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When appearing in the first John Wick film with Daisy, the eight-month-old beagle whose onscreen death left fans broken hearted, Keanu Reeves’ face was smothered with bacon grease to lure the adorable puppy into giving him kisses.
That wasn’t the case when the Canadian-born star appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and played Pup Quiz, which ended in Reeves being swathed by puppy love.
Joining the talk show, the 58-year-old actor sat down for a high-stakes match of Pup Quiz, where each correct answer is rewarded with a precious Golden Retriever puppy.
A favorite on the Fallon show, Pup Quiz pits the talk show host against celebrities like Kaley Cuoco, Jerry Seinfeld and Salma Hayek, all vying for the title of Top Dog.
Favored to win from the jump, Pup Quiz host Steve Higgins offered Reeves a hint, allowing him to nail his first question and land a puppy in his lap. “That’s unfair!” Fallon said about Higgins’ interference. “First of all, I’m not taking a puppy away from John Wick. Just saying that right now.”
Then in Double Puppardy, the Matrix actor doubled the number of dogs in his lap by correctly answering that a dik-dik is a species of antelope.
After sweeping the win with six adorable puppies, the Bill and Ted franchise star claimed the title, proclaiming, “I’m the puppy king!”
Before Pup Quiz started, Reeves and Fallon had a conversation, Fallon recalling when he saw the actor at a restaurant and had a single olive delivered to his table. Reeves responded with a bigger surprise.
Fallon said: “You had the whole restaurant come over and sing me Happy Birthday. And it was not my birthday…I blew out the candle.”
The two also spoke about Reeves crashing someone’s wedding in London and taking pictures with the bride and groom. After showing a photo of the group, Reeves joked, “one of these things does not belong, and it was me.”
Also using the time to promote the release of John Wick: Chapter Four, which hit theatres in March, Reeves praised the film’s director, “Chad Stahelski is very inventive. He really wants to create different kinds of environments or ways in the storytelling for the action.” Reeves continued, “It’s friendship, brotherhood, father-daughter, the choices you make, rules and consequences…who are you, man?”
John Wick: Chapter Four, introduces fans to a new assassin, a scene stealing Belgian Malinois, owned by the hitman, Mr. Nobody who’s targeting Wick.
But, after saving the unnamed four-legged killer’s life, the adorable creature becomes fiercely loyal to Wick, and Mr. Nobody abandons his mission. The unnamed dog is one of the few characters to survive what’s been called the “bloodiest John Wick movie.”
The dog is one of five Belgian Malinois used in Chapter Three–Parabellum (2019) with Halle Berry, who always appears with two at her side. Berry was hands-on with training the pups so her relationship with them onscreen would appear more genuine.
Though he doesn’t have a dog at home, off and onscreen, it’s obvious Reeves loves dogs.
Appearing on the Kelly Clarkson Show in March, he was hounded by penned puppies who tried to break out for Keanu cuddles. Clarkson called it the “John Wick effect.”
In the John Wick films, his title character shares the screen with dogs, starting in the first where Wick is triggered back into an assassin’s life to avenge the death of Daisy–the beloved puppy given to him by his late wife–that drives the narrative throughout the franchise.
Fans were horrified to see Reeves furry co-star killed by a Russian mobster in a botched attempt to steal Wick’s car, and not so emotional about the human body count. Reeves explains, “The dog is innocent, right? The animal is innocent, and humans sometimes aren’t so innocent. I mean, we might start that way.”
In 2021, it’s reported that Daisy, named Andy at the time of filming in 2014, was happily living with his new name “Wick,” in a home with a family that adores him.
Though Reeves’s character no longer had Daisy, he finds a pit bull at a Kennel, and “Bubba” co-stars with Reeves in John Wick: Chapter Two (2017).
We can’t get enough of puppies or Keanu Reeves! What a brilliant move to humanize his John Wick assassin character with his love for a sweet creature! What is your favorite John Wick film and do you love him even more now that you see how cute he is with puppies?
