Ana de Armas Once Told Keanu Reeves She Had Never Seen The Matrix: ‘That Will Never Not Be Embarrassing’

Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves costarred in 2015’s ‘Knock Knock’ before reuniting for the upcoming ‘John Wick’ spinoff ‘Ballerina,’ in theaters June 6

Ana de Armas dedicated her CinemaCon 2025 award to her Ballerina costar Keanu Reeves — and she shared an embarrassing story about the first time they met.

On Thursday, April 3, de Armas, 36, accepted CinemaCon’s Action Star of the Year award for her work in her upcoming movie From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, in theaters June 6. In her acceptance speech, de Armas called out her costar Reeves, 60, and admitted that she accidentally told him she had never seen The Matrix when they first met while working on the 2015 movie Knock Knock.

“We were sitting across from each other on the table, and I was really nervous as you are when you’re in front of Keanu Reeves,” de Armas recalled of that meeting, which took place in Santiago, Chile. “I couldn’t talk to him much because I was so self-conscious about my English and I was really struggling and really trying hard to follow the conversation. They were talking about his career, they were talking about The Matrix. And he looked up at me and asked me if I had seen it and I was like, ‘The Matrix? No.’ “

“Everyone at the table was shocked. Someone came to me and told me in Spanish, ‘You haven’t seen La Matrix?’ And I was like ‘Oh, La Matrix? Yeah, I have seen that one,’ ” she added. “That will never not be embarrassing.”

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The actress recalled that during that meeting, Reeves spoke at length about his time making the first John Wick movie, which released in 2014, and demonstrated lengthy fight choreography from that movie — which clearly left an impression.

“Here I am 10 years later, receiving the action star of the year award for Ballerina, but there wouldn’t be Ballerina without John Wick, and for sure there wouldn’t be John Wick without Keanu Reeves,” de Armas said in her speech. “He has through this character and what he’s done with this franchise given me the opportunity to be a part of this world, and I am so honored and grateful, so I want to dedicate this to him. I’m just so happy that life brought us back to gather in such meaningful ways, especially after that first meeting.

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Ballerina, in which de Armas will play deadly assassin Eve Macarro, is a spinoff that continues the cinematic universe Reeves first established in 2014’s John Wick. The upcoming installment from director Len Wiseman and writer Shay Hatten costars Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus; it also brings Reeves, Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick back to the series following 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is in theaters June 6.