Congratulations to Keanu Reeves, published novelist! The Book of Elsewhere, the story of an 80,000-year-old warrior who cannot die co-written by sci-fi author China Miéville, is out today. To mark the occasion, the actor/author stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night (July 22), where he wove a tale about himself as a very much not-infallible warrior of comedy.
Among his many projects, Reeves is working on a film called Good Fortune — a comedy feature written and directed by Aziz Ansari, the guy who was once part of multiple great TV shows before accusations of sexual misconduct came out in 2018 — alongside accomplished actor/ceramicist/weed-smoker Seth Rogen.
Despite starring in so many wham-blam action movies, it was while filming this production that Reeves fell injured, being photographed using crutches on set. He told Colbert about how, exactly, he ended up cracking his kneecap "like a potato chip."
"I was filming a scene with Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen and we were in a cold plunge," Reeves recalled. "I was loving it. I was standing there, and we finish the scene, and you know when you're cold and you're [shuffling]?" he said, helpfully demonstrating on the Late Show soundstage. "I had a bathing suit and a towel, and you put it over your head and you do the cold shuffle?"
The actor continued, "I'm doing the cold shuffle in this room that had protective carpets down and then, just here, there was like a little pocket, and my foot got caught in the pocket in the shuffle, and then I went [down], but [my knee] didn't follow. And then, in slow motion, I went falling. My arms came out, but then my knee failed because it's got some stuff, and I spiked [it]. Like, spiked."
"And my patella — kneecap — cracked like a potato chip," he winced. "But I didn't know that, but once my knee was blowing up..." the actor trailed off. "Comedy's hard, man."
Ansari praised Reeves at CinemaCon in April for "being such a trooper" and continuing to shoot after the accident, which the director said occurred 15 days into filming. "He still filmed everything except some scenes where he needed him to do salsa dancing," Ansari said. "He was like, 'I'll do it!' We're like, 'Keanu, calm down. We'll do the salsa dancing once your knee's healed.'"
There's no release date for Good Fortune yet, but we have that to look forward to! It was revealed earlier this year [via The Hollywood Reporter] that the film sees Reeves as Gabriel, a "literal guardian angel" for down-on-his-luck Ansari, who does odd jobs for a wealthy socialite named Jeff (Rogen). Reeves swaps their lives but fails to successfully demonstrate to Ansari's character that being rich won't solve his problems, resulting in Ansari continuing to walk in the affluent shoes of Rogen's character and Gabriel becoming roommates with the displaced Jeff after losing his wings.
Watch the full clip of Reeves's Colbert appearance below.