Since Keanu Reeves’ character from the John Wick series, speaks “every language” according to the director Chad Stahelski, fans of Keanu and the movie have been wondering what languages Keanu speaks in reality. The language people are most interested in is whether or not Keanu speaks Russian.
Keanu Reeves, like his character John Wick, can speak Russian. He has a few Russian lines throughout the film series and fans have said he did a good job reciting them. That is because he already knew Russian and is still practicing to improve his accent.
Read more below about Keanu Reeves’ history with learning Russian and what other languages he knows.
What Languages Does John Wick Speak?
The film series John Wick right now consists of three movies. John Wick which was released in 2014, John Wick: Chapter 2 which was released in 2017 and lastly John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, released in 2019.
The series is based on Keanu Reeves’ character, John Wick. He is trying to find the people who broke into his home and killed the dog that his recently deceased wife gifted him.
John Wick was raised as an assassin by the Russian Mafia and because of this, there is quite a bit of Russian throughout the movie between John Wick and the villains.
It is unclear whether Keanu Reeves learned Russian for the film or if he already knew it, but he is now able to speak Russian conversationally and can read short stories in Russian.
Throughout the film series, John Wick also speaks many other languages, including American Sign Language (ASL), Hebrew, Mandarin, Italian, Romanian, Japanese, Arabic, and Bahasa Indonesian.
John Wick only speaks a few words or phrases in these languages though, so it is likely that Keanu Reeves only learned the line for the film.
One language they did not use in the series that Keanu actually speaks is French. Keanu Reeves grew up in Canada where the official languages are English and French, so he likely learned French in school.
Keanu Reeves In Russia
The John Wick series was not the only film Keanu Reeves used his Russian skills in, he also filmed another movie both in Russia and using Russian.
The movie was titled Siberia and was released in 2018, in between Keanu filming for John Wick Chapters 2 & 3.
Siberia is about Keanu Reeves’ character Lucas Hill, going to Russia to sell rare, blue diamonds as he is an American diamond merchant.
Though the film was mostly filmed in Canada to save money, Keanu and the crew did go to Saint Petersburg, Russia to film exterior shots.
The film is mostly in English, but Keanu was able to show off and practice his Russian skills a bit.
He said to practice, he read the play Hamlet in Russian. This is quite the feat since the language Shakespeare uses in English can be complicated, so Keanu’s Russian must be really good to be able to read Shakespeare in Russian.
He says his role in Siberia helped him improve his Russian as well, but his pronunciation is always a work in progress.
He further said that his use of Russian in the film was one of his favorite parts of filming as he believes it gives him a better look into the culture in Russia.
Keanu said in a Russian interview: “I associate Russia mainly with moral strength. For you, it’s the norm. Yet Russians are not that tough in real life compared to how they are usually portrayed in cinema.”
He goes on to say that the people in Russia that he met were very nice. So Keanu clearly appreciates the people and culture as much as he does the language.
So, the multi-talented actor Keanu Reeves is also trilingual as he can speak English, French, and Russian.
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