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Stories of Hollywood name changes are always so bizarre to me. Not because I don\u2019t understand why it happens. Most of the time, it\u2019s fueled by some form of bigotry. People in fancy suits assume that folks won\u2019t want to see a name they think is \u201cethnic\u201d star in a movie. It sucks! But it\u2019s also, like, wrong. There are certainly people in the world who will resist seeing something for racist reasons, but also, plenty of people set aside their biases so they can see the cool new movie that everyone else is seeing. <\/p>\n
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of my favorite celebrities who almost had a name change. Not only was the reason stupid (he was told it would be too long to fit on a marquee) and bigoted, but the people could not have been more wrong. Schwarzenegger became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and has one of the most recognizable names in the industry. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s one of the other wilder aspects of these stories. Why wouldn\u2019t you want someone with a unique name? A lot of people want to be actors, so anything that can make you stand out is an advantage. That was one of the funniest things to me about AI \u201cactress\u201d Tilly Norwood<\/a>. They couldn\u2019t have picked a more boring name (no offense to the real Tilly Norwood, you seem cool). <\/p>\n That brings us to the man who knows how to keep your bus above 50 mph (if ya know what I mean), Keanu Reeves<\/a>. Reeves is one of the most unique actors ever to grace the silver screen, and not just because of his name. No one acts like Keaunu Reeves, even when they try to. The man cannot be replicated, and it\u2019s insane to think someone would want to take someone who is already special and try to change that, but that\u2019s what he had to deal with. <\/p>\n \u201cI was in Toronto, Canada, and then I got a manager who lived in Los Angeles,\u201d Reeves recently shared on the New Heights podcast<\/a>. \u201cAt 20 years old, I drove in my car to Los Angeles. Got out of my car, and my manager said, \u2018We want to change your name.\u2019 And so that\u2019s like, a welcome to Hollywood [moment].\u201d As you can imagine, Reeves was not thrilled with the idea, but he did give it the old college try. <\/p>\n \u201cMy middle name is Charles, so I was like, \u2018Chuck?\u2019 And I grew up on a street called Spadina, Chuck Spadina,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd then I was something Templeton. So then I became K.C. Reeves. I was credited as K.C. Reeves.\u201d Within six months, Reeves couldn\u2019t take it anymore, and thank Zod for that. A few years later, he would be tearing it up with Alex Winter<\/a> and making us all shred air guitars. <\/p>\n