Keanu Charles Reeves is a musician and actor from Canada. He was born on September 2, 1964. In a forty-year career in film, he has received a plethora of awards. Both Time and The New York Times placed him among the 100 most important persons in the world in 2022 and 2020, respectively, and selected him as the fourth-greatest actor of the 21st century. Famed for his charity work, charming public persona, and prominent parts in action flicks, Reeves is well-known.
He first appeared on screen in Youngblood (1986), after having grown up in Toronto, Canada, although being born in Beirut, Lebanon. His acting career began in 1984 on the Canadian TV series Hangin' In. Acting in the 1989 and 1991 science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, respectively, was where Reeves first found success. After establishing himself as an action star with big parts in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994), he received accolades for his performance as a hustler in the 1991 indie movie My Own Private Idaho. After a string of commercial busts, Reeves had a strong showing in the horror flick The Devil's Advocate (1997). Playing Neo again in the 1999 sequels The Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions catapulted Reeves to even greater fame, and he went on to become the highest-paid actor in the history of a single production. Additionally, in 2005's Constantine, he portrayed John Constantine.
Man of Tai Chi was Reeves's first feature picture directing effort (2013). In the action John Wick film series, he played the lead role of the titular assassin, marking his career return after a period of modest economic success (2014–present). In 2019, he provided the voice for Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4, and in 2020, he played the role of Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion. From then, he returned to play Neo in The Matrix: Resurrections(2021) and Ted in Bill & Ted Face the Music(2020), and he provided the voice of Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024).
Actor Keanu Reeves also plays music as a member of the band Dogstar, whose albums include Palm Trees (2023) and Somewhere Between the Power Lines. He co-wrote and created the BRZRKR comic book series (2021–2023) and its many spin-offs, such as The Book of Elsewhere, since its inception. Reeves co-founded the custom motorcycle firm ARCH Motorcycle and is an enthusiastic biker. Additionally, he was a co-founder of firm Films, a production firm.
Life in the beginning
Reeves was born on September 2, 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon, to costume designer and actor Patricia (née Taylor) and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. His mother was born in Essex and is of English descent. Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, and Portuguese ancestry is included in his American father's Hawaiian family tree. The maternal grandmother of Reeves is of mixed Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry. When Reeves was three years old, his father left his wife and children behind while his mother was working in Beirut. Kauai, an island in Hawaii, was where Reeves last saw his father when he was thirteen years old.
The family relocated to Sydney following his parents' 1966 divorce. In 1970, his mother, who had already married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, settled in New York City. After divorcing in 1971, the couple settled in Toronto. Reeves performed in a stage version of Damn Yankees when he was nine years old. Aaron kept in regular contact with Reeves, advising him and even suggesting a position at Pennsylvania's Hedgerow Theatre. The mother of Reeves wed rock music promoter Robert Miller in 1976; the marriage ended in divorce in 1980. A nanny was a common figure in Reeves' and his sisters' lives as they grew up in the Yorkville area of Toronto. Reeves inherited his mother's impeccable manners and grew up watching British comedies like The Two Ronnies. Chinese art, furnishings, and cuisine were a part of Reeves' upbringing due to his grandmother's Chinese heritage.
Reeves, who called himself a "private kid," went to four different high schools before getting kicked out of Etobicoke School of the Arts. The reason for his expulsion, according to Reeves, was that he was "just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often... I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school." Reeves has admitted that he was not a good student due to his dyslexia. He had great success as an ice hockey goalie while attending De La Salle College. Once thought of as an OHL potential, Reeves' hockey career came to an end owing to injuries, despite his ambitions to play for the Canadian Olympic squad. He made up his mind to pursue acting when he was fifteen years old. He was able to continue his schooling and pursue acting after dropping out of De La Salle College at Avondale Secondary Alternative School. At the age of seventeen, Reeves gave up on finishing high school. He relocated to Los Angeles three years after getting a green card from his American stepfather. Citizenship of Canada is Reeves' sole nationality.
Work History
The years 1984–1990: The Formative Years
Reeves worked as a reporter for the CBC's Going Great, a youth television show, in 1984. In the same year, he made his acting debut in a Hangin' In episode of the TV show. At North York, Ontario's Leah Posluns Theatre, he performed as Mercutio in a 1985 staging of Romeo and Juliet. In Toronto, he appeared in further theater productions, including Brad Fraser's cult smash Wolfboy. In 1983, he was involved in a Coca-Cola commercial and the coming-of-age short film One Step Away, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
Agents told Reeves to adopt a pen name because his first name was "too ethnic" while he was seeking employment in the mid-1980s, according to what he stated afterwards. For a short while, he went to auditions using the initials "K. C." or "Casey" Reeves, but he eventually went back to using his own name, Keanu.
In 1986, Reeves ventured into the world of television movies, appearing in shows like Brotherhood of Justice, Babes in Toyland (NBC), and Act of Vengeance. Playing the role of a goalie in Peter Markle's Youngblood (1986) and starring in the low-budget romance movie Flying were his initial film performances. He plays the role of Matt in the crime drama River's Edge, which is inspired on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad and follows a group of high school friends as they investigate a murder. At its 1986 Toronto International Film Festival premiere, the picture was well-received by critics and audiences alike. Janet Maslin of The New York Times gushes over the youthful ensemble, calling their performances "natural and credible," and praising Reeves for being empathetic and impactful.
Reseves had a busy late-80s acting career, appearing in teen-targeted dramas including Permanent Record (1988), The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988), and the comedy The Night Before (1988) co-starring Lori Loughlin. Variety magazine lauded Reeves' portrayal, saying, "which opens up nicely as the drama progresses," despite the fact that the latter drew mixed reviews. He also appeared in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), a film that won three Oscars (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design) out of seven nominations. He also had a supporting part in the film. The next year, in 1989, he starred as a slacker in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, in which he and his pal, Alex Winter, traveled through time to collect historical personalities for a school presentation. At the global box office, the picture made $40.5 million, and reviews were mostly positive. The critical consensus, according to review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, was that "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work," and the picture had a 79% approval rating.
Ron Howard's 1989 comedy-drama Parenthood had Reeves as the lead. A "feelgood movie" with a "extensive and entertaining ensemble cast," the BBC's Nick Hilditch rated the picture three stars out of five. Two of Reeves's acting roles in 1990 were as a clumsy hitman in the black comedy I Love You to Death and as a radio station employee named Martin in the comedy Tune in Tomorrow. In addition, he played James Dean in Paula Abdul's Rush Rush music video, which had a Rebel Without a Cause theme.
Reeves and Alex Winter reprised their roles from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Criticizing the sequel and its "more imaginative, more opulent, wilder and freer, more excitingly visualized" qualities, Los Angeles Times writer Michael Wilmington lauded the performers for delivering "fuller" performances. Roger Ebert described it as "a riot of visual invention and weird humour that works on its chosen sub-moronic level [...] It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick" . As Reeves continued to play more mature parts throughout 1991, a watershed moment in his career came to a close. In the action flick My Own Private Idaho, which stars River Phoenix alongside her character, a street hustler, the two of them go on an odyssey where they learn about themselves. Screening at the 48th Venice International Film Festival and subsequently in theaters across the US on September 29, 1991, the screenplay by Gus Van Sant is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts 1–5. The film's box office total was $6.4 million. "A postmodern road movie with a mood of free-floating, trance-like despair [...] a rich, audacious experience" was how Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman characterized My Own Private Idaho, which was well-received. For their perceptive performances, the New York Times praised Reeves and Phoenix.
In Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 action thriller Point Break, Reeves co-starred with Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty, and Gary Busey. To uncover the names of a gang of bank thieves, he assumes the role of an undercover FBI agent. Although Reeves had never surfed before, he and his co-stars learned the sport from professional surfer Dennis Jarvis in Hawaii for the film's preparation. After its debut, Point Break garnered mostly positive reviews and was a financial success, grossing $83.5 million. According to The New York Times, Reeves possesses "considerable discipline and range" in his acting, which allowed him to effortlessly transition between the stiff demeanor required for a police procedural plot and the more spontaneous style of his comedic parts. While praising the surfing sequences and describing Reeves as the "perfect choice," Hal Hinson of The Washington Post said that "the filmmakers have their characters make the most ludicrously illogical choices imaginable." But he did have one criticism. Reeves took up the trophy for Most Desirable Male at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards.
Reeves started thinking about a future in music in 1991, when he and Robert Mailhouse, Gregg Miller, and Bret Domrose created Dogstar, an alternative rock band. On bass guitar, Reeves performed. Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola's Gothic horror film based on Bram Stoker's 1897 book, featured him a year later in the role of Jonathan Harker. The picture, which starred Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins, was a financial and critical smash. Its global box office take was $215.8 million. A reviewer from Virgin Media, Limara Salt, said, "Overly posh and entirely ridiculous, Reeves's performance is as painful as it is hilarious" in reference to the fact that Reeves had to adopt an English accent for the character. "[Reeves] tried so hard [...] He wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted," director Francis Ford Coppola noted in a 2015 retrospective interview. Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Makeup were three of Bram Stoker's Dracula's four Oscar nominations. The British Academy Film Awards also nominated the picture four times.
He was in the 1993 adaptation of Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing. Despite Reeves's Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actor, the picture was well-received. His lack of experience made the casting decision "unfortunate" in the eyes of the New Republic magazine. Both Little Buddha and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, two additional drama films he was in that year, received mediocre to bad reviews. The critic from the Independent had mixed feelings about Little Buddha, although he thought Reeves was "credible" in the role of the prince. "When I played this innocent prince who starts to suspect something when he has the first revelations about old age, sickness and death, it hit me. [...] That lesson has never left me." Reeves had a profound impact on the picture.
He co-starred with Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper in the 1994 action thriller Speed. He portrays the role of Lt. Jack Traven, whose job it is to keep a bus from going off the rails by making sure it stays at least 50 miles per hour. Jan de Bont, a Dutch director, made his directing debut with Speed. There were a lot of contenders for the starring part, but Bont cast Reeves after seeing his performance in Point Break and was pleased. To get the appearance, Reeves went hairless and bulked up in the gym for two months. There were last-minute changes to the filming schedule to accommodate Reeves's mourning period following the death of his friend and co-star in My Own Private Idaho, River Phoenix. The highly anticipated film Speed premiered on June 10 to rave reviews. As Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune put it, "absolutely charismatic [...] giving a performance juiced with joy as he jumps through elevator shafts [...] and atop a subway train." Reeves was praised for his performance. One potential blockbuster that doesn't feel too large for its britches is Speed, according to David Ansen of Newsweek, who described it as a "friendly juggernaut" that is relentless without being overwhelming. The 1995 Oscar winners took home $350 million on a $30 million budget, with Best Sound and Best Sound Editing taking home the top two prizes.
=== Changes in my career trajectory === 1995–1998
Based on William Gibson's 1981 short story of the same name, Reeves starred in Robert Longo's 1995 cyberpunk action thriller Johnny Mnemonic. Imagined in the year 2021, it follows a guy with a cybernetic brain implant as he races against the clock to deliver a data package before he meets his demise or falls victim to the yakuza. Many critics panned the picture, calling Reeves a "woefully miscast" choice for the lead role. In his review, Roger Ebert called the picture one of the "great goofy gestures of recent cinema, a movie that doesn't deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis but has a kind of idiotic grandeur that makes you almost forgive it." The studio put out a CD-ROM video game to promote the film.
His subsequent film, 1995's A Walk in the Clouds, was a love drama that he appeared in and which received ambivalent reviews. Actor Keanu Reeves plays a young soldier who, upon his return from WWII, tries to settle down with the lady he had an impetuous marriage to before he joined the military. "A Walk in the Clouds is for the most part a beautiful, well-acted and emotionally rich picture," wrote film critic Mick LaSalle, while Hal Hinson of The Washington Post remarked, "The film has the syrupy, Kodak magic-moment look of a Bo Derek movie, and pretty much the same level of substance."
In 1995, Reeves took a break from filming to portray the role of Prince Hamlet in a staging of Hamlet at Winnipeg, Manitoba's Manitoba Theatre Centre. He "quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark... He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet," wrote Sunday Times critic Roger Lewis, praising his performance.
Chain Reaction (1996) starred Reeves with Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Kevin Dunn, and Brian Cox, and film was Reeves's first foray into science fiction. Accused of murder, he portrays a green energy project researcher forced to flee the scene. With a 16% approval rating and a description of "a man-on-the-run thriller that mostly sticks to generic formula," review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes summed up the critical reception to Chain Reaction as unfavorable. Critically, Reeves' subsequent film selections were just as lackluster as Chain Reaction. He co-starred with Vincent D'Onofrio and Cameron Diaz in the 1996 indie crime comedy Feeling Minnesota, which Rotten Tomatoes panned as "shoddily assembled, and fundamentally miscast." Despite a $12 million offer, he declined to feature in Speed 2: Cruise Control that year. This move, according to Reeves, led to 20th Century Fox cutting relations with him for ten years.
Reeves, on the other hand, went on tour with Dogstar and had an appearance in the 1997 movie The Last Time I Committed Suicide, which was adapted on a letter that Neal Cassady sent to Jack Kerouac in 1950. Empire magazine wrote, "Reeves gives the nearest thing to a performance in his career as the enthusiastic feckless drunk," while CNN's Paul Tatara called Reeves "void of talent [...] here he is again, reciting his lines as if they're non-related words strung together as a memory exercise." But Reeves also received mixed reviews for his performance. He co-starred with Charlize Theron and Al Pacino in the 1997 supernatural horror picture The Devil's Advocate; in order for the company to engage Pacino, Reeves agreed to take a salary reduction of several million dollars. The feature film adapts Andrew Neiderman's book of the same name, which follows a young, accomplished lawyer who accepts an offer to work for a prominent New York City company, only to learn that the owner is a demon. Reviewers were generally pleased with The Devil's Advocate. While acknowledging that Reeves could have portrayed the character with greater nuance, critic James Berardinelli praised the picture as "highly enjoyable" and said that the performance was strong overall.
: From 1999 to 2004, there was a renaissance in the Matrix series and in comedy.
Starring Reeves was the 1999 science fiction picture The Matrix, the first in a series that would go on to receive widespread critical praise. The role that Reeves plays is that of hacker Thomas Anderson, who goes by the nickname "Neo" online and finds that intelligent robots have captured humans in an artificial environment. Reeves studied Dylan Evans's theories on evolutionary psychology and Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World in order to be ready for the Wachowskis' (writers' and filmmakers') film. To get ready for the battle sequences, the main cast trained intensely with martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping for months. A number of critics ranked The Matrix among the all-time great science fiction films, and the picture did quite well at the box office. Despite finding fault with the language, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times deemed it a "wildly cinematic futuristic thriller that is determined to overpower the imagination." New York Times critic Janet Maslin called Reeves a "strikingly chic Prada model of an action hero" and said the film's best part was its martial arts sequences. Three Academy Awards—for Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film—went to The Matrix.
Following the popularity of The Matrix, Reeves opted for a more comedic sports film, The Replacements (2000), rather of another blockbuster. In order for Gene Hackman to co-star in the picture, he consented to a salary reduction. In the 2000 thriller The Watcher, Reeves played a serial murderer who pursues a former FBI agent, which went against his intentions. To avoid legal action, he made an appearance in the film. He claimed that a buddy had forgeried his signature on a contract, but he was unable to provide proof of this. Critical reception to the picture was negative upon its debut. In that same year, he was in Sam Raimi's The Gift, a thriller about a lady (Cate Blanchett) who possesses extrasensory perception and is called for assistance in locating a missing young woman. The film's global box office total was $44 million. Paul Clinton, a film reviewer for CNN, found the film to be quite engaging. He praised Reeves' performance, writing, "[Raimi] managed to get a performance out of Reeves that only occasionally sounds like he's reading his lines from the back of a cereal box."
Reeves kept accepting parts in a wide variety of genres in 2001. Sweet November, a romance drama based on the original 1968 film, was the first. Although this was his second picture starring Charlize Theron, audiences were less than enthusiastic about it. Despite Desson Thompson's criticisms of the film, which he characterized as "syrupy cliches, greeting-card wisdom and over-the-top tragicomedy" in The Washington Post, Reeves remains a popular choice for every role he plays. Reeves made an effort at directing a different sports comedy with Hardball (2001). Brian Robbins helmed the film adaptation of Daniel Coyle's Hardball: A Season in the Projects. As a loan-seeking problematic youth from Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project, Reeves portrays the role of Conor O'Neill. The teen offers to coach a Little League team. Roger Ebert, writing about the film, said that it tried to be serious about baseball coaching and heavy topics, but that it was shallow and that Reeves was "glum and distant" in his role.
His time as a professional musician ended in 2002 with the breakup of Dogstar. During their ten years as a band, the members put out two studio albums: 1996's Our Little Visionary and 2000's Happy Ending. After that, Reeves joined Rob Mailhouse's band Becky for a year. However, in 2005, Reeves left the band, saying that he was uninterested in pursuing a career in music. After taking a hiatus from acting in 2002, Reeves made a triumphant comeback to the franchise in 2003 with the May release of The Matrix Reloaded and the November release of The Matrix Revolutions. The two films shot simultaneously, with much of the action taking place at Fox Studios in Australia. While most critics gave The Matrix Reloaded positive reviews, LA Weekly's John Powers lauded the film's "dazzling pyrotechnics" but found some of the action sequences to be too robotic. According to Powers, Reeves' acting was "wooden" at times, but he can "exude a charmed aura" when he needs to. As a critic for the Evening Standard, Andrew Walker lauded the photography ("visually it gives full value as a virtuoso workout for your senses") but was less impressed with the film's "dime-store philosophy.". The film's global box office total was $739 million.
Many people had different opinions about the third Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions. That "characters and ideas take a back seat to the special effects" was the general opinion, according to review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes. Though he thought Reeves's portrayal lacked concentration, CNN writer Paul Clinton lauded the stunning effects. On the other hand, Carla Meyer of the San Francisco Chronicle was very critical of the special effects, stating, "[The Wachowskis] computer-generated imagery goes from dazzling to deadening in action scenes that favor heavy, clanking weaponry over the martial-arts moves that thrilled viewers of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded." Despite this, the film still managed to earn a respectable $427 million globally, though it was lower than the previous two installments. The romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give was Reeves's final release in 2003. In the film, he portrayed the role of Dr. Julian Mercer with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. The reviews for Something's Gotta Give were overwhelmingly positive.
Constantine, a 2005 occult detective film starring Reeves, is about a guy who can see and talk to hybrid beings that are half angel and half demon. Despite receiving mediocre to good reviews, the picture was a fair financial success, earning $230 million globally on a budget of $100 million. The critic of The Sydney Morning Herald stated that "Constantine isn't bad, but it doesn't deserve any imposing adjectives. It's occasionally cheesy, sometimes enjoyable, intermittently scary, and constantly spiked with celestial blatherskite" . Thumbsucker, which had its world debut at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was his subsequent film appearance. This comedic film is based on the same-titled 1999 novel by Walter Kirn and depicts a little child who has an issue with sucking his thumb. The Washington Post praised Reeves and the ensemble, calling it "a gently stirring symphony about emotional transition filled with lovely musical passages and softly nuanced performances." Critical reception was generally favorable.
The 2006 Cannes Film Festival premiere of Richard Linklater's animated science fiction thriller A Scanner Darkly included Reeves. Under the watchful eye of the ultra-modern police force in a dystopian future, Reeves portrayed the role of Bob Arctor/Fred, an undercover agent. The picture bombed at the box office, despite being based on Philip K. Dick's book of the same name. Despite this, reviews were mostly positive; BBC critic Paul Arendt called the picture "beautiful to watch," albeit Robert Downey Jr. stole the show. The Lake House (2006), a love drama based on the South Korean film Il Mare (2000), starred him as Alex Wyler and brought him back again with Sandra Bullock. "This syrup-drenched supernatural whimsy achieves stupidity at a genuinely international level [...] The last time Bullock and Reeves were together on screen the result was Speed. This should have been entitled Stop," wrote Mark Kermode of The Guardian, despite the film's success at the box office. He joined Alanis Morissette as co-narrators for the 2006 climate change documentary The Great Warming.
Reeves then worked with David Ayer on the 2008 crime thriller Street Kings. After another officer dies on the job, he plays an undercover cop who has a personal mission: to cleanse his name. After its April 11 release, the film's global total was a respectable $66 million. But critics were largely unimpressed by the film's premise and Reeves's performance. According to Paul Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald, "it's not good enough" because even though there are dead bodies in every reel, it's easy to figure out who's betraying whom. Someone said, "Reeves is fundamentally blank and uninteresting" in The Guardian. The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Reeves, was a science fiction picture that was loosely based on the 1951 film of the same name. A space extraterrestrial came to Earth to alter human conduct or wipe us off the face of the earth due to our destructive influence on the environment, he played the role of Klaatu. Nominated for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel at the 2009 Razzie Awards, the picture was really not good. Reviewers were mostly critical of the film's excessive usage of CGI, with some praising Reeves for his audience engagement skills and others praising the "sub-Al-Gore environment lecture leaves you light-headed with tedium" cinematography.
Reeves has one 2009 release, the world premiere of Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. David Gritten of The Telegraph wrote a complimentary review of the romantic comedy and its cast, writing, "Miller's film is a triumph. Uniformly well acted, it boasts a psychologically knowing script, clearly written by a smart, assertive human." Another romantic comedy he was in in 2010 was Henry's Crime, in which he played a guy whose release from jail for an unjustified crime leads him and his ex-cellmate to attack the same bank. The movie bombed at the box office. Reeves authored and illustrated the adult picture book Ode to Happiness in 2011, which was his sole publication that year. Alexandra Grant provided the artwork. In 2012, Reeves was a part of the documentary team that made Side by Side. The feature-length documentary explored the processes of digital and photochemical filmmaking; he spoke with directors such as Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron. When that was over, Reeves was in Generation Um... 2012, an unofficial drama that received negative reviews.
The 2013 martial arts flick Man of Tai Chi was Reeves's directorial debut; he also appeared in it. Based in part on the true story of Reeves' buddy Tiger Chen, the film depicts a young guy whose path takes him to an underground fighting club; the dialogue is in many languages. Hong Kong and China served as the primary locations for the photographs. The Matrix movie' combat choreographer Yuen Woo-ping also helped Reeves. Director John Woo gave Man of Tai Chi high marks after its premieres at the Cannes Film Festival and the Beijing Film Festival. Reeves displayed restraint in the film's editing to showcase the fighters' motion sequences, and Vulture's Bilge Ebiri praised the fight scenes as "beautifully assembled." The reaction was mostly positive. The film was panned by critics, with some praising "the brutally efficient shooting style Reeves employs to film master choreographer Yuen Woo-ping's breathtaking fights [...] is refreshingly grounded and old-school kinetic" and others praising "ambitious but generic" Dave McGinn of The Globe and Mail. Man of Tai Chi was a financial flop, earning just $5.5 million globally on a $25 million budget. In 2013, Reeves also portrayed the role of Kai in the Japanese folktale 47 Ronin, a 3D fantasy film about a band of rebellious samurai. Universal Pictures cut back on promotion for the picture globally after its Japanese debut, which bombed at the box office and received mostly negative reviews. After receiving generally negative reviews, 47 Ronin bombed at the movie office.
Following these commercial bombs, Reeves' career took a turn for the better in 2014. In Chad Stahelski's action thriller John Wick, he portrayed the lead character. The first film in the John Wick series stars Reeves as a former hitman on a mission of revenge. "I love the role, but you want the whole story, the whole ensemble to come to life," Reeves remarked of his tight collaboration with the scriptwriter as they developed the story. Shot mostly in and around New York City, the picture finally hit US theaters on October 24. Reeves' "effortless" performance, which signified his comeback to the action genre, and the director's "confident, muscular action debut" were both praised by The Hollywood Reporter. According to Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times, Reeves is "always more comfortable in roles that demand cool over hot, attitude over emotion," and she has complimented his combat sequences. With $86 million globally, John Wick was clearly a hit at the box office. Following that, in 2015, Reeves featured in Knock Knock, a remake of Death Game (1977, shot 1974) that was a smaller-scale horror picture. The Toronto Star dubbed it "over-the-top destruction"; Reeves portrays a father who is home alone when two young women enter and begin a game of hide-and-seek. His other 2015 releases were the documentary Deep Web, which dealt with dark web crime, and Mifune: The Last Samurai, which chronicled the life of Toshiro Mifune, a legendary Japanese actor known for his portrayal of samurai roles. He was the voice actor for the two feature films.
In2016, Reeves was in five films that came out. A crime thriller named Exposed was the first. It followed a detective as he looked into the death of his colleague and uncovered corruption inside the police force. Both the film's convoluted premise and Reeves's lack of expressiveness in the role contributed to its poor critical reception. His subsequent feature film, the comedic Keanu, had more positive reviews. Among his roles was that of the titular kitten. Nicolas Winding Refn's psychological horror film The Neon Demon included Reeves in a supporting part later on. He portrayed the amorous hotel owner Hank, who shows up in Elle Fanning's character Jesse's nightmare. He portrayed an enchanting village chief in The Bad Batch, his fourth studio album. The Whole Truth, which featured Gabriel Basso, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Renée Zellweger, and Jim Belushi, was his last release of the year. In the role, he portrayed Richard, a defense lawyer. A.V. Club critic Noel Murray called it a "mundane" film that was "moderately clever, reasonably entertaining courtroom drama" with a talented ensemble. Reeves was featured in the online series Swedish Dicks, which ran for two seasons.
Reeves re-upped with the John Wick franchise in 2017 for John Wick: Chapter 2, the second installment in the series. The plot picks up where the previous film left off, following John Wick as he evades capture in the face of a reward. Both critics and audiences loved the picture, and it made more money than its predecessor ($171.5 million). Empire magazine's Chris Hewitt lauded Reeves for his performance, saying it was a nice change of pace from his prior action parts in Point Break and Speed. "A down-and-dirty B-picture with a lustrous A-picture soul" was how Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang characterized the film. In addition to this massive film, Reeves has acted in the drama To the Bone, where he provides medical support to a young lady struggling with anorexia. After its 2017 Sundance Film Festival premiere, Netflix began streaming it in July. The film's non-glamorized depiction of anorexia garnered excellent early reviews, but the New Statesman magazine criticized it for being reckless. Reeves had cameos in two other films that year, SPF-18 and A Happening of Monumental Proportions.
In the 2018 romantic comedy Destination Wedding, Reeves and Winona Ryder reunited as wedding guests who become fond of one another. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and A Scanner Darkly were among their prior collaborations. Two thrillers included Reeves as an actor and co-producer. Replicas, about a neuroscientist who breaks laws and bioethics to revive his family after they die in a car collision, and Siberia, in which he portrays a diamond merchant who goes to Siberia to find his Russian spouse. Reviewers were not fans of Siberia, praising its lack of chemistry between Reeves and co-star Ana Ularu and its illogical narrative. Even critics were unimpressed with Replicas; while praising Reeves' performance, the picture received a D? from The A.V. Club."Garbage" is an additional descriptor. Similarly, it bombed at the box office, making just $9.3 million against a $30 million budget.
In 2019, Reeves made a triumphant return to the John Wick franchise as the lead in the third installment of the series, John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum, directed by Xavier Stahelski. Featuring Halle Berry and other new cast members, the film picks up just after John Wick: Chapter 2's events. Another smash at the box office, the picture made over $155 million worldwide and $171 million domestically. Although the reviewer from the Globe and Mail lauded the action sequences, they criticized the photography for what they called "aesthetic overindulgence" and ultimately awarded the picture a three-star rating. According to Cath Clarke of The Guardian, "he keeps his face statue-still [...] three movies in, franchise bloat is beginning to set in" when discussing Reeves' performace. Not only did the picture receive a Best Contemporary picture nomination from the Art Directors Guild, but Reeves also received a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite Male Movie Star of 2019. Toy Story 4, the 2019 sequel to Pixar's Toy Story franchise, featured Reeves as Duke Caboom. Glasgow, Scotland played home to KeanuCon, a film festival celebrating him, on April 27 and 28, of that year. Guests watched nine of his flicks spread out across two days. In 2019, Reeves was also in the Ali Wong romance comedy Always Be My Maybe, playing a supporting role as himself. For the production of the Netflix series Conquest, Reeves went to São Paulo in 2019. Creator Carl Rinsch's irrational behavior and mental health condition led him to fail many deadlines and go into dispute with Netflix over the rights to the series, which kept the footage filmed for the project in development hell for years.
The third Bill & Ted picture slipped into development limbo despite Reeves and Alex Winter's early excitement for it in 2008. Finally, the third installment of the Bill & Ted franchise, 2020's Bill & Ted Face the Music, came out. However, the Salon writer lauded the film for its message that "music has the power to unite the world" despite her disappointment with Reeves' performance. Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt awarded the picture a B+ and praised Reeves and Winter's chemistry onscreen. He voiced the character Sage, a tumbleweed, in SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. In Cyberpunk 2077, Reeves plays the role of Johnny Silverhand. Reeves made a triumphant comeback to the big screen in December 2021 for The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth installment in the Matrix film series. Additionally, Carrie-Anne Moss was back as Trinity. Despite positive reviews for Reeves and Moss, critics unanimously agreed that The Matrix Resurrections was a "no game-changer" at the box office.
:( Post-John Wick, 2023–present)
John Wick: Chapter 4 debuted on March 24, 2023, from Lionsgate. Reeves was back as the title character. It was well-received by critics, with some naming it as one of the best action pictures of all time. In the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, Phantom Liberty, he played Johnny Silverhand again.
Reeves co-wrote the first two volumes of the BRZRKR comic book series, which ran from March 2021 to October 2023. With 615,000 copies sold, Issue #1 became the best-selling single issue of Star Wars since 2015's #1.
Dogstar resumed recording new songs around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which eventually became a full album, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees (2023), after sometimes getting together for jam sessions in the years after their breakup. With their 20-year reunion playing at the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival under their belts, Reeves and the band kicked up a 25-date tour across Japan and North America in support of the record in Hermosa Beach, California, on August 10. July was a banger! With the title Poetry of Madness, Studios released the debut issue of BRZRKR: Bloodlines. "The Utah Desert with Keanu Reeves" was the title of the 2023 season six premiere episode of Ride starring Norman Reedus, in which Reeves made an appearance. "The installment is really heartwarming viewing for anyone who needs something to smile about," CinemaBlend's Nick Venable stated. He hosted and executive produced the four-part Hulu and Disney+ documentary series Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story in November of that year. According to Jack Seale of The Guardian, Reeves was "there to humanize the story." Seale also noted Reeves's "numerous adorable habits that most interviewers would deem unprofessional, but which don't offend." Seale continued by saying that much of the series' emotional depth came from the way Reeves "got his interviewees to open up. He often askeds an emotion-based question - how did someone feel about what they did, rather than just what they did.". When the month came to a close, Boom! Publishers released Fallen Empire, the second issue of BRZRKR: Bloodlines.
Netflix recouped $8.78 million from creator Carl Erik Rinsch for misappropriating production funds and regained possession of the footage from the Reeves-produced Conquest series at the end of May 2024, after winning a lawsuit over the rights to the show. June of that year saw the announcement of Reeves and Dogstar's Summer Vacation Tour, which would take place in the United States and Canada from August through September. Together with China Miéville, Reeves wrote and released The Book of Elsewhere on July 23, 2024. It was BRZRKR's narrative. After being postponed from June, the first issue of Bloodlines: A Faceful of Bullets, which was co-written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Francesco Manna, was finally released the day after. August 21, 2024 saw the introduction of yet another spin-off from BRZRKR Bloodlines, this one called The Lost Book of B. On the second season of Ancient Apocalypse, a Netflix series, he spoke alongside Graham Hancock to talk about storytelling's role in cultural preservation. The animated anthology series Secret Level featured Reeves in the Armored Core episode. Reeves was chosen in April 2024 to voice Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the third film in the franchise, which came out on December 20, 2024. In a digital content update for the video game Shadow Generations (2024), created in conjunction with the aforementioned film, he also provided the voice for the character.
In the second season of Severance, which aired in January 2025, Reeves voiced a stop-motion Lumon building in an uncredited part.
[Projects in the Works]
In Good Fortune, Aziz Ansari's directorial debut, Reeves will co-star with Seth Rogen and Ansari. After that, you can catch him in Outcome, Jonah Hill's forthcoming black comedy on Apple TV+. Reeves will play the title role again in the 2025 spin-off film From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Ruben Östlund's satirical film The Entertainment System Is Down will have Reeves as the lead. The life of Benny Urquidez will be the subject of a documentary that Reeves will help create in 2025. In the autumn of 2025, Reeves will make his entrance on Broadway in Jamie Lloyd's staging of Waiting for Godot.
Netflix is developing a cinematic adaptation of BRZRKR, with Reeves serving as both producer and star. Mattson Tomlin wrote the screenplay, and Reeves is even considering taking the helm. Following the film's premiere, Production I.G. has plans to broadcast an anime series on Netflix for two seasons. John Wick director Chad Stahelski has expressed a desire to take a "rest" from the franchise for the time being, but distributor Lionsgate had planned a fifth sequel. John Wick: Under the High Table, a television sequel, is in development with Reeves involved as an executive producer; other plans include a fifth feature.
="life outside of work"
At a celebration for David Lynch's band Dogstar in 1998, Reeves began dating Jennifer Syme, who was Lynch's assistant. The couple's kid, who was stillborn, was born to Syme eight months into her pregnancy on December 24, 1999. A few weeks later, the pair split up, only to get back together. On Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles, Syme's automobile was involved in a collision with three parked cars on April 2, 2001, resulting in her death. Not only was Syme not buckled in, but she was also drunk. According to Reeves, who spoke to authorities, the two were back together the day before the accident and had breakfast in San Francisco. Near their daughter's grave, Reeves carried Syme's coffin. Friend Bret Domrose of Dogstar said that he was planning to film the Matrix sequels the following spring, but he instead sought "peace and time".
Along with model-actress China Chow, Reeves has been romantically involved with Brenda Davis, a filmmaker and lifelong acquaintance, whose kid he is godfather to. Winona Ryder and Reeves remain close friends; even though they acted out a wedding scene with a Romanian priest in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the actors still refer to themselves as "husband and wife" when they speak to one another. Alexandra Grant and Reeves first crossed paths at a dinner party in 2009; the two then worked together on two novels. In November 2019, they announced their romance to the world.
Revealing his religious views as "personal and private" keeps Reeves silent. He identified as "very spiritual" and believes "in God, faith, inner faith, the self, passion, and things" when questioned about his spirituality. Despite his lack of official Buddhist practice, the faith has profoundly impacted him, particularly after starring in Little Buddha. According to him, "Most of the things I've come away with from Buddhism have been human—understanding feelings, impermanence, and trying to understand other people and where they're coming from."
A lipopeptide that is lethal to fungus was named after Reeves in 2023.
At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Reeves made his motorsport debut in the Toyota GR Cup North America on October 5. He finished 25th in Race 1 and 24th in Race 2, reflecting on his thoughts about mortality. "I'm thinking about death all the time. That's a good thing. Hopefully it's not crippling, but hopefully it sensitised [us] to an appreciation of the breath we have, and the relationships that we have the potential to have."
Non-profits and for-profits
Reeves is involved with a number of nonprofit organizations. He established a private cancer foundation to support children's hospitals and conduct cancer research after his sister's fight with leukemia. He gave his time to the Camp Rainbow Gold charity in June 2020 to help fight childhood cancer in Idaho. Along with that, OncoDaily named Reeves one of the 100 Most Influential People in Cancer Research. According to Reeves, "Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries" . Reeves allegedly distributed a significant amount—anywhere from $35 million to $125 million—of his profits from The Matrix to the cosmetics and special effects teams. But this is greatly exaggerated; Reeves reached a lesser agreement, giving up his contractual entitlement to a share of the sequels' earnings in return for a larger budget for special effects. Reeves decided to give a crew member $20,000 to aid with his money after hearing that he was going through "family trouble" while filming the picture. After filming The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Reeves bought Harley-Davidson motorbikes for all twelve members of the stunt squad as a way to "just wanted... to give a bigger thank-you to all these guys who helped me make this" (Reeves, 2003).
Chad Stahelski, Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Dave Camarillo, and Reeves all signed a special training uniform after shooting John Wick: Chapter 4 wrapped in March 2023. The proceeds from the sale will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Moreover, Reeves gifted his film stunt squad with engraved Rolex Submariner watches, and he purchased personalised T-shirts for the bigger Chapter 4 stunt teams, each one bearing the number of times an extra "died" in the picture. The Windsor Spitfires signed Reeves to an autographed item in 2024 as part of his one-day contract; proceeds from the auction benefited the Canadian Mental Health Association of Windsor-Essex.
Along with his buddy Stephen Hamel, Reeves established firm Films, a production firm. An enthusiastic rider, Reeves co-founded the custom motorcycle manufacturer ARCH Motorcycle Company with Gard Hollinger in 2011. Alexandra Grant, Jessica Fleischmann, and Reeves established X Artists' Books (or XAB) in 2017. Ode to Happiness and Shadows are his co-written works with Grant; he also contributed language to Grant's artwork and photography.
Controlled Access ==
Nationalists in China were outraged in 2022 when Reeves recited the Beat poem "Pull My Daisy" as part of a virtual benefit performance for Tibet House US, a charity linked to the exiled Dalai Lama. Chinese video-streaming services including iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku have all banned films starring Reeves.
Within the realm of media
Lev Grossman referred to Reeves as "Hollywood's ultimate introvert" in a 2005 Time magazine piece. Among his many admirable traits are his work ethic, charisma, and "excruciatingly shy" shyness. Producer Francis Lawrence praised his character, describing him as "hardworking" and "generous," while he was part of the Constantine cast. Though they've worked together for a year and a couple of months, Shia LaBeouf admitted that she doesn't know him very well. Since the age of sixteen, Erwin Stoff of 3 Arts Entertainment has been Reeves' manager and agent. Stoff has also produced several of Reeves' films. Stoff claimed that Reeves "is a really private person" who avoids close relationships. In 2023, Laurence Fishburne, who often worked with Reeves, made the following observation about him: "He's kinder, yeah. He's much kinder than people say he is. He's a very gentle, highly intelligent man. Really thoughtful and gifted and incredibly patient. Yeah, he has a lot of grace, Keanu." Good Fortune co-star and director Aziz Ansari joked that Reeves "actually is an angel" and that "he's been pretending to be human for all these other roles." In an interview with People magazine in 2024, Hiroyuki Sanada said, "He [is] so humble, very kind to others but very hard on himself." [...] He's constantly pushing himself to achieve better, to reach for the stars.
In 2010, photos of Reeves sitting on a park bench with a sad expression went viral on the 4chan message board and quickly made their way through various blogs and media outlets, turning the photos into the "Sad Keanu" meme. A Facebook fan page even declared June 15 as "Cheer-up Keanu Day." Reeves later played down the photo, saying, "Man, I was eating a sandwich." Something was on my mind—I was thinking about it. I was starving.
Reeves's casual persona and ability to establish rapport have been observed by the public, leading him to be dubbed the "Internet's boyfriend". In 2019, Vox cited Reeves's unorthodox filmography and ability to appeal to nerd culture as the primary reasons for his internet popularity. Screen Rant assessed that Reeves is "commonly considered one of the kindest, most thoughtful actors in Hollywood", The Guardian noted that he holds a reputation as "one of the nicest, humblest guys on the Hollywood A-list", and the BBC wrote that he is known for his "gentle, mild-mannered persona", and is often described as "the nicest man in Hollywood." Time dubbed Reeves as the "master of the fan encounter", and Snopes observed that he is "so beloved that he's a cultural fixture".
Time said of the events, "One thing's for certain after this eventful trip: if you're looking for a road trip buddy, Keanu Reeves should be on the top of your list." Reeves went viral in March 2019 after his United Airlines flight to Burbank, California was grounded in Bakersfield. Taking initiative to arrange alternate travel plans, he boarded a travel van with the other passengers. Reeves read fun facts about Bakersfield to the passengers and later used YouTube to play the town's native 1950s American country music.
Reeves again gained media attention in May when a clip of his guest episode on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert went viral online. Colbert asked at the end of the show about his views on death, then Reeves answered, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us." The response incited an emotional reaction from the audience, and Colbert shook Reeves's hand before wrapping up the show. Vice's River Donaghey declared that "Keanu is my new religion" in response to the clip, and called the moment "transcendent". The New Yorker called it "a response so wise, so genuinely thoughtful, that it seemed like a rebuke to the usual canned blather of late-night television"—staff writer Naomi Fry recounted that she "felt like [she] was standing alone in a rock garden, having a koan whispered into [her] ear" after watching the viral clip on Twitter. The interaction would later inspire science communicator Hank Green to end his "Pissing Out Cancer" comedy special, based on his experiences fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma, with a quote inspired by Reeves's answer; "Either way, what comes next is going to be beautiful". In choosing the ending, he felt that Reeves's words reflected a larger understanding of the human experience.
In July 2019, while filming Bill & Ted Face the Music, Reeves and the rest of the cast came across a house with a banner reading "You're Breathtaking" and "Mini Keanu." These memes originated from Reeves's appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 for the game Cyberpunk 2077. Reeves signed the banner and spoke to the family. According to Business Insider, the actor's fans were quick to praise him after the incident, referring to him as "good guy Keanu" and praising him as "the best human on the planet."
In August 2022, Reeves went viral for attending a fan's wedding in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. James and Nikki Roadnight saw Reeves at a bar at Fawsley Hall Hotel shortly before their marriage ceremony and started to chat with him, with Reeves congratulating the couple on their marriage. Later, after James had secretly asked Reeves to meet Nikki during the wedding, he turned up during the ceremony. Nikki described Reeves as "a genuinely kind guy" and "relaxed and down to earth" during the wedding, and he participated in a photoshoot with the family. Another interaction between Reeves at an October 2023 Dogstar concert in Houston gained media attention. A young fan named Elijah approached Reeves before they started their show, asking if Reeves would play catch with him. Reeves obliged, with a game ensuing between the two. Calling the game "the top moment" of his life, the boy stated his intent to keep the football "forever and ever". Oliver Browning of The Independent called the interaction "a wholesome moment" for Reeves.
Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list placed Reeves at number 36 in 2001 and 49 in 2002. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005 for his contributions to the film industry. In 2016, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Reeves was one of the highest-paid actors, having earned $250 million for The Matrix franchise. In 2020, he was ranked number four on The New York Times' list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
"We have a likeness in the eyes," Reeves said in response to Jimmy Fallon's question about a popular meme claiming that Reeves is "secretly immortal" and has lived the last millennia under the identities of various historical figures, including Charlemagne and French actor Paul Mounet. The meme first gained media attention in 2017. Including the nose, mustache, beard, cheekbones, and forehead. Reeves said, "Yeah man, I age" in response to the question "if he ever ages" posed during a Q&A event for John Wick: Chapter 4. I am actually aging. Web developer Avi Mamenko established a website in 2023 honoring Reeves that chronicles every time he has used the phrase "whoa" in his cinematic career. In 2022, Reeves was designated one of the 100 most important persons in the world by Time magazine.
Awards and filmography ==
Reeves has been a prolific film actor since 1985, with critically acclaimed and commercially successful features including: River's Edge (1987), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999), John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Reeves has won four MTV Movie Awards and received two Best Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards. For his performance in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), he was nominated twice for a People's Choice Award: Favorite Male Movie Star and Favorite Action Movie Star.
November 2015: People named him Sexiest Man Alive for 1994. September 2021: Tae Kwon Do Life Magazine named him "#1 Martial Arts movie star in the world" based on his multiple films in the genre, their popularity, and sheer box office gross. In 2024: Gold House acknowledged him on its Most Impactful Asians A100 list, and at San Diego Comic-Con he received the Inkpot Award for Lifetime Contributions to Movies, TV, Comics, and Books.
Reeves, Keanu (2011). Ode to Happiness. Bergam, Janey (ed.). Göttingen: Steidl Publishers. ISBN 9783869302096. OCLC 756797130. Alexandra Grant (drawings and book design).
Shadows: A Collaborative Project by Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves. Göttingen: Steidl Publishers. ISBN 9783869308272. OCLC 965117169. Reeves, Keanu (2014). With pictures by Alexandra Grant.
Vol. 1 of BRZRKR (collection of four issues, written by Matt Kindt and Ron Garney; published by Boom! Studios in 2021; ISBN 9781684156856)
Boom! Studios published BRZRKR Vol. 2 in 2022, a 4-issue collection including artwork by Ron Garney and Matt Kindt (ISBN 9781684158157).
Boom! Studios, 2023, 4-issue collection BRZRKR Vol. 3 (co-written by Matt Kindt and Ron Garney, ISBN 9781684157129).
The Book of Elsewhere, by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville. Boom! Studios, Del Rey Books, 2024. ISBN 9780593446591.