Unreal Keanu Reeves

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About

Unreal Keanu Reeves or Unreal_Keanu is a TikTok account that posts deepfakes of actor Keanu Reeves, often showing him performing various TikTok trends. The gimmick account started posting in January 2022 and gained a significant following over the course of the year, boasting over 7.3 million followers by October, as well as convincing many that it actually belonged to Reeves.

History

On January 18th, 2022, TikToker^[1] @unreal_keanu posted its first video. The video shows a deepfaked Keanu Reeves texting as the caption, "What problems arise when you get old?" is shown on screen. Unreal Reeves then shrugs and the caption changes to, "I don't know I don't get old." The video garnered over 6.5 million views in nine months (shown below).

Since uploading his first video, Unreal Keanu has uploaded roughly 40 more videos, each one garnering at least a million views. On March 29th, Unreal Keanu uploaded a video to TikTok^[2] where the deepfake, wearing pajamas, strikes several poses that Reeves' characters do in movies and then transitions to the photos, garnering over 71 million views in seven months (shown below, left). On June 8th, the TikToker^[3] uploaded a dancing video, garnering over 116 million views in four months (shown below, right).

On June 14th, he then uploaded a video to TikTok^[4] where Unreal Keanu stomps on a small person as a giant, garnering over 53 million views in four months (shown below). On September 22nd, he uploaded another video to TikTok^[5] that garnered over 58 million views in two weeks.

Online Presence

Unreal Keanu gained significant media coverage and spread through reposts throughout 2022. Some people believe Unreal Keanu is actually the real Keanu Reeves when they first find him since the deepfake is so detailed, which is the focus of many of the articles. On July 6th, 2022, Daily Hive^[6] published an article about the account. On August 9th, Kotaku^[7] then published an article about it. On September 23rd, HITC^[8] and Daily Dot^[9] both published articles about the account. On October 1st, Unreal Keanu's most recent video as of October 4th, 2022, was shared by Twitter^[10] user @plexaleOK, garnering over 240,000 likes and 27,000 retweets in three days

Deeptomcruise

Deeptomcruise is a gimmick TikTok account that posts deepfakes of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. The channel and its videos received viral popularity in February 2021, with the deepfakes recognized for being highly realistic.