Keanu Reeves has a movie contract clause that bans studios from digitally altering his performance

Keanu Reeves isn't letting anyone touch his face.

And no, we're not referring to botox. We're talking about digital altering and deepfakes.

Reeves revealed to Variety that he has a special clause in each of his movie contracts that prevents film studios from mucking around with his features.

"I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit," Reeves said.

"But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed," he said.

"They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, ‘Huh?!’ It was like, I don’t even have to be here."

Lionsgate

He makes a fair point. Why be an actor if they're just going to change everything in post production anyway?

But, as Reeves has pointed out, digital alterations can have far more sinister motivations.

"What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency," Reeves told Variety.

"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."

He added: "That’s scary."

Reeves, who is arguably best known for his role in The Matrix, a set of films set in a digitally manipulated world, added it will be 'interesting' to see how humans deal with this sort of tech.

"They’re having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied," he said.

"There’s so much 'data' on behaviours now."

Speaking of The Matrix, the 58-year-old action star revealed that a recent chat he had with a teenager put things into a scary perspective.

He told the 15-year-old that Neo was fighting for what is real in the world, but the teen replied: "Who cares if it’s real?"

Lionsgate

Reeves continued (via Variety): "People are growing up with these tools: We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art.

"It’s cool, like, 'Look what the cute machines can make', but there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we’re gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the non-value.

"And then what’s going to be pushed on us? What’s going to be presented to us?"

He then went on to describe technologies like deepfakes as a 'sensorium'.

"It's a spectacle. And it’s a system of control and manipulation,” Reeves said.

"We’re on our knees looking at cave walls and seeing the projections, and we’re not having the chance to look behind us."

So, are we edging closer to The Matrix becoming our actual reality? Only time will tell.

But in both film and in life, Reeves is pushing back.

Topics: Celebrity, Keanu Reeves, TV and Film

Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang is a Digital Journalist at LADbible. During her career, she has interviewed Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull in the lead up to the 2016 federal election, ran an editorial campaign on the war in Yemen, and reported on homelessness in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in Windsor. She also once wrote a yarn on the cheese and wine version of Fyre Festival.

@rlangjournalist