Keanu Reeves has hit out at AI deepfakes of the John Wick star selling products without his permission, insisting "it's not a lot of fun."
In July, it was reported that Reeves pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.
In an in-depth article by The Hollywood Reporter, it was revealed that Reeves pays a company called Loti to issue tens of thousands of social media account takedowns each year.
The much-loved (“you’re breathtaking!”) star of The Matrix and Cyberpunk 2077, THR said, may be the most impersonated celebrity on the internet due to his blockbuster status and lack of official social media presence, which creates a mystique around his personal life.
Scammers are filling the void by creating fake images of Reeves appearing to issue political messages of all types, advertising dodgy products, and, in extreme cases, creating fake Keanu Reeves accounts that build relationships with their victims to eventually convince them to pay them money. Reeves, it seems, is prime fodder for scam bait, and generative AI is making it easier and more convincing than ever.
Reeves spoke about the issue of AI and deepfakes in an interview with The Today Show to promote his starring role in Waiting for Godot on Broadway alongside Bill & Ted co-star Alex Winter. He was first asked how he felt about an ‘AI wedding announcement’ photo showing he and his partner, visual artist Alexandra Grant, getting married — an image Grant was forced to officially debunk.
“I hadn’t seen it until someone from the show showed it to me,” Reeves began. “I knew what was going on but I’d never seen it. We’re in that world, right?”
Reeves was then asked how he felt about AI versions of Keanu Reeves spreading across the internet.
“I think that’s happening to a lot of people,” he replied.
Reeves was finally asked how disconcerting it was for him to see those AI deepfakes of himself.
“Well, I mean, it’s not a lot of fun, you know!" he said, before holding his hand up to his face imitating receiving a phone call. "It’s like, ‘Hey, are you really selling this product?’ No!”
It's not the first time Reeves has expressed concern about artificial intelligence. In a 2023 interview with Wired, he said deepfakes were “scary” and confirmed his film contracts ban digital edits to his acting.
“What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency,” Reeves said on deepfakes. “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. That’s scary. It’s going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies. They’re having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied. There’s so much ‘data’ on behaviors now.”
Reeves isn’t alone in this, of course. There have been a number of high-profile cases in which celebrities have complained publicly about fake adverts. In 2023, Tom Hanks warned fans that an AI version of his likeness was being used without his consent in an online advert for a dental plan. Last year, Morgan Freeman thanked fans who alerted him to AI-generated imitations of his voice online after a series of videos created by someone posing as his niece went viral.
And in May this year, Jamie Lee Curtis was forced to appeal to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an Instagram post because she couldn’t get the company to pull an AI-generated ad that featured her likeness for “some bullshit that I didn’t authorize, agree to or endorse.”
Alexandra Shannon, head of strategic development at CAA, told THR that there is increased concern about this issue among artists, and called for rules and regulations to prevent it from happening.
When he's not paying companies to combat scammers, Keanu Reeves takes to the big-screen to show off his real-life combat skills. He recently cameoed in John Wick spinoff Ballerina. A film adaptation of BRZRKR, produced by and starring Reeves, is in the works for Netflix. And John Wick 5, once again starring Keanu Reeves, is in development, although we're not sure when it will come out. Director Chad Stahelski recently said he's still trying to work out how to make Keanu Reeves in John Wick 5 make sense given the ending of 4.
Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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