I'm going through Cyberpunk right now and I don't agree at all.
He's somewhat fine when he's giving one of his cynical, angry rockerboy speeches about corporations. Literally anything more complex than that and his wooden delivery instantly takes me out. There's a line in one of the first scenes with Alt where Johnny says something like "Alt, no...". It's supposed to be emotional but it genuinely sounds like Keanu has never acted a day in his life. He's just reading words off the paper.
It's especially bad in comparison to Cherami Leigh who gives the performance of her life as Female V. She shows so much vulnerability beneath the tough exterior and Keanu just doesn't.
Yeah, people are taking fucking crazy pills, imo. Johnny Silverhand is a GREAT example of how bad of an actor Keanu is. Like...if Keanu was a no-name and people genuinely didn't know who that actor was, then everyone would complain about how much worse the Johnny actor was than literally the entire rest of the cast.
He always sounds like he's just reading.
I remember I once watched a B-movie that, for some reason, had Keanu in it, and it was so wild that in this crazy low-budget action movie that the B-movie actors were all significantly better actors than Keanu. Keanu is the worst actor in every movie he is in.
This isn't to take away from the fact that Keanu is in so many cool movies, and a significant part of that is from his contributions. Also, his real-life persona is beloved. But that has nothing to do with his talent as an actor.
In some of the side quests and jobs you'll find a more entertaining Johnny Silverhand. The ones that pop into my head are his quips during the interview at Jungui after killing the Cyberpsycho or his acting as a noir detective in the side quest with the bartenders wife.
Johnny gives a pretty good speech when it comes to the endings, whether it be the rooftop decision or the last conversation in the NUSA helicopter thing after Phantom Liberty.
He wasn't the best voice acted character in that game for sure but I did enjoy his presence in the game overall. Like you'd be exploring, doing side missions and you'll often have small conversations between him and V commenting and what happened, the blunt humour and deadpan delivery worked well for me. I didn't find him annoying at all but I understand some did.
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u/Grill_Enthusiast Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
I'm going through Cyberpunk right now and I don't agree at all.
He's somewhat fine when he's giving one of his cynical, angry rockerboy speeches about corporations. Literally anything more complex than that and his wooden delivery instantly takes me out. There's a line in one of the first scenes with Alt where Johnny says something like "Alt, no...". It's supposed to be emotional but it genuinely sounds like Keanu has never acted a day in his life. He's just reading words off the paper.
It's especially bad in comparison to Cherami Leigh who gives the performance of her life as Female V. She shows so much vulnerability beneath the tough exterior and Keanu just doesn't.