The Prague shoot on the John Wick spinoff Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves, is currently on hiatus for the holidays, but will resume on location in the Czech Republic from next week.
In addition to Reeves and de Armas, The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus has also joined the cast of Ballerina in an unspecified role, along with Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace).
Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, and Anjelica Huston have also been confirmed to appear in Ballerina, returning as their characters from earlier John Wick movies.
On Tuesday, star Ana de Armas appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and briefly touched on the shoot of Ballerina in Prague, including what it was like to work alongside Keanu Reeves. The John Wick spinoff marks the pair’s third acting collaboration following Knock Knock and Exposed, which were both released in 2015.
“He’s awesome,” de Armas said of Reeves. “I mean, Keanu is Keanu.”
“We’ve been in Prague filming for four months, we still have one more month to go. And I’m in pain, you know,” she added, referencing the physical toll of shooting Ballerina’s intense action scenes. “My body, my back, everything hurts. I’m complaining. I’m sore. I’m bruised.”
“But the other day, Keanu and I were rehearsing our very difficult stunt scene, and this man is just rolling and throwing me and doing these crazy stunts. And I’m like — I can’t complain anymore. I’m done. Because he is doing it!”
Fallon asked de Armas where she was when she found out she had been nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on Blonde, in which she stars as Marilyn Monroe.
“So I’m on set, and they were just in-between takes, they were changing lenses or something,” she explains. “And my assistant comes with a phone, very straight-faced, and just gives me something to read, and it was this text chain.”
“And then I start reading, and then I realize what I’m reading, and I scream. But of course, it was a stunt scene, so everyone got very worried thinking that something was happening. But I was like, ‘no, no, no, no, it’s okay’.”
When the Golden Globes are announced next Sunday, de Armas could find herself giving an acceptance speech from Prague. Last year, Rosamund Pike and Gillian Anderson both won Golden Globes from Prague, and were streamed into the ceremony live thanks to local filmmakers.
The Czech shoot of Ballerina will resume next week, but it won’t head straight to Prague. Shooting will take place in Moravia, at the historic town of Štramberk outside of Ostrava.
Later this month, production on Ballerina will head back to Prague and surrounding areas. A major scene will be shot in the area surrounding the National Theatre at the end of the month, where scenes were also shot in December, and involve the closure of major streets in Prague’s city center.
Ballerina will continue its shoot in Prague and locations across the Czech Republic through early February. A release date has yet to be set, but look for the John Wick spinoff to debut in cinemas in 2024.