Keanu Reeves is not a perfectionist. He is perfection itself. We were told this a long time ago, and now maybe we can finally believe it: he is the One.” It is with these few words that Anthony Oliver Scott concludes his portrait of the Canadian actor in the New York Times in November 2020. The implacable and feared critic of the most famous of New York daily newspapers has then just placed him in fourth place in the ranking of the best actors of the 21st century, behind Denzel Washington, Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Day-Lewis. Excuse a bit! A consecration when you know that the handsome brown haired now 57 years old has long been despised by critics. Worse, in his early days, and even fifteen years ago, people laughed shamelessly at his lack of expression on screen and his so-called monolithic acting. Was Keanu too handsome to be credible? Perhaps, but Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and other Tom Cruise, they nevertheless managed to become Hollywood stars at a very young age. He will have taken his time and could now enjoy his revenge. But that’s not his style, far from it. Don’t count on the hero of the Matrix and John Wick sagas to taunt those who overshadowed him: wanting to become a god and surpass his peers, even in his profession, is far from being his primary goal! The gender of the house is rather the job, discretion, kindness and benevolence, words that are far from being overused when they apply to Keanu. Judge for yourself: this guy recently offered a watch worth 10,000 euros to each of the four stuntmen who worked on the set of John Wick: Chapter 4, which took place in recent months in Paris.
Watches at 10,000 euros offered to stuntmen!
HIS CAREER
1989: THE EXCELLENT ADVENTURE OF BILL AND TED With this cult film for teenagers in which he plays a left and naive geek, Keanu becomes very well known in the United States.
1991: POINT BREAK Between his surfer cop character and that of Patrick Swayze, the hearts of the fans swing… The dark-haired man gains the status of a sex symbol.
1991: MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO In this independent film from Gus Van Sant, Keanu proves that he is a great actor alongside the late River Phoenix.
1994: SPEED Faced with Sandra Bullock, he will earn his stripes as an action film star. It will bring in more than 310 million euros at the box office!
1999-2003: MATRIX TRILOGY The character of Neo propels him to the rank of cult actor all over the world. He will pocket tens of millions of euros for this role.
2014: MAN OF TAI CHI He tries his hand at directing with this action and martial arts film, but the success is not really there.
2014-2019: JOHN WICK Keanu dons the costume of a former hitman in these testosterone-filled films that are a hit. The fourth installment is due out next year.
2021: MATRIX RESURRECTIONS Filmed last year, this Matrix sequel, eighteen years after the third part, is highly anticipated.
Unbreakable for a long time…
Charlize Theron 2009-2010
Sofia Coppola 1991-1992
“Keanu Reeves is accused by several women of having been a gentleman.” Here is the headline of an American parody newspaper, a sort of local Gorafi, in the middle of the #MeToo affair. Keanu has indeed always been adored by the fairer sex, the actresses who have crossed his path in mind. But the handsome kid has almost never appeared with a woman on the red carpet. And after the death of his ex, Jennifer Syme, in 2001, he became downright allergic to any form of commitment. Known for the most part, his romances have never been 100% confirmed by the person concerned!
Alexandra Grant, the one who converted him to life together
While Keanu Reeves made his first official red carpet outing with Alexandra Grant in November 2019 in Los Angeles, the 48-year-old American actor and entertainer have known each other for at least a decade, having worked on a book together. , Ode to Happiness, released in 2011. They would have met in 2010 with mutual friends. Since he appears with her, the actor wears a big smile much more often than before. These two have clearly found each other!
He refuses to have bodyguards!
And don’t think it’s exceptional! Twenty years ago, he offered 45 million euros to the members of the technical team of Matrix, and each of his understudy received a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Simple examples of the good deeds that punctuate the journey of the one whose first name means “cool breeze on the mountain”, in Hawaiian dialect. On the internet, dozens of anonymous people tell anecdotes about him on forums, each one more sympathetic than the other. Not only does the actor lend himself easily to the game of photos with his fans, but he also regularly gives money to the homeless and leaves his seat on the subway – because yes, he may be rich and famous in the world whole, Keanu refuses to have bodyguards and continues to take the subway. A UFO, a real one, and it always has been. Born on September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon, Keanu was abandoned by his father at the age of 3. It is his costumer mother, Patricia, who will raise him alone. They will move according to his contracts and his love stories, between Beirut, Sydney, New York or Toronto. They end up staying in Canada, it is also the nationality that appears on Keanu’s identity papers. Dyslexic, the young boy then shines more on the ice hockey fields than on the school benches. But at the age of 9, he discovered his vocation thanks to the theatre. After the boards, he made his place on the big screen, chaining the successes from the end of the 1980s. There is The Excellent Adventure of Bill and Ted in 1989, a cult comedy in the United States, then Point Break of the future Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, where he plays the role of Patrick Swayze and becomes one of the most fantasized young firsts in the world, or even Francis Ford Coppola’s handsome Dracula. In 1999, the first part of Matrix consecrates him as an ultra bankable star. Keanu doesn’t really care about money though. It’s true, he is largely a multimillionaire, but he is not ready to give up his freedom to remain so. In 1995, he even refuses to play in the sequel to Speed, despite the 9 million euros in fees offered to him! “Money does not buy happiness, but it allows me to live as I see fit”, he explains in Interview in 2019. And precisely, Keanu has never really lived like the others. Don’t look up what huge properties the hunk bought in Beverly Hills, Miami or New York because he doesn’t have any. For a long time, he lived as a nomad, crossing America on his motorcycle, one of his passions, and changing hotels during his travels. On the heart side too, the handsome kid was kind of unattached since the tragedy of the disappearance of his daughter and her mother in the early 2000s (see box). Things seem to have changed a bit since he appeared with artist Alexandra Grant. Unlike some of her male counterparts in Hollywood, who left wives and family homes for young beauties once the midlife or fifties crisis hit, Keanu chose a 40-year-old (48 years), free, artist, with a sober and simple look. A woman who looks like him, in short. She certainly accompanied him on the set of Matrix 4 in Germany during the summer of 2020, but she had chosen to rent a house in the countryside in which he joined her on weekends, rather than spending all his time in Berlin where the filming was based. Keanu is a free man, happy and always so generous: not so long ago, it was discovered that he had created a charitable foundation to help research against cancer and leukemia… while refusing to give his name so as not to promote him. Keanu is and will therefore remain a K apart in the land of the stars, and that’s good!
Between sex symbol and boy next door
Keanu may have a quickdraw sometimes bordering on grunge, beanie on his head, greasy hair and torn jeans, it is clear that since his role as Neo in The Matrix, he has become an icon of classy casual style. In 2019, Saint Laurent Homme even made him his muse and most of his fans have not forgotten the polished black and white images of the actor, in ultra handsome stylish mode. It must be said that whatever his look, Keanu hardly ages. Hardly have we noticed for some time small gray locks in her ebony hair!
Marked by terrible mourning
In 1993, Keanu saw his first drama with the loss by overdose of his best friend, actor River Phoenix, whom he had met on the set of My Own Private Idaho. Six years later, actress Jennifer Syme, his girlfriend of just over a year, gives birth to a stillborn baby at eight months of pregnancy, a little girl they will call Ava. The two are devastated and their couple will not survive it. Eighteen months later, the then 28-year-old woman died in a car accident. In May 2019, when American comedian Stephen Colbert asked him on The Late Show: “What happens after death?”, Keanu replied: “I know that those who serve us miss us. love.” He knows what he is talking about…
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