The cast of Toy Story 4 is one of, if not the most impressive vocal roster in the history of the franchise. Returning stars like Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Annie Potts are joined in this new film by Christina Hendricks, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Ally Maki, Betty White, Mel Brooks, and of course, Keanu Reeves. If it seems like Reeves is having perhaps the biggest year of his career, it’s because he is. The guy is everywhere, including the world of video games, and fans can’t get enough of him. That’s what makes this new BTS video from Toy Story 4 even more exciting.
This weekend, a video was released showing most of the major stars of the film recording their dialogue behind the scenes, with director Josh Cooley offering them some insight into their characters. The entire 11 minute video is delightful, but it’s the section with Reeves just after the eight-minute mark that has everyone on Twitter raving.
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Reeves mostly just goes over the lines for the scene where his character, Duke Caboom, is introduced to Woody and the audience. An action figure of “Canada’s Greatest Stuntman,” Caboom constantly pulls off various poses on his motorcycle, and Reeves can be seen in the video making all of the different sounds that accompany them.
As a matter of fact, Reeves delivered an impromptu performance of these poses and sounds on a table in the cafeteria of Pixar Animation Studios while meeting with Cooley about the role early on in the film’s production.
“Yeah, you know, we created Duke Caboom and then we always create the character first and then we see what’s the right actor to portray this, that can do this,” Cooley said during a press conference earlier this year. “And we went after Canadian actors, and he was the first one on our list and I’m so thrilled that he said yes. He came here first just to meet with us just before even signing and we were down in the atrium and he’s like you know ‘What do you think he sounds like?’
“But he completely won me over and to the point where he was, we were talking about the character just getting deeper, he’s like, ‘What do you think drives him?’ And so he, at one point just got up on the table like, imagine just sitting down there eating lunch in front of everybody and he gets up and goes, ‘Hoh! Huh! Hah! Heh!’ And he’s like doing poses and stuff. And I was like this is, dude, this is it. This is incredible. And every time we recorded with him he’s had the biggest smile on his face. And it was just so much fun and he’s just, I can’t speak enough about all he is.”
Toy Story 4 is set to hit theaters on June 21st.