Keanu Was Always First Choice

Just days before he steps on stage in London to recreate the lead role in The King and I made famous by Yul Brynner, Jason Scott Lee took the opportunity to scotch once and for all the rumours that he had been the Wachowski Brothers' original choice for The Matrix. Speaking to London newspaper The Evening Standard, Lee says, 'Rumour had it I was auditioned for The Matrix. I never was. What happened was that when the fight choreographers were brought in, the film-makers asked: "Can you make Keanu look like Jason Scott Lee?" And they said: "Why don't you get Jason?" The producers replied that I had been offered the part and turned it down. It was not true...It was just Hollywood economics. Keanu would sell the picture. I could not.'