While I think any actor skilled in stage combat or movie stunts is slightly more of a threat than the average person, I don’t think it’s much more than the basics and what looks good.

Honestly, the biggest thing to keep in mind is that a lot of celebrities tend to be pretty fit (edit: the ones from the types of movies you’re talking about). Even if they don’t know how to throw a punch properly it wouldn’t feel nice to get hit.

Also, this is a bit reductive, but I don’t think people would want to mess with them because of the bodyguards and money to go after you in lawsuits lol.

Well, I’m not sure what level of familiarity you have with martial arts/combat training. Or with what goes into “stage” combat, or fifty choreography.

But there’s no single answer here. It’s going to vary based on the production of the film/show/play, and the individual actor’s interest/ability.

Let’s point to the stuff I’m familiar enough with to have done personally: stage combat. Someone does a play with a fight scene. Actors that do stage work tend to pick up the very specific skills involved in making a fight scene in stage look “real enough”. You don’t have to learn how to fence for real, you just have to look interesting while you clash fake swords together.

That goes for hand to hand scenes as well. Matter of fact, in both cases, you’ll often be training how to miss and still look like you hit. This means that an actor that doesn’t train outside of stage combat is going to have trouble in a real fight because their reflexes and perception of range aren’t going to work right.

Movie fighting can be exactly the same. The actors aren’t supposed to hit each other at all. Fight scenes are planned ahead of time, with camera angles set so that the shoot is reasonably safe, but the action looks good on screen.

So, again, most movies or shows aren’t going to be training actors to actually fight. They may not even do amy marital arts training at all, even just to look a little more realistic, because it’s faster and cheaper to have an actor just memorize steps like in a dance. Which isn’t too far off from what kata are tbh. So an actor in that kind of production isn’t going to gain any practical skills at all.

However, some productions do have the actors train to some degree or another because it allows for a little improv and for the actors to move like they know how to fight both within a fight scene and in other scenes.

That productions sometimes end up with actors having a degree of real proficiency in what they’re taught. However, it’s very rare for a movie to have the budget for that. Even the Matrix and John Wick didn’t go super deep into it. They hired top end stunt performers and choreographers that prepped the actors extremely well. The Matrix in particular was a lot of wire work, really heavily influenced by Hong Kong style kung fu movies. So they didn’t teach the actors any significant fight skills, more how to look like they knew how to do stage/movie kung fu.

Now, Keanu is actually a really great example to use. He’s got a reputation for putting his work in outside of what’s required. He’s done a shit ton of firearms work over the years on his own. And, supposedly, he has done some h2h training too, though I’ve heard conflicting stories about what kind.

And there’s been plenty of actors that have a background in some variety of fighting art. Plenty of actors end up finding a love for one style or another from acting. Fencing ends up being fairly popular among stage actors, though they rarely compete, and never seriously that I’ve ever heard of.

But could Keanu do the same things as in the movies? Hell no. Dude is human, and doesn’t have an entire team supporting him in a real fight. Nobody could pull off the stuff John Wick does because he has plot armor. He’s going to get hurt, but not catch a stray bullet in the head and drop dead.

Could Keanu hold his own in a realistic fight? Probably. He’s physically fit, has done at least a little training, and those two things are huge advantages in a random fight with some asshole looking for trouble. Could he step into an MMA gym and hold his own with fighters his own weight class and age range? I don’t know. Maybe, like I said, he stays in good shape, so he wouldn’t be an utter failure.

But it depends on how much work he puts in on his own time. A year of training for a movie isn’t going to mean shit if that’s all the training you ever do, no matter how good the training is. Fighting is one of those things where you will lose your skills to some degree if you don’t practice in some way. I’ve lost a good bit of ability over the years since I can’t train the way I used to. I can’t take falls, I can’t move the same, so if I was to jump on the mat and try to roll, I’m likely going to need a doctor. I might, however, be able to fake it on camera with a little help.

But I have had violent encounters since becoming disabled, and that’s not the same as sparring with someone trained in controlled settings. So I did fine. Came out of it uninjured entirely in every case, though I felt like I’d been beat to hell because my body just ain’t what it used to be. So I wouldn’t count an actor entirely as untrained if they were dealing with a low threat fight over a parking spot or whatever.

So, there’s no single answer here. In some cases it’s a hell no, they’re toast; in others it’s where I’m not likely to start a fight with them

Fight choreography only works against someone who also knows the choreography. Then it’ll play out according to the choreography.

The real world doesn’t work that way.

Keanu does have extensive general firearms training though. So if he had a gun you’d likely be in trouble. I don’t know his general martial arts training.

I think all actors retain their ability to act, yes. What you are likely seeing in a movie however is a stunt performer doing choreographed and well rehearsed moves.

I think it depends on how the actor prepares. Keanu is known to be super involved in his stunts and has done a fair amount of actual firearms training. I believe he’s competed in some amateur events.

I would absolutely expect him to be significantly more skilled with firearms than the average person.

And even if he wasn’t John Wick, I just cannot imagine the justification for fucking with Keanu Reeves.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but, Keanu isn’t actually killing all those people.

It’s choreography.

They say walk through this door, lift your left arm to block the punch from this guy, then point your gun that way, duck under the guy charging you from behind and then point the gun that way. He might learn some basic stances but most of his fighting experience is how to LOOK like you punched somebody without actually hurting them.

No, they have to return their martial arts skills after the movie ends.

You’ll like this one OP!

In 2009, three masked burglars broke into Dolph Lundgren’s home, tied up and threatened his wife, but fled after finding a family photo and realizing whose home they’d broken into.

I will break you.

Watching the various motorcycle touring series that Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman made hints at some of the realities of this intersection between life and acting.

There’s several references to skills that Ewan picked up to make one or other movie and how those skills are now part of “life”.

I do seem to recall that Ewan also pointed out that these skills were incomplete, pretending to be a chef convincingly requires some actual skills, but not decades of background training.

I doubt that it’s substantially any different from learning a new hobby and moving on to the next one and starting again. You don’t forget the first hobby and are likely to use some of it in the next one. Other than being taught by an actual expert, which seems like a potential unexpected perk of acting.

In short, the journey of life is peppered with things you learn, regardless of your chosen profession.

Coming at it backwards

Jackie Chan was a martial artist who fought (on screen) his way into the film industry. Hard to imagine Keanu Reeves becoming a martial artist anywhere near the caliber of Jackie Chan’s

There are obviously those like Gary Oldman, who, unless you paid close attention to the credits list, won’t be able to tell that he worked in the Fifth Element, Harry Potter, and the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy. Did he learn new skills for the movies he worked in? Most likely yes. Does he retain those skills? Only as much as he practices them or else like in all of us, I’d wager that those skills atrophied away from the moment respective films wrapped up shooting.

If anything, those skills look more like accessories to the critical job of acting on screen.

He’s acquired a certain set of skills.

My understanding is that his firearms training and proficiency are quite good.

He did a lot of his own stunts, and did train a bit of BJJ and other martial arts training, but probably doesn’t have enough hours of training for proficiency.

With respect to firearms training, I’d put Tom Cruise near the top.

If they’re anything like me learning something specific to do a one-off job, they’ll forget about it as soon as it wraps up.

Keanu Reeves seems to have some level of real gun skill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xii9_oWQ7HY

But if you shoot him he will die, because in reality you usually die the second someone tries to shoot you. There is no such thing as avoiding gunfire. If the barrel is pointed at you, you are probably dead.

No.

I’m watching Jean Claude Van Damme’s filmography right now. He’s a trained fighter. He was taught to act, but was never really good at it.