'I Trained Keanu Reeves for John Wick, He's So Humble'

I was ten years old when I thought that I could become a spy. I watched The X-Files, and I remember thinking: "Wow."

I told my parents straight after that I wanted to be an FBI agent, working for the U.S. government. I was so intrigued by fighting, secrets, and conspiracies. But I had a big problem—I was a Ukrainian citizen.

If I ever wanted to be a spy, I would have to work for the Ukrainian government. So, my parents told me that my dream of being an agent and a spy for the U.S. government was, sadly, never going to happen. But my dream stayed with me.

When I was younger, my mom wanted me to be a professional ballet dancer because it was her dream. But we discussed that she would also sign me up for a martial arts school, which I was very excited about. I wanted to be a badass and learn all the moves that I saw in movies, and I loved every single minute of it.

I was entering competitions and I went all the way to master the sport of martial arts. My mom was very competitive, I remember her jokingly saying she wouldn't walk home with me if I lost a competition. It helped me to be more resilient.

When I went to college, a dear friend of mine who I'd known for years suddenly passed away. It was a big tragedy for our whole family and my mom was completely shocked. He was only 20 years old and he was very strong and fit.

I thought: "Is this what life is? Can anybody be gone in an instant?"

I wasn't ready for that kind of tragedy. I began dancing professionally on the side in college from morning to night, doing ballet, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop dancing. It was therapy for me, and it allowed me to heal myself.

During college, I remember practicing for my exams and watching YouTube videos of famous U.S. choreographers on the side. I then began taking some acting classes and realized that it was fun for me, and it was a good distraction.

It was then that I saw the first John Wick film. I was 21 at the time, and I was so inspired by how Keanu Reeves realistically handled his weapons in the movie. I don't think I ever saw somebody do as realistic a job as he did.

A fire lit up inside of me, I wanted to be able to perform like that and to challenge myself. Some people say that when you find your calling, or when you find "the one", you instantly know. When I watched John Wick, I instantly knew that I wanted to be an actress. It was almost as if I had done it in my past life.

I was really inspired and something clicked inside of me. I thought: "Maybe I could portray the character of a spy, or an FBI, agent in a movie. That way, I'd get to still fulfill my dream."

Around that time, I had an opportunity to go to the U.S. with a Ukranian singer, Ruslana, as a dancer and a part of her team. Originally, my visa was only valid for five days. The goal was for me to rehearse, perform, pack, and leave. But Ruslana was amazing. After her concert, she changed my return ticket to LA instead of Ukraine.

Ruslana told me that when she was younger, she dreamed of being a singer in America, but she had a family in Ukraine and it's hard to leave when you have everything back home.

I didn't have any money. I didn't have any luggage, or any clothes with me. I didn't even have any credit cards. I had a driver's license back home, $200 in my pocket from the concert, and a dream.

So, I ended up staying in the U.S. I remember years ago before the truth about Harvey Weinstein was spoken out loud; before the Me Too movement started. I was in a few situations where people told me that if I didn't do what they told me to do—and I wasn't comfortable doing those things at all—I wasn't going to get anywhere in LA.

Thank God my dad always told me that I am a fighter and I'm always going to win, so I never actually paid attention and I never did what I wasn't comfortable doing.

I wasn't aware of what I was getting myself into, but because I had done martial arts my whole life, fighting was at my core. My dad always told me: "You're a fighter, you're going to win." I think that helped me overcome a lot of situations.

I had a list of actors and actresses who inspired me, like Jessica Alba, Keanu Reeves, and Penelope Cruz. I researched where they went to study, what teachers they had, where they studied martial arts, and where they went to train for movies.

It took me years to break into the Hollywood industry because I was going to the wrong places and noticed that a lot of people were trying to scam me. But eventually, in 2020, I booked my first action film, playing the role of an assassin, which was surreal.

After, I met Jon Bernthal; he was so kind. Jon suggested to me the great Meisner theater training and teachers Joshua Bitton and Steve Petramale. And that's the point in my life when I started meeting the right people and getting proper training in English here in LA.

Before, I was trained in my native language Ukrainian, so I felt great to train with legit great coaches in English.

One day, after I had booked another movie, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to get weapon training to develop my characters. That's when I met Keanu Reeves' weapon trainer, Taran Butler.

Back in Ukraine, when I was dancing, I had tons of my students and I loved teaching. I learned to explain very difficult moves in a simple way, to all ages. I hear from people all the time that I am empathetic and put my attention on people when I teach them.

Taran Butler saw that I had good teaching skills and asked me to stick around to help him. In 2020, Keanu Reeves came for his weapons training for John Wick: Chapter 4. It was a surreal experience for me. I thought: "I'm in the same room as one of the people who inspired me and changed my life, and they don't even know it."

Keanu Reeves was one of the most humble and committed people I've ever met. He puts so much into what he does, and he works really hard. Training him was a shocking experience and a blessing.

For previous John Wick movies, Keanu was coming to train with Taran Butler at least once a week for six months prior to the movie. Yes, Keanu is one of the most hard-working and focused artists I have ever met.

For John Wick 4, Keanu was coming once a week to us straight after his martial arts training at 87Eleven. I admired his work ethic. Training back-to-back took a different level of commitment, which I saw in him. Training at 87Eleven is very serious and professional and could be very tiring at times. I have trained there myself, so I know how serious they are and how much work and commitment it takes to train professionally.

But to see Keanu coming to train with us right after his 87Eleven training, sometimes tired but so committed to his craft, was beyond inspiring to me. He'd come to training already tired and then have to do some crazy acrobatic maneuvers with us.

I remember one day after we had intense training, I told him that he helped change my life through the character of John Wick. He was shocked and he said: "Oh my God, are you serious, my movie can change somebody's life?" I said, "Yes, Keanu, it can! This is my story, but there are probably lots more."

In the movie, Taran Butler took weapon handling to the next level. There are new, cool weapons designed for Keanu's character, and we also learned new moves.

What I love about Keanu Reeves is his fighting and weapons handling are realistic. Taran and I taught him realistic transitions for clearing his weapon when it's jammed, and reloading in real life while fighting, but Keanu did as much as he could himself.

Of course, Keanu has said himself many times that he has a stunt double for some insane stunts in the movie, which you see in John Wick 4. Chad Stahelski, the director of the John Wick franchise, was once Keanu Reeves' stunt double on The Matrix. But Keanu still trained intensely for his character and did as much as he possibly could.

I think Keanu and Taran have changed Hollywood when it comes to realistic weapon fighting. A lot of actors in the industry are now learning from them, and they, too want to do it right.

A lot of people look at my social media and think I have it all, but it was very hard to get to the point where I am right now. It took a lot of challenges, struggles, meeting the wrong people, and crying really hard.

But I am thankful that I now get to live my dream. And I will be forever thankful to Taran Butler, Jon Bernthal, Titus Welliver, and, of course, Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski.

And I'm also thankful to my friends and family, who supported and inspired me throughout the years to keep going forward and focus on doing the work. Currently, I am working on a big game and am very grateful for all the opportunities and challenges that come my way.

Tetiana Gaidar is an actress, dancer, choreographer, and professionally trained Kung Fu fighter.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

As told to Newsweek associate editor, Carine Harb.

Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? Email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com

Correction, May 2, 2023, 02:45 A.M. ET: A misspelling of Titus Welliver's name was corrected.