In John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, your action pedigree and culinary connections collide. It’s the best of both worlds! Your character, Zero, is an assassin whose day job is a sushi chef. Was that always in the script? This is too obvious a reference to Iron Chef.
It was so funny. Was that in the original script that Zero is a sushi chef? You know, that is in the script that I received. From what I understand, there was at one point, up until I took the job, the role was for another actor, and it’s not for me to say, but somebody else was already cast in that role. And that actor is brilliant, and I’m a huge fan of that actor. But things happen [and that actor couldn’t do it]. I literally got the call on a Monday morning, I talked with the director, Chad Stahelski, and then I read the script quickly on that day. I got the call from the director Monday night. I flew out from Los Angeles to New York. I arrived there Tuesday, shaved my head on Wednesday, and it was in my first scene on Thursday. So, one could argue because of the food and the fighting that it was intentional. And I suppose in my universe, it was. But initially, that was not supposed to be my role.
Zero — spoiler alert! — gets stabbed by Keanu Reeves’ John Wick in the chest at the end of the movie. We’re led to believe he died, but you know what they say: if nobody saw the actual death, it didn’t happen. There’s a John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, due next year and they’re also developing another one for Donnie Yen’s Caine from John Wick Chapter 4. If there were a Zero spin-off, what would that entail?
I love that. Thank you. I’ve heard from, again, no names, but I heard from people higher up the food chain in the world of John Wick that Zero is alive. Now, whether that translates to TV or movie or another script or anything we’ll see. But in their minds, from them to me, he’s still alive. What would that entail? I would love to investigate, just a little bit of origin story. Who is Zero, when he was younger? And then cut to maybe in the middle [before the events of Chapter 3] and then to him now [post-Chapter 4]. I can imagine this great scene where John Wick is in dire straits and suddenly, a couple of people are going to attack him. But they get dropped one by one, and then Zero appears and basically explains, “Mr Wick, I know you could have killed me, and you chose to not, so, because you gave me the rest of my life, I am your No.1 fan/friend, I will always be there for you.” And I can see John Wick going (does a pissed-off John Wick voice), “Oh no.” You know what I mean?
Or a simple ‘Yeah’ would suffice. Do you have a Keanu Reeves story to share?
I do have one, and I love this one because I think he’s such a gentleman. He was finishing up his work for the night — because we worked nights — and then I was supposed to come in and start on one of my scenes. And I walked on to the set and our incredibly talented director, Chad Stahelski, who just released Keanu for the day, said, “Keanu, hang on for a second, I think I want to start the fight.” And Keanu went, ‘Oh, okay. Which one?” [Chad] said, “the finale fight”. Keanu asked, “When?”, and Chad said, “now”. This was after Keanu had already been working nine or 10 hours. Keanu just calmly said, “Okay, give me a moment.” He walked to the corner of the stage, faced the corner and shouted out some expletives. And when he got that out of him, he turned around as calm as he could be, and said, “Okay, let’s go.” And I just thought that was brilliant. That was brilliant. He worked more than anybody, and it was almost all nights, I think, for him. I had one day and everything else was night. He always was completely present. He always knew his moves and lines, was collaborative and kind. Nothing but good that I have experienced with Keanu.