Keanu Reeves reflects on changing names in early days for Hollywood

After a booming career spanning multiple decades and his most recent work John Wick: Chapter 4 taking the box office by storm Keanu Reeves reflected on his humble beginnings and how was told to change his name when entering Hollywood.

The Matrix actor made an appearance on SmartLess podcast recalled how he was pushed to change his name as it was "too ethnic."

"I got my first car when I was 20, and I drove to Hollywood. Of course, when I got here, they wanted to change my name. Yeah, they were like, 'Keanu, it's too ethnic.'" he said.

"I remember I had driven across the country and I remember they told me... I was driving up and down along the beach in Santa Monica going, 'What the expletive?'" told Reeves while expressing he was pretty annoyed by the remark.

The Constantine actor said that he tried to use a different name while keeping the initials of his first and middle name can came up with, "Keanu Charles."

Reeves explained, "I was like, 'OK, well, what's my name going to be?' And I was like, 'Templeton?' So, eventually, I came up with my first and middle initial, so I was Casey Reeves. Oh, my god."

However, the name change did not sit well with the Canadian star and that he disliked it so much that he did not respond to it during auditions.

"But then I had auditions and they'd be like, 'Casey?' and I like wouldn't even look up. Eventually, I went back to my agents and I was like, 'I can't change my name.'" told the actor.

"One of the first plays I ever did, I was playing John Procter and one of the lines is like, 'Because it is my name, because I can have no other,' and that was just running through my head," he added.