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The 3 Keanu Reeves Movie Roles That Johnny Depp Almost Played

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Johnny Depp has turned down a bunch of movie roles for different reasons, but there are three that ended up being played by Keanu Reeves, and these were key in boosting his career. Johnny Depp’s acting career began in 1984 when he played Glen Lantz in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, and even though he has appeared in movies from a variety of genres – such as the crime movie Donnie Brasco and the drama Chocolat –, he has become best known for playing “weirdos” and outcasts, mostly in his many collaborations with director Tim Burton.

Keanu Reeves’ acting career began in 1985 with the short film One Step Away, but his first lead role arrived three years later in the drama Permanent Record. Reeves’ breakout role happened in 1989 when he played Ted Logan in the sci-fi comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and while he played a variety of roles after that (though not all of them well-received by critics and viewers), his career went through a turnaround when he starred in the sci-fi movie The Matrix. Reeves is now one of the most popular and beloved action stars in the entertainment industry, and surprisingly, three of his most notable roles were almost played by Johnny Depp: Johnny Utah in Point Break, Jack Traven in Speed, and Neo in The Matrix.

It’s Good Johnny Depp Wasn’t In Point Break, Speed & The Matrix

According to the notes on the Point Break DVD, and as noted by many other sources, the production crew of Point Break had other actors in mind for the role of Johnny Utah when the movie was close to production in the late 1980s. Among the names considered for the role was Johnny Depp, but production fell through and the project was picked up again four years later. Not long after, when the action movie Speed was in pre-production, Johnny Depp was offered the role of Jack Traven but he turned it down, and director Jan de Bont cast Keanu Reeves after seeing his performance in Point Break.

Last but not least, Johnny Depp was the Wachowskis’ first choice for Neo in The Matrix (according to composer Don Davis), but Warner Bros. was pushing for Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. After Pitt and Kilmer turned down the offer, it came down to Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves, the latter being the studio’s choice, and so Reeves ended up getting the role. None of these roles actually fit Johnny Depp’s style, as he’s a lot better suited to play outcasts and weirdos, and he isn’t an action star – and while Neo is an outcast, Keanu Reeves perfectly understood the concept of The Matrix and fit the Wachowskis’ vision, so much so that it’s hard to imagine someone playing a better Neo than Keanu Reeves.

Hollywood Would Be Very Different If Depp Had Played These Keanu Reeves Roles

By the time Point Break came out, Johnny Depp was already widely known thanks to his roles in Cry-Baby and Edward Scissorhands, the latter marking the beginning of his collaborations with Tim Burton and setting the tone for the type of characters he would become best known for. However, had he starred in Point Break and/or Speed, and supposing these were a success, Depp would have become an action star in the early 1990s, which would have surely taken his career on a different path.

Adding The Matrix to the mix would have impacted Pirates of the Caribbean as Depp might have made different choices and thus pass on the chance of playing Jack Sparrow (or not been considered for it at all) and many other now-famous Depp characters. As for Keanu Reeves, he might not be the big action star he’s now and he might not be playing John Wick at all if Johnny Depp had taken all those roles, but given Reeves’ talent and charm, he would have still become one of the most beloved actors of his generation.

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Tina Turner’s Cause of Death Revealed

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More details on Tina Turner’s passing have come to light.

One day after the legendary performer died at the age of 83, her cause of death has been attributed to natural causes, her representatives confirmed to DailyMail.com. Her publicist also told NBC News her death came after a long illness.

E! News has reached out to her manager for comment but hasn’t heard back.

On May 24, her team shared that she passed away at her home in Switzerland.

“With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow,” a statement posted to her social media pages read. “Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly.”

During the latter years of her life, the “Proud Mary” artist opened up about battling several health issues, including high blood pressure, vertigo, a stroke, intestinal cancer and kidney failure.

In her 2021 documentary, Tina, the singer also shared she experienced post-traumatic stress disorder as a result from her tumultuous marriage to her ex Ike Turner.

“I’ve been on such a wild roller-coaster in the four years since my wedding,” Turner—who wed music executive Erwin Bach in 2013—wrote in her memoir, My Love Story, per Today, “that even I have difficulty keeping my medical catastrophes straight.”

Turner’s passing came just five months after the death of her and Ike’s son Ronnie and nearly five years after her son Craig passed away.

Tina Turner's Cause of Death Revealed

Her death sent shockwaves through Hollywood, with many celebrities speak out about the influence her achievements had on the industry.

“Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to carve out a space in rock and roll for herself and for others who look like her,” Angela Bassett, who played the legend in the 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, said in a statement. “Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like.”

As the actress—who won a Golden Globe for her role—noted, it was an honor knowing the icon on a personal level.

“Her final words to me, for me, were ‘You never mimicked me. Instead, you reached deep into your soul, found your inner Tina, and showed her to the world,’” she added. “I shall hold these words close to my heart for the rest of my days.”

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Tina Turner survived an abusive relationship with Ike and death of two sons

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Tina Turner escaped an abusive relationship to find true love with her second husband, Erwin Bach.

The singer, who passed away aged 83 on Wednesday following an unspecified illness, was in a relationship with the record executive for 38 years. The pair married in 2013.

Tina had publicly praised Erwin for helping her find happiness after fleeing from her first marriage to husband, Ike Turner, which was plagued with physical and emotional abuse.

Ike first met Tina when she was a vulnerable teenager named Annie Mae Bullock. He renamed her Tina, and went on to form the musical duo, Ike & Tina Turner. According to Tina, he micromanaged her career, withheld her finances and beat her while she was pregnant.

After filing for divorce in 1978, Tina was left in debt and had her children to support. She went on to establish a successful solo career.

The songstress met Erwin in 1985 when he was working as an executive with EMI. The pair had an instant connection the moment they met, when he arrived to collect her from Düsseldorf airport.

She said Erwin had taught her how “to love without giving up who I am”, and that he had never been intimidated by her fame or success. He even donated a kidney to her in April 2017, which saved her life.

Writing in her book, Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good, Tina said: “Falling in love with my husband, Erwin, was another exercise in leaving my comfort zone, of being open to the unexpected gifts that life has to offer.

“The day I first met Erwin, at an airport in Germany, I should have been too tired from my flight, too preoccupied with thoughts of my concert tour. But I did notice him, and I instantly felt an emotional connection.

“Even then, I could have ignored what I felt — I could have listened to the ghost voices in my head telling me that I didn’t look good that day, or that I shouldn’t be thinking about romance because it never ends well. Instead, I listened to my heart.”

Tina’s spokesman confirmed she died “peacefully” at home and added: “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model. With her music and her inexhaustible vitality, Tina Turner thrilled millions of fans and inspired many artists of subsequent generations.”

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Tina Turner: legendary rock’n’roll singer dies aged 83

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Tina Turner, the pioneering rock’n’roll star who became a pop behemoth in the 1980s, has died aged age of 83 after a long illness, her publicist has told the PA news agency.
Turner affirmed and amplified Black women’s formative stake in rock’n’roll, defining that era of music to the extent that Mick Jagger admitted to taking inspiration from her high-kicking, energetic live performances for his stage persona. After two decades of working with her abusive husband, Ike Turner, she struck out alone and – after a few false starts – became one of the defining pop icons of the 1980s with the album Private Dancer. Her life was chronicled in three memoirs, a biopic, a jukebox musical, and in 2021, the acclaimed documentary film, Tina.

“Turner’s musical character has always been a charged combination of mystery as well as light, melancholy mixed with a ferocious vitality that often flirted with danger,” scholar Daphne A Brooks wrote for the Guardian in 2018.
Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on 26 November 1939 and raised in Nutbush, Tennessee, where she recalled picking cotton with her family as a child. She sang in the tiny town’s church choir, and as a teenager talked – or rather, sang – her way into Ike’s band in St Louis: he had declined her request to join until he heard her seize the microphone during a Kings of Rhythm performance for a rendition of BB King’s You Know I Love You.
She had suffered ill health in recent years, being diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016 and having a kidney transplant in 2017.

‘I was just tired of singing and making everybody happy’ … Tina Turner performs at the O2 Arena, London, in 2009. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

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