Keanu Reeves says 'The Matrix' directors gave him the red pill from the first movie

• Keanu Reeves said in a Reddit AMA that "The Matrix" directors gave him the red pill from the movie.
• In the movie, the pill allows Reeves' character to discover the truth about his world.

Keanu Reeves said "The Matrix" directors gifted him the red pill after he starred in the iconic movie.

Early on in the 1999 sci-fi movie, directed by Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Neo (played by Reeves) tries to discover why the name "The Matrix" keeps popping up online. He eventually meets Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who gives the lead character a choice: take the blue pill and return to his ordinary life, forgetting all the weird encounters he has had, or take the red pill and learn the truth about "The Matrix."

Neo takes the red pill and thus discovers that his world is actually a simulated reality.

During a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Saturday to promote his new movie "John Wick: Chapter 4," the actor was asked if he has ever stolen any props from the sets of his films.

Reeves replied: "Not stolen… the watch and wedding ring from 'John Wick,' a sword from '47 Ronin,' and the first red pill that the Wachowskis ever gave me."

Despite the first "Matrix" movie premiering more than two decades ago, Reeves recently told Wired that he's worried that humanity hasn't learned from the franchise when it comes to the dangers of artificial intelligence.

"I was trying to explain the plot of 'The Matrix' to this 15-year-old once, and that the character I played was really fighting for what was real. And this young person was just like, 'Who cares if it's real?'" Reeves said. "People are growing up with these tools: We're listening to music already that's made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there's NFT digital art. It's cool, like, 'Look what the cute machines can make!'"

He added: "But there's a corporatocracy behind it that's looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we're gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the nonvalue. And then what's going to be pushed on us? What's going to be presented to us?"

Reeves also said that he has a clause in all his movie contracts to prohibit digital alterations to his performance in post-production after an editor added a tear to one of his scenes.

"I don't mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit," Reeves said. "But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the '90s, I had a performance changed. They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, 'Huh?!' It was like, I don't even have to be here."