Keanu Reeves busted his knee after tripping on a rug while on set for the new film Good Fortune, Aziz Ansari, the movie’s director, said Wednesday.
During an appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Ansari cleared up speculation over photos of Reeves walking with crutches on the set in January.
The injury was literally kept under wraps as the images showed the John Wick actor with a heavily bandaged leg.
“About, I don’t know, 15 days into shooting with me, I was like, ‘Hey, just go chill in your dressing room for 15 minutes.’ And he tripped on a rug. He’s like, ‘Aah, my knee,’” Ansari said at CinemaCon, according to People.
“Poor guy,” he continued, per The Hollywood Reporter. “He was such a trooper, and he fractured his kneecap and continued to do all the scenes.”
Well, not all of them.
Reeves “still filmed everything except some scenes where [Ansari] needed him to do salsa dancing, which we need to pick up,” Ansari said, per People, adding that the action movie star wanted to gut out the pain and complete his scenes.
“He was like, ‘I’ll do it!’ We’re like, ‘Keanu, calm down. We’ll do the salsa dancing once your knee’s healed,’” the Master of None star said.
Echoing reports that Reeves has done most of his stunts in action films, Ansari claimed that Reeves previously never had to go to the hospital for his movie heroics.
“He’s done those ‘[John] Wick’ movies, all the ‘Matrix’ stuff. In ‘Speed,’ he actually did attempt to do the jump from the car to the bus. It wasn’t the take they used, but he did do it,” the comedian said.
The strike-delayed Good Fortune, which also stars Ansari, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh and Seth Rogen, has a plot that has been kept mostly under wraps. On a production list, it was described as “a high-concept comedy about the gig economy in Los Angeles.”
CinemaCon attendees were able to see some footage from the movie, including scenes where Reeves, who plays an angel named Gabriel, helps Ansari’s character switch lives with a wealthy man, THR noted. The film does not have a release date yet.
In related news this week, Warner Bros. announced a fifth Matrix instalment is in the works. It won’t be directed by Lana and Lily Wachowski, and it’s not known whether Reeves will appear.