Keanu Reeves undoubtedly has one of the more enviable filmographies of any actor. I mean, think about it: From Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, to Point Break, to Speed, to The Matrix, to (more recently) the John Wick franchise. He’s maintained a foothold in multiple distinct eras, and now he’s doing the same with a deceptively small but potentially pivotal part in Severance on Apple TV+.
This article, which itself cites another one (from Collider, to be clear) and could be argued as containing spoiler-adjacent language for anyone not caught up on the Dan Erickson-created drama, should serve as nice vindication for anyone whose initial thought while acclimating to the Season 2 premiere was, “Wait, is that Keanu Reeves voicing a fucking building?” Why, yes. Yes it is.
“We always wanted it to be somebody that people have certain associations with, but also, it had to be a very warm presence,” Erickson recently told Collider’s senior TV editor, Carly Lane, when discussing the revered actor’s voice cameo as the Lumon building in an employee instructional video shown in the episode “Hello, Ms. Cobel.”
As Erickson further explained, several options were discussed for the role, though it’s hard to argue against the apparent final choice, Reeves, being the perfect pick for the scene in question. In the series creator’s own words, there’s both a “friendliness” and “heart” to “that particular voice.”
In the episode, directed by Ben Stiller, Lumon employees watch a video titled “Lumon Is Listening,” which expertly mocks the kind of corporate-talk nonsense we’re all likely subject to in our day-to-day lives.
“Oh, hi! You probably don’t recognize me from this angle,” the Lumon building says in the faux instructional video, the rest of which you should simply view within its proper context, i.e. go watch the series. It warrants the hype.
Reeves’ distinctive voice, of course, has been utilized to great effect elsewhere in his filmography. He can be heard in Toy Story 4 as beleaguered stuntman toy Duke Caboom, for example, and more recently as Shadow in the third Sonic film.
