Keanu Reeves appeared on the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast with brothers Jason and Travis Kelce, revealing he almost adopted the stage name “Chuck Spadina.”
The “Matrix” star, born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Toronto, recounted moving to Los Angeles at age 20 and meeting a manager who suggested changing his name. While promoting his new film “Good Fortune,” Reeves called the suggestion a “welcome to Hollywood moment.”
“I remember walking on the beach thinking, ‘My name? What if I change my name? What?’” he said, explaining how he brainstormed alternatives.
“My middle name is Charles, so I thought, ‘…Chuck?’ I grew up on a street called Spadina, so Chuck Spadina,” he said.
Reeves then tried KC Reeves, but it didn’t feel right. “I wouldn’t even answer at auditions when they called ‘KC Reeves.’ Six months later, I decided, ‘I’m not doing this,’” he added, calling it a quintessential Hollywood moment.
The Kelce brothers have a knack for getting celebrities to share stories of stage names that never materialized. Last month, Leonardo DiCaprio appeared on the podcast with his “One Battle After Another” co-star Benicio del Toro, revealing he was once told his name was “too ethnic” and was almost renamed “Lenny Williams.” “I said, ‘What is Lenny Williams? We took your middle name and made it Lenny,’” DiCaprio recalled. Luckily, that one never stuck either.
