In 1989, the world was introduced to Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter playing the hilarious duo of Ted and Bill, respectively, with the time travel movie Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Since the first film hit the big screen, we have seen sequels, spin-offs, and even TV series spawn from the beloved comedy movie.
However, despite the success of the Bill and Ted movies, it turns out that one of the franchise’s leading stars wasn’t always too pleased about the gig. In an interview with the YouTube channel Inside Of Your Clips, Winter recalled the moment that he and his co-star first found out that they had bagged the main roles for the first Bill and Ted movie.
The actor went on to reveal how Reeves and he had very different reactions to the news. “I knew I had the part. And Keanu was all forlorn,” he said. The star revealed that despite scoring a leading role, Reeves was initially disappointed about being cast in the flicks, for one simple reason: he wanted to play the part of Bill, not Ted.
“I was like, ‘what is your problem?'” Winter explained. “And [Reeves] was like, ‘well, I’m playing Ted, and I thought I was Bill, you know?'”
The differences between the characters are few and far between, as both are wanna-be musicians whose mutual attitudes prompt them to use a time machine to escape the alternative of studying for their history reports. Winter agreed with this fact, reportedly responding to his co-star with an offer to switch parts.
“I was like,’ dude, honest to god, there is no fucking difference between these two characters. I’m more than happy to swap roles,” the actor said. However, Reeves reportedly stated that everything was “cool” and ultimately kept his role as Ted.
In fact, Reeves would go on to play Ted in two sequels – last appearing as the character in the 2020 science fiction movie Bill & Ted Face the Music. So, we guess the role must of grew on him, eh? Currently, Reeves has put Bill and Ted to bed for now and is working on a number of new movies, such as Constantine 2.
Fans can next see the star in John Wick 4, which is scheduled to hit theatres on March 24, 2023.