Lance Reddick Had Already Perfected Charon’s Voice 20 Years Before John Wick

“It said ‘African accent’ in the script,” Reddick recalled, in reference to 2014’s “John Wick.” He continued: “It didn’t specify which one. And also remember, I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. I think I had less than a week between the time that I got the offer and the time that I shot my stuff in the first film.” While he didn’t know it at the time, in 2021 Reddick told Vulture that he “found out later that the role was kind of written for [him].” He was intrigued about the part, not because of the film’s butt-kicking premise, but because he was excited by “the opportunity to play this quintessential gentleman with an African accent,” as he told the outlet.

The actor had a tight turnaround from prep to shooting, but luckily, he kept what he called “accent tapes,” recordings of voices he’s done for past performances. “So I went through my accent tapes, and I tried a South African accent, and it didn’t seem to fit,” he told /Film. “Then I tried a Kenyan accent, and that seemed to really fit. The funny thing about that is that when I taped that Kenyan accent, that was for a film that I did [about] 25 years ago called ‘I Dreamed of Africa.'” The movie in question was released in 2000 to little fanfare and was only the fourth movie on Reddick’s resume. “I Dreamed Of Africa” told the true story of Italian writer and conservationist Kuki Gallmann, who moved to a Kenyan ranch in the 1970s.