1.Interviewing Keanu Reeves
My interview with actor Keanu Reeves aired on the October 4th episode of Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu. Reeves had been in Japan to promote his latest film, John Wick: Chapter 3−Parabellum, and I was lucky enough to sit down with him for the show.
When we received confirmation that the interview would be taking place, our producer decided to make Keanu Reeves the focus of the entire 25-minute episode. In the social media age, Reeves has become a legendary figure on the internet, renowned for his genuine earnestness and gentlemanly demeanor. Truth be told, I was apprehensive—Reeves is known for being a taciturn interviewee, giving short, interesting answers that reveal very little about who he is or what he is about. And it was clear to me that he wasn’t at all interested in talking about his internet reputation in any sort of substantive way.
That being said, the actor’s aloof persona is a wellspring of internet gold. Most stars today have a carefully tailored public image; celebrities flood social media with staged photos and YOLO-style pronouncements. Reeves, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about the social media circus. And netizens eat that nonchalance up, swooning and fawning over videos and photos of him riding the NYC subway, or in conversation with homeless people, or refusing to ditch his tattered shoes for new kicks. They are drawn to the unmanufactured public image of an A-list star that lives a simple life. His air of unaffected mystery has won him scores of fans.
On second thought, perhaps Reeves was a dream guest for Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu, which is all about interpreting social media trends for Japanese English learners. Sure, he might not have much to say to my questions, and the topic of social media might not exactly cause his eyes to light up, but his appeal lies elsewhere. As long as we could show him “being Keanu", I knew that the interview would be a success. At least, that’s what I told myself as I steeled myself for the interview.
2.Keanu Reeves as an Action Star
When we think of Keanu as an actor, we think of his action films—movies like Speed and The Matrix. When you examine what Reeves brings to his role in these films and the hero persona that emerges, it becomes clear that his style is the complete opposite of the classic action star archetype.
Reeves began his career in the late 80s as a handsome heartthrob with not much depth. That image was cemented with 1989’s Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, where he played a high school slacker with dreams of becoming a rock star, and 1991’s Point Break, where he played a testosterone-fueled FBI agent undercover as a surfer.
Then in 1994, he starred in Speed, one of the most iconic action films of the 90s, cementing his status as an action star. Speed is a non-stop thrill ride from beginning to end, with a young, spunky Sandra Bullock playing the female lead, and a completely over-the-top Dennis Hopper as the villain. Meanwhile, Reeves’ character Jack Traven has no real defining traits other than being a nice guy. And Reeves himself is neither as muscle-bound as Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, or as prone to sardonic one-liners as Bruce Willis in Die Hard.
The sci-fi masterpiece The Matrix changed action movies forever. Reeves plays Neo, a computer programmer at a respectable software company by day, and a hacker who commits cybercrimes by night. He’s basically a geek—albeit one that gradually comes to realize that he is the savior of humanity. The film is remembered for incorporating themes like “the real world versus the virtual world" and “the threat of AI" just as the world was entering the digital age. What was arguably even more revolutionary was the new action hero archetype embodied by Neo.
Reeves subsequently fell into a bit of a career slump, but he returned to the spotlight with 2014’s John Wick—an action movie junkie’s dream. As the titular assassin, who is forced out of retirement in a mission for revenge, Reeves garnered critical and popular acclaim for performing the majority of his own stunts. Perhaps Hollywood and the times have caught up to Reeves; he has become the quintessential action star of our era.
3.The John Wick Series
John Wick
Legendary assassin John Wick retires from the underworld to marry the love of his life, but is forced to pick up his guns again when his car is stolen and his beloved dog is killed. He dives into the fray in a quest for revenge.
John Wick: Chapter 2
Five days after the events of the first film, John Wick is visited by an Italian gangster who holds a “marker” that compels him to repay past favors. When Wick is asked to assassinate the leader of an Italian crime syndicate, he must go deeper than ever before into the world he thought he had left behind.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
After breaking the rules of the shadowy international society of assassins, a $14 million bounty is placed on Wick’s head. He is chased by the world’s most ruthless killers as he seeks redemption.
4.Keanu Reeves Profile and Selected Filmography
Keanu Reeves (1964-) is a Lebanon-born Canadian actor. He made his breakthrough with 1989’s Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and became an international star with 1994’s Speed. He returned to the public spotlight with 1999’s The Matrix.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
In this sci-fi comedy, high school slackers Bill and Ted are in danger of failing their history class when a man from the future shows up in a time machine disguised as a phone booth and explicit instructions to make sure the pair passes their class.
Point Break (1991)
Elite FBI agent Johnny Utah goes undercover in order to infiltrate a group of bank robbers causing chaos around Venice Beach in L.A..
Speed (1994)
A bomber rigs a bomb on a mass transit bus to arm once the bus reaches 50 mph, and detonate if it ever drops below fifty. Reeves plays an LAPD SWAT officer who attempts to rescue the passengers on the bus and bring the bomber to justice. While characterized by some as “Die Hard on a bus”, Speed is an iconic action movie in its own right.
The Matrix (1999)
In a world where machines have enslaved humanity and placed them into a simulated reality called the Matrix, a small group of free humans attempt to fight back and free the imprisoned.
5.A Man of Action
When I started off a question with “You perform most of your own stunts in this film..." Reeves immediately interjected, coolly stating, “I don’t do stunts, I do action."
In most action films, stunt doubles handle the most physically demanding or dangerous parts of an action scene. The John Wick series, however, is almost all action from beginning to end, interspersed with comparatively short scenes of terse dialogue. In other words, the action is the central driving element of the film both visually and narratively. In order to perform the majority of his action scenes himself, Reeves underwent an intensive “boot camp", where he trained in martial arts like kung fu, jujitsu, and wrestling, and learned how to handle guns with terrifying fluidity.
Reeves’ interjection is more than just a cool retort—it speaks to the attention and intention that went into the film’s action sequences. Much of that is the work of director Chad Stahelski, who served as Reeves’ stunt double for the Matrix films. John Wick is a labor of love born from the shared vision of a stuntman and an action star.
In typical Hollywood action movies, the hero’s gun never runs out of ammo. In the John Wick series, however, guns can be emptied, and Reeves is frequently shown having to reload his weapon. When he is completely out of bullets, he uses his gun as a melee weapon. What’s more, instead of completely ignoring the more powerful weapons dropped by his defeated foes, Wick picks up weapons along the way. When he is without a weapon, he uses anything and everything around him as a potential weapon. Little details like this are possible because of Reeves and Stahelskis’ intimate knowledge of the tropes of the genre.
In the moment, as I sat stunned by Reeves’ quick-draw remark, the aphorism “Actions speak louder than words" popped into my mind.
As an actor, Reeves plays characters that are all action and very little talk, who make moves instead of excuses. Act first, ask questions later. His reputation as an interviewee of a few words and his disinterest in commenting on Keanu internet lore is a product of that obsession with “action". Perhaps that’s why he has become the stuff of legend on the internet and social media—a forum where the people are all about talk, excuses, and often fruitless discussion.
6.My Wardrobe for This Interview
Pinstripe button-down shirt by Universal Language
Black necktie by Micky Milano
