing to a minor role as a friendly favor eventually resulted in him playing the big bad with a meager salary of a reported $1.5 million.

This happened all thanks to Joe Charbanic, the director of the critically panned crime-thriller. As The Matrix star candidly confessed to the Calgary Sun newspaper (via The Guardian):

I never found the script interesting, but a friend of mine forged my signature on the agreement. I couldn’t prove he did and I didn’t want to get sued, so I had no other choice but to do the film.

Spader and Reeves in the movie. | Credits: Universal Pictures.

Needless to say, the film was nothing short of an absolute bomb when it comes to its place on Reeves’ resume. Not only was the John Wick actor seen looking pretty much at his worst while trying to be arrogant and smug for the role, but his psycho and critically underdeveloped character also stood out considerably much from the background – and not in a good way, at that.

That said, while it did manage to bring in at least $47 million from global box offices on its budget of $30 million (via Box Office Mojo), the 59-year-old actor was anything but happy about it and how it turned out for him. If anything, talking about it years later even saw him calling it an absolute “disaster” without missing a beat.

Keanu Reeves Feels The Watcher Was “A Disaster”

Reeves in a still from the movie. | Credits: Universal Pictures.

For one that employed him without his permission, Keanu Reeves was obviously unhappy with The Watcher. While he was finally able to reveal the heinous crimes his friend had committed against him 12 months after the film’s release, he didn’t hesitate to let his true thoughts about it known more than a decade later when he was busy promoting John Wick in 2014.

Talking to IndieWire about it, he said:

That was a horror of a different sort. Oh, it was a disaster. I hate that movie. It’s terrible. It’s a disaster.

Well, Reeves’ disappointment with it is only understandable. At the same time, things eventually did turn out to be fruitful for him as even this disastrous movie failed to land him in Hollywood jail. This was all thanks to the consecutive The Matrix sequels that followed, the masterpieces of which saved both his fame, name, and game.