Movie Star Bios - Keanu Reeves

From a goofy laid-back teen in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure to kicking butt in The Matrix trilogy, Keanu Reeves has done it all. He's so passionate about his craft, his favourite place to be is on set where he can focus on his acting, something he admits he can't live without. Acting's home. That'd be like leaving home. Born in Beirut, Keanu's Hawaiian-Chinese-European heritage resulted in his dark, exotic looks and unusual name, which means cool breeze over the mountains in Hawaiian. As a teenager, he discovered ice hockey and had dreams of going pro. In fact, it was his skills on the ice that helped him score one of his first film roles in Youngblood. He enjoyed the experience so much that he jumped in his car and drove to the bright lights of Hollywood. And even from the beginning, his approach to acting was simple. You know, hopefully you find this character and a story that one likes and if you do, then you try and either audition or develop or try and make it work. After some small film roles, Keanu's big break came in the mega-hit Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Playing the bodacious Ted Theodore Logan, his portrayal of the air-headed teen was so good that he was in danger of being typecast as the laid-back dude. Determined to prove he was a serious actor, for his next role as an FBI investigator in Point Break, he learnt to surf and spent time with real agents in the field. Looking to further show the range of his abilities, he appeared in My Own Private Idaho, Dracula, Much Ado About Nothing, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and Little Buddha. Then the smash hit Speed gave him the chance to show he could also do action. Running and jumping and playing and, you know, saving the girl and saving everybody and... I don't know. I mean, from that point of view, it's just... It's fun. Wanting to give an authentic performance, Keanu insisted on performing as many of his own stunts as possible. There was some physical stuff to do and I got to be under buses and I got to jump, but really the coordinator made it so that it was safe. Around the same time, Keanu also found success musically as the bass guitarist in the alternative rock band Dogstar. Going on tour with the band was a striking contrast to the disciplined and organised environment he was used to on set. Going on the road after was very undisciplined. Uh-huh. So, uh, that was, you know... Does that balance your life in a way? Yeah, there are extreme balances, though. Wanting to show a more romantic side and perhaps to impress the ladies, Keanu starred in A Walk In The Clouds. Yeah, I certainly, uh, had the, um... You know, the taste for romance. I really, inside, felt like doing one. And it was nice that it worked out that I could act in a piece like this. Reeves continued to get lovey-dovey in Feeling Minnesota, Sweet November and one of my all-time favourites, Something's Gotta Give. And he admits to using his own life experiences as inspiration. Your life experience is a resource. You know, it's kind of a resource. It's what you can bring, you know? And so I kind of describe it as, like, there's myself and then there's the role and the story that you're telling. And, you know, you bring what you bring and then you learn and you go to places that the character will take you to. In The Devil's Advocate, Keanu held his own alongside the legendary Al Pacino. And always the professional, he dedicated himself I trained for the film for about two months, hanging out with lawyers, going to court, working on an accent. I did some movement exercises just for the guy. And so by the time I got to the film, I was, like, I was just ready. One of Keanu's biggest roles was as the computer programmer-turned-saviour Neo in The Matrix. The film was a worldwide blockbuster, spawning two sequels. It revolutionised the sci-fi genre with breathtaking special effects and an intriguing story. When I first read the script, it was something that I was like, oh, my God, thank God someone wrote this. You know, I just thought I'm a science fiction fan. I loved what they did with the characters and the ideas that they had. Reeves threw himself into the physically demanding role, which took its toll on his body. He resorted to ice baths and massages to try and cope with the wear and tear on his muscles. But in the end, he felt the impressive fight scenes were worth the pain. One of the cool things is just kind of the relationship between the dance of the, say, of a sequence, of a kung fu sequence or an action sequence, and the camera. You know, that's been really enjoyable for me. Sadly for Keanu, the success of The Matrix was overshadowed by the devastating stillborn death of his and girlfriend Jennifer Syme's daughter, Ava. Then just two years later, Jennifer was tragically killed in a car accident. Shattered, Keanu threw himself into his work, learning over 200 new martial arts moves for The Matrix Reloaded. How can you not be, you know, excited by getting a chance to hopefully do the best work on this project that you might ever get the chance to do in your creative life? We've done things that I don't believe have ever been attempted in Western action cinema before. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were filmed back-to-back, and the gruelling training schedule really tested Keanu's pain threshold. You know, when you're crying on the floor, literally tears are pouring out because, you know, body emotion, and someone is, you've got a 20-pound sandbag on your back, and someone's pushing you, looking to warm you up after two hours so that they can crack. They want that sound, that pop sound, and your ligaments, basically trying to open up your ligaments here, so you're in a split, and then, you know, go, you ready? And then when you least expect... You know. And after they do that, you go, thank you. Which is one of the beautiful, sick things. Thank you for making me cry, because now I can kick higher. Keanu is well-known for his generous nature. He donated $50 million of his own earnings from The Matrix trilogy to the film's costume and special effects crew. Not only that, he surprised each of his stuntmen with a Harley Davidson motorbike. Following The Matrix trilogy, you'd think Reeves would have had enough of action for a while, but no, he was back for more in Constantine. This one has been, um... ..very physical, cos it's part of... One of the motifs of it is just, like, let's knock the hero down, can he get back up, you know? It's like, you know, Constantine is kind of... All right, right, OK, here we go again. You know, um... And it's great, I mean, throughout the piece, he gets choked, I mean, and throttled and smashed and, you know, kicked around so many times. Keanu's completely, totally committed to what he does, to his work. One of the most professional people I've ever worked with. If I say to him, hold on, where does this scene come, he'll go, it comes exactly after this, this, X... You know, like, he knows everything. There's nothing that he leaves up to chance. You know, he's very... ..deep, deep, deep in his character. Continuing to indulge in his love of action, Keanu played a tough cop in Street Kings, and as usual, he threw himself into pre-production by doing lots of weapons and martial arts training. On the set, director David Iyer had an unusual and confronting technique to get Keanu in the right headspace for his character. He wanted me to... He was really trying to cultivate a situation and help... He wanted me off balance. He wanted me frustrated. He wanted me angry. He wanted me vulnerable. And so he, you know, he would say some pretty personal things to me before the camera rolled that were quite sensitive to me. And, you know, I had to open up to him. So there was that going on. A huge sci-fi fan, Keanu was thrilled to star in the remake of the classic 50s film The Day The Earth Stood Still. Our take on it, you know, Scott and I, was just that, you know, taking your idea of looking from the outside and looking at this planet and the species that's on it that's, you know, endangering its existence. Yeah, it does have a kind of macro point of view. And then as he kind of comes into it, he's denied access to world leaders, but he ends up having a relationship in relationships. And through those relationships, he comes to see another side of them. Keanu is so lovely. He's so sweet and charming and incredibly hardworking and diligent and very thoughtful, really, really thoughtful person and actor. Keanu's brought a lot to this film, not just in his performance and in the role that he plays, but from very early on. He got involved with the script, and I spent a lot of time with him and with the writer, David Scarpa, sitting in a room, working through literally, line by line, every scene in the movie. And he was very disciplined and rigorous, not just about his character, but about the movie as a whole. And once the three of us felt settled that we had a script that was solid and really held the story together well, that's when I think he kind of let go of his involvement in that and really took on the role of the actor and playing Klaatu. Following the success of his career, Keanu's well aware of the fact that his life is far from ordinary. I live in Los Angeles, and there is a more kind of... There's more paparazzo, and so that aspect of, you know, getting followed while you're going to get some gas or, you know, the intrusions of, you know, interruptions while you're having dinner and those kinds of... I mean, it's bourgeois. But over time, Keanu's learned to take it all in his stride and enjoy the perks. Getting the chance to, you know, to walk the red carpet or to have the premiere of a film and to, you know, to see that excitement and to be a part of it is... You know, that's great. From Ted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure to Neo in The Matrix trilogy, Keanu has created some of film's most memorable characters. And although he wasn't taken so seriously early in his career, through hard work, he has proven his talents on the big screen, and now there is no doubting his star power. Stay tuned to StarPix for all of the movies you know and the actors you love, broadcasting glorious high definition with 5.1 surround sound where available. 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