Keanu Reeves Roasts Reporter For Thinking He Played 'Bill' in 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'
Ahh, Keanu Reeves. Beloved actor, Certified Nice Guy (TM), teddy bear news correspondent, and absolute savage when it comes to roasting reporters? As last Friday marked the original release date for Reeves' highly-anticipated John Wick: Chapter 4, which has since been postponed until May 2022 due to the pandemic, director and TV writer, Tze Chun, took to Twitter to celebrate the implosion of the long-awaited “Keanu Reeves Day” in which the action flick and The Matrix 4 were both set to hit theaters, giving fans a double-dose of the star in one night.
The continuation of a seemingly long-running tradition, Chun marked the occasion by sharing an iconic vintage clip of the actor gloriously dunking on MTV correspondent Josh Horowitz for committing the not-so-excellent faux pas forgetting he played Ted and not Bill in the Bill & Ted Franchise.
At the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, Reeves sat down for an interview with MTV News – the official news show for a channel that once aired programs other than Rob Dyrdek's Ridiculousness -- in which Horowitz asked the star about the prospects of a third Bill & Ted film. Although Bill & Ted Face the Music ultimately came out in 2020, the movie was in cinematic limbo for many years, leading Horowitz to question how the star would prepare to reprise his iconic role.
“Is Bill’s voice going to come back naturally?" the anchor inquired, apparently unaware he had just posed a bizarre trick question. "Is it hard to get back into the actual voice, the cadence of Bill?”
“I play Ted,” Reeves snapped back, prompting a clearly mortified Horowitz to say “oh my god” before putting his mic down and walking away.
“You just lost all of your cred, dude,” Reeves savagely jested at the off-screen anchor. “That’s right. That’s what you should do right now because you just lost all of your Bill & Ted cred.” Although Horowitz attempted to backpedal, joking that he thought the roles would be switched in a Bill & Ted three-quel, the damage was done. “Nice try. Nice try, Dave.” the actor replied, calling the correspondent by the wrong name with a smile. “I forgive… but I don’t forget.”
All jest aside, in true good guy Keanu fashion, the actor then shared an anecdote proving the reporter wasn't alone – he and his on-screen best friend, Alex Winter, also once mixed up their iconic parts. “So one day we’re going in — Alex and I both, once we heard that we got the roles, thought we were playing the other guy’s role," Reeves recalled. "So I thought I was going to be playing Bill and he thought he was going to be playing Ted. It was weird.”
However, a quick to the film's wardrobe department quickly cleared up their confusion. “Then we both went to wardrobe fittings and they told us we had the other roles, and then we said… ‘OK.'" Nice.
So folks, although Keanu Day may have been a bust, at least we have this hilarious clip of Reeves cracking jokes at a reporter to serve as a timeless reminder of the franchise's iconic message – Be excellent to each other.
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