Actors Who Never Recovered From Their Most Distressing Roles

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix

The set of The Matrix was allegedly cursed. Actress and singer Aaliyah, who had been cast in the role of Zee, died in a plane crash at the age of 22. Gloria Foster, who played The Oracle, also passed away. Keanu Reeves' girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn; the two broke up soon afterward, but she lost her life in a car accident right after filming wrapped. Reeves' sister also went through another battle with leukemia, which postponed production. In fact, the movie was so close to shutting down entirely that Reeves spent $24 million of his own salary to keep the cameras rolling.

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The More You Know

  • That slightly scandalous charcoal drawing of a topless Kate Winslet in Titanic was drawn by none other than the director himself, James Cameron.
  • The Lion King was originally known as King of the Jungle until someone at Disney finally remembered that lions don’t actually live in jungles.
  • No actor in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ recognized that Vader was Luke’s dad.
  • Like Facebook, Star Wars was originally prefixed by the definite article ‘The’. Much cleaner without it.
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