For Keanu Reeves’ training in John Wick 4, director Chad Stahelski has revealed that his main inspiration was Gene Kelly’s performance in Singin’ in the Rain. Let’s see together what he said.
Chad Stahelskidirector of the saga of John Wick, is an avid cinephile and it can be seen in the many influences his films have. Beyond the most instantly recognizable homages in the starring franchise Keanu Reeveslike those to Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah, there is another cinematic genre – perhaps totally unexpected – which is the basis of the director’s work for his films: the musical.
John Wick 4, Keanu Reeves as Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain
Interviewed by IndieWire, Stahelski revealed that for the fighting style of John Wick 4 – in cinemas from 23 March – also tried to draw inspiration from Hollywood musicals of the golden age and in particular from Singing in the rain (1952), with protagonist Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood:
“Everyone laughs when I say that, but I love musicals. Bob Fosse is a huge inspiration, as is Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. We didn’t reinvent the action genre or anything with John Wick, we just spent our savings and time trying to prepare Keanu to be our Gene Kelly.”
In John Wick 4continued the director, le 14 action scenes serve the same purpose as the choreography in the MGM musicals, they allowed the story to move forward and to show the character of the characters through the movements and the body. But this flu for Stahelski went even further and also poured into the training of Reeves for the movie:
“We also try to train our actors with dance. Many stunt teams train actors to hit hard, in a mentality that is typical of martial arts. He punches a lot is great, but if you don’t remember your steps movements, it doesn’t matter how hard you punch or kick.”
And this statement is well proved by the exorbitant number of moves that Keanu Reeves had to remember for the most important fight and action sequences of John Wick 4: more than 100! If she had forgotten even one of the movements, it would have meant starting the sequence all over again: “We trained Keanu in both martial arts and dance – which is similar to martial arts.” . The influence of the musical with Gene Kelly it was also the basis of the editor’s work Nathan Orlofffor which it was important to show the physical dexterity of Keanu Reeves and the stunt team, as well as the director Stanley Donen did with the talent of Kelly, Debbie Reynolds e Donald O’Connor:
“We didn’t have to use cheats or anything to make the fights great, it was our different approach, because we didn’t need to make the action more interesting.”
