The 1999 sci-fi action film Matrix made a wide reverberation worldwide for its plot, execution and performance. Actor Keanu Reeves, who essayed the lead character Thomas Anderson / Neo, has now revealed that he had to keep his spinal injury a secret to star in the film.
“I met with the Wachowskis, and I loved the script, and they showed me pre-vis for bullet time, which was extraordinary, and one of the things they talked about in the meeting was training in Hong Kong-style martial arts and asked if I was okay with that, and that it was over four months, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds okay, ” Keanu said on The Art of Action podcast.
Then he added,” I had done a film called ‘Chain Reaction’ in Chicago and had a couple of epidurals put in, shot up in the spine. I had a bulging disc, and I had a fractured disc too, and I started losing feeling and balance.”
Reeves explained how he had to train in a neck brace for the demanding fight scenes in the blockbuster, “My spinal column was being sausaged basically, so I had to have a two-level fusion on my spine before training, and they put a plate in my neck. But I never actually told anyone. Had I been, I wouldn’t have done the film.