Keanu Reeves and John Wick’s Director Challenge The Academy to Add a Stunt Category to the Oscars

If there’s one thing the John Wick films are known for, it’s the incredible gunfights and the stunts involved in bringing them to the big screen. But the question has come up frequently among fans: Why aren’t stunt performers, like those who help make John Wick what it is, acknowledged at award shows like the Oscars? We thought we’d get to the bottom of this question by talking to Keanu Reeves and John Wick director Chad Stahelski, as they have a better perspective than most on the matter.

Reeves told IGN that even though stunt performers have their own awards show, they deserve recognition at the Oscars, the Guild Awards, and more. He thinks the best way to make this happen is to be loud.

“But what would it take for that to happen? I guess just more people would need to say, ‘Hey! You need to do this!’” Reeves said.

For those unaware, Stahelski, besides directing all four John Wick movies, has spent most of his career in stunt work. His first credit dates back to 1994’s The Crow and he even acted as Reeves’ stunt double in The Matrix.

Stahelski is obviously an expert on the topic and, with the upcoming theatrical release of John Wick: Chapter 4 on March 24, 2023, he thinks it’s time we bring this conversation front and center.

“Honestly, I’ve been around that for my 20-something-year career in stunts,” Stahelski told IGN. “And there’s a lot of, I don’t know, just this ethereal banter, this wives’ tale, of why stunts aren’t in the Oscars or why stunts should be in the Oscars. As far as I know, the talk has never happened.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the Academy or anybody outside the Academy that wouldn’t agree we’re one of the main nine departments. We are in every trailer. Obviously, it’s a massive department. It’s a huge creative thing. So has any journalist or stunt person ever walked up to the President of the Academy or a member of the Academy and go, ‘Why don’t stunts [get recognized]?’”

Stahelski then went a step further and personally invited the Academy to talk to him or another representative in the stunt world about creating such a category, while also acknowledging how tricky it may be.

We all can agree it would be fair, but how do you do it? Who should get the award?

“We all can agree it would be fair, but how do you do it? Who should get the award? The stunt coordinator or the fight coordinator? There are a lot of complexities that go with that,” Stahelski said. “Stunts are a very complex department. Who designs the stunts? Well, sometimes I do, and sometimes [Lana and Lilly] Wachowski, Steven Spielberg, and [Christopher] Nolan do. So is it the guy that designs the stunt or the performer that does the stunt? What if it’s a fight scene? Is it the guy that does one or the one who designs the whole thing, like the choreographer?

“These are all good questions, but the conversation has to start. I don’t have the answers. Neither does, I don’t think, anybody in the stunt world or the Academy world, but it’d be great if we all sat at a table and figured it out. Smart people in a room usually end up with smart decisions. So what do you say we get smart people from both sides in a room and we talk?”

The director then pointed out that stunts might help “spice up the Oscars a little bit. … We’ve been doing it for 100 years in film.”

It would be a “win-win” for the Academy, according to Stahelski, and who knows, a musical number with some professional stunts could be the spark the Oscars need to take the show to the next level!

For more, check out our chat with Reeves about John Wick: Chapter 4 during IGN Fan Fest 2023, the action-packed final trailer for the film, and why Reeves said this fourth chapter has the series’ most action “by a good margin.”