From securing a colossal $15 million for a mere 384 words of dialogue in John Wick: Chapter Four, to raking in a cumulative $156 million from The Matrix franchise, it’s safe to say that Keanu Reeves has had quite the lucrative acting career.

However, unlike most in his position, the Constantine star has discovered some rather endearing ways to spend his eye-watering $380 million net worth. From turning down big-budget projects in favor of little-known indie films to donating chunks of his fortune to charitable causes, Reeves stands out as one of the most magnanimous Hollywood stars out there.

Among his lesser-known benevolent gestures is hacking off a whopping 90% from his salary in the 2000s sports comedy, The Replacements, solely so the studio could afford to hire Gene Hackman in a supporting role. However, unlike Devil’s Advocate, another film in which Reeves pulled a similar nice-guy stunt, The Replacements struggled to break even, scraping together a mere $100K in box office profits against its colossal $50 million budget. So, did Reeves regret working for a fraction of his worth, given the film’s lackluster box office performance?

Keanu Reeves Took A 90 Percent Pay Cut To Star In The Replacements

Keanu Reeves currently ranks among the most bankable stars in Hollywood, with his latest box office masterpiece, John Wick: Chapter Four, raking in a staggering $432.2 million against a $100 million budget.

via IMDb

But the box office hasn’t always been so kind to Keanu. In the late 1990s, the now 58-year-old experienced a bit of a downturn in his career, starring in a slew of tepidly received films, including Johnny Mnemonic, Chain Reaction, and Feeling Minnesota.

It was right around this time that Reeves took on the lead role in Howard Deutch’s sports comedy, The Replacements. According to the New York Post, the John Wick star was offered a whopping $12 million to star in the film; an amount nearly a quarter of the film’s budget.

However, things weren’t panning out quite as well for two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman, whose supporting role in the film was still hanging in the balance due to budget concerns.

 

Eager to work with the acclaimed actor, Reeves went ahead and pulled yet another legendary nice-guy stunt; giving up a staggering 90 percent of his salary just so Warner Bros. Pictures could afford Hackman’s salary.

The Replacements Ended Up Making Just $100K In Box Office Profits

Despite Keanu Reeves’ valiant sacrifice, The Replacements didn’t exactly make a killing at the box office. Despite debuting in the third position at the North American box office, the film went on to gross a measly $50.1 million globally, barely recouping its $50 million budget.

via IMDb

The film didn’t dazzle on the critical front either. Esteemed film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a mere two stars out of five, chastising both its cliché premise and overstated plot.

“The Replacements is slap-happy entertainment painted in broad strokes, two coats thick,” he wrote. “It’s like a standard sports movie, but with every point made twice or three times–as if we’d never seen one before. And the musical score provides such painstaking instructions about how to feel during every scene, it’s like the booklet that tells you how to unpack your computer.”

 

While also unimpressed with the premise, Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum went a step further and questioned Reeves’ suitability for the lead role.

“I’m charmed that Reeves, with his alt-rocker physique and Zen-adept’s impassive face, chose to follow up his cult-hit success as someone who’s all brain in The Matrix by clamping a helmet over his soft, floppy, Pantene-shiny hair and rushing the field as someone who’s supposed to be all body,” she wrote at the time. “The casting is weird and counterintuitive, bordering on preposterous, but I don’t mind; it may suggest a perception glitch on the star’s part to think this is a role he’s in fact suited for, but I prefer to think of him as…unfazed.”

Did Keanu Reeves Regret Taking A 90 Percent Pay Cut To Star In The Replacements?

Despite its lackluster box office performance, Keanu Reeves had nothing but good things to say about The Replacements.

“Even though it jumps into cliché – like, there’s the underdog team, the misfits, there’s a bar fight, the girl and the guy looking at each other and falling in love, with the swooning – when I was watching everyone do their performances, I didn’t think they were just effects,” he shared with the New York Post. “I felt like each one was a person, and that the comedy was coming out of the humanity.”

Via: Deposit Photos

Moreover, the John Wick star didn’t harbor any regrets about working for scale in the film, as is evident from his 2008 interview with Total Film (UK), where he spoke candidly about slashing his salary for the film and relinquishing $2 million for Devil’s Advocate, all in the pursuit of sharing the screen with Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, respectively.

“[Gene Hackman] and I had lighter, much lighter, scenes to do,” he said. “But to hang out with him and to see how – both actors – just see how they go about their craft… They’re both such beautiful actors. We don’t think of Al Pacino now with economy, but that’s what he has. He’s just a beautiful actor and Gene Hackman is another nonpareil, you know?”

As for why losing such a colossal chunk of money didn’t faze him, Reeves admitted to New York Post. “For me, I guess I don’t connect the enjoyment and the money. I work on a part and hopefully realize a part, and make good films. Some of the successes I’ve had I’m grateful for, because it creates other opportunities. [The way] I look at it is I get to act again.”