Keanu Reeves talks going into ‘deepfake land’: ‘That’s scary’

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Keanu Reeves isn’t a fan of the new "deepfake" trend.

In Wired’s March cover story, the "John Wick" star shared his concerns about the technology, a form of synthetic media that projects a person's likeness onto another photo or video.

"What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency," Reeves told the magazine. "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." 

He continued, "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. Technologies are finding places in our education, in our medicine, in our entertainment, in our politics, and how we war and how we work."

Keanu Reeves on the March 2023 issue of Wired with "John Wick 4" director Chad Stahelski.

It was revealed in the interview that "The Matrix" star has a clause in his contract saying that his performances cannot be manipulated without his approval.

"I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit. But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed," Reeves said.

He did not specify which role but explained, "They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, ‘Huh?!’ It was like, ‘I don’t even have to be here.’"

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Reeves has deep concerns about the deepfake technology. ( Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Lionsgate)

Deepfakes have already become an issue for Hollywood.

In 2021, a Russian firm called Deepcake created a realistic AI-generated image of Bruce Willis in a commercial for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company. Willis’ face was imposed on a Russian actor’s head using neural network technology.

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That sparked rumors that Willis had sold the rights to his likeness after his aphasia diagnosis and acting retirement were announced in 2022.

However, Willis’ representatives denied those claims. "Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company," Willis’s agent said in a statement to the BBC at the time.

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The hyperrealistic image of Bruce Willis is actually a deepfake created by a Russian company using artificial neural networks. (Deepcake via Reuters)

Before the clarification, there was speculation that Willis would continue "acting" through deepfakes after revealing he suffers from aphasia, which impairs his cognitive abilities. 

Deepcake disputed the idea he could sell the rights to his likeness, but a company spokesperson told the BBC that Willis did give them "his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin." 

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Fox News Digital’s Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.