Keanu Reeves

Yes, I played a lot of hockey in Toronto Canada. I always thought it would be cool to play for the Canadian Olympic team. When I was 15, I decided to become an actor. And so I started taking acting classes and doing community theater, and then I played John Proctor in a highschool play called The Crucible, and from that moment I decided - they always ask you when you're coming out of school or university what you want to be, and I knew then that I wanted to become an actor.

You know, I love all martial arts. I don't practice any particular form or style, but yeah, I don't have a favorite.

But it was great during the making of Man of Tai Chi, to spend time with the leading man Tiger, who has studied Tai Chi since he was a kid, and it was great to talk about how we could bring some of the ideas of Tai Chi into the story of Man of Tai Chi, and some of the philosophies.

I thought the one of the ultimate expressions of "whoa" was in the first Matrix...

The "whoa" was wonderful in the Matrix.

The music I'm listening to right now? Let's see, I just got the new Nine Inch Nails recording. I really like this other band Metz, just got their first album which was great. And I've been listening to a song that I really like from LCD soundsystem, and the song is "Someone Great."

Sorry I couldn't give you a ride!

AUGHHH that's a tough question! Today I will start with "Enter the Dragon" as the source. "Fist of Legend." "Tai Chi Master."

Cowboy Bebop does not look like it is going to happen with me in it. The script that was written was great and amazing, but it would cost like half a billion dollars to make it, and while I wished and hoped I would have done that project, we are working on trying to get Bill & Ted 3. There's a script and we are trying to put it together.

I agree. Lana and Andy are not only creators of inspirational works of art, but are also wonderful and inspiring people. Their heart and soul and thought that goes into their work has a compassion for the human condition, and seeks to create a better world and to help us be on the path of doing that. They also both have a wonderful sense of humor. They are very funny. They are not really jokesters, but I remember one time in the scene where Neo and Trinity are going into the lobby, trying to save Morpheus, and I was looking at the set and turned to Lana and Andy and said "so what does this mean?" you know, enjoying how the lobby looked and its architecture and the intention of the set we were about to destroy through gunplay. And Lana went on a 2 minute riff about structure, form, architecture, the idea of power and control being manifested through this room, and continued on about how this was part of the breaking down of these structures and Andy said "yeah there's a lot of straight lines." And that to me was funny.

Why thank you very much. You know, it's always great to sit and have a great sandwich. Life is good when you have a good sandwich.

I have not seen Hot Fuzz yet! And the roles that I am looking to play, I've got a project that I've been developing for over six or seven years. It's a role I am looking forward to playing, it's called "Passengers." And in that film I play a character named Jim, who wakes up on a spaceship with five other people planning to homestead. He wakes up too soon, ninety years before arriving. What does he do?

It's a love story.

That is a very difficult question to answer. I've been lucky enough to have many great experiences. I would say in the 80's, River's Edge. I think working on My Own Private Idaho, working on Little Buddha, The Devil's Advocate, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix Trilogy, Constantine, A Scanner Darkly, Dracula, recently Henry's Crime, Generation Um... let's see, and there's more. I did a film, my first feature in Los Angeles called The Night Before. It was my first lead in LA in the 80s and it was a great experience to start the career off. I'll finish with that.

Gary Busey got the sandwiches. I had to go run and chase the bad guy.

No, but energy cannot be created or destroyed they say.

Point Break! Mmmm. Let's see, interesting stories...you know, it was an exciting film to be a part of. Kathryn Bigelow the director really wanted to push the boundaries of what actors could do and with the camera, trying to put the audience and inspire the audience of viewers with the environments, so the surfing, the skydiving, in a way that even the excitement of a bank robbery. And I think all of the actors and the crew felt that, the fight scenes, so there was a real energy from her that I think came through the picture. And working with the wonderful Patrick Swayze, he really spearheaded that as well in that he was jumping out of airplanes while he was filming, the other actors were jumping out of airplanes, I was getting to go surfing, everyone was getting into it. No one robbed any banks. The party scene had some partying going on. And I remember actually I was in LA and Kathryn was casting for the female lead and I remember I saw this woman come in driving this old beat up Cadillac and I was to meet actresses that day, and I saw this woman and I said "that's the actress," and it turned out to be Lori Petty, and I was right. And she's amazing.

He was a remarkable human person and actor. We got along very well, and I miss him. I think of him often.

Yes! Hockey! Injury, my knees are a little beat up, and for a goalie that's tough. Favorite team, I don't really have one.

I've had the opportunity to travel to a few places. I've never been to Africa, or the Middle East, and I haven't been to Brazil, I haven't really been to South America, I haven't been to any of the ice caps, I think it would be great to go to the North and South Pole. And cross the Sahara.

That sounds GOOD!

First of all, thank you, I'm glad you like some of the films I've been in. Before the Matrix, Point Break was really my first big break into action movies. And then with SPEED, I was given the opportunity to try, I worked with a wonderful stunt coordinator called Gary Hines who put me under the bus, and let me dangle down elevator shafts, and I think that those two films really helped prepare me for what I was getting into in terms of the Matrix. Definitely when I was going into the Matrix and meeting the Wachowskis, I knew that we were going in to do something that was special. There was four months of training before filming. And the ambition of the project was really exciting to be a part of, and then to actually be on the set and realizing the vision of the directors was one of the special moments of my life.

That sounds GOOD! I would love to be able to do that. I don't think it would be on a SPEED project. But you know, you never know in the future, if there's something we could do.

There was definitely a choice not to have blood during the fight scenes, part of that choice was because the Chinese censors don't have a rating system, so they don't have PG13 or R. So in order to make it viable to be able to be seen in China, I thought of making the film as a PG13 film. I didn't really feel like it was necessary during the fights. I withheld the blood to other moments, like when people were getting stabbed, like when the villain kills someone.

In real life, I don't know any martial arts. In movie kung fu, I am a fairly "high hand."

You know, let's see, you can't go wrong with some oatmeal and honey. Growing up, when I was a kid, it was like frosted flakes, but the milk has to be cold, the milk with cereal has to be cold. And you can't have too much milk, because you don't want the frosted flakes to get too soggy. You have to eat them before they get too mushy. Also a pain chocolate with a cappucinno. And then you can just go with some toast, with some apricot jam, cappucinno, that sounds pretty good. There's also pancakes with bacon and sliced banana on the side, with maple syrup.

No! the band is broken up. It was a great run. And we had a lot of fun and a great experience. But classically we have moved.

I think if I had taken the blue pill, it says I would go back to sleep and I would have never known what was happening. Which sounds very depressing. So I'm glad I took the right pill.

Where do I begin? Here are some. As a kid, we can start with the Count of Monte Christo. We could start with the Lord of the Rings. Then we could get into finding as a teenager getting into Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, Notes from Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, we could get into Jim Thompson, we could go into some William Gibson, then we could do In Search of Lost Time by Proust. And then just getting into the works of Philip K. Dick and recently I was reading Don Delillo, Cosmopolis, I like Updike's the Rabbit Series.

I don't really have a hobby. Is reading a hobby?

Yeah, for me that's something inherited I guess. How does that happen? I don't know. I haven't done anything in particular, I will just go with genetics. I will just thank my mom and dad and then their parents and then their parents.

It's a happy accident, I have nothing to do with that, it just happened.

My favorite meal? Today I will pick, since it's Fall, first of all let's start with a caesar salad with the anchovy. And then we need a baguette on the table. Then we need some tomato soup with some sharp cheddar cheese in it. Then we can have a NY steak on the bone with some mashed potatoes and some creamed spinach and a 1982 Margaux. And then for dessert we'll have some pumpkin pie with some fresh whipped cream. Yeah, let's do that.

And then after all of that we can sit down and have some Armagnac.

My favorite animal? Too hard to choose.

I don't know what my favorite place is either!

It's been a lovely day. I like Sundays. Sunday is the day of rest. I am currently working on a film and we were shooting nights, so I got to sleep in a little bit. It's been a quiet morning. I am looking forward to going to work tomorrow. So it was nice just to rest a little bit, and then to start to look at the script, and get ready for work on Monday.

Well thank you for saying that. And it's easy to stay grounded. The ground is very close. And we walk on it every day.

You know, I was thinking that just the other day... as I was going to set for John Wick. I was actually counting them as well. I think there's something, for some reason, the name John is attractive to storytellers to hang their characters on.

It seems to embue or resonate with a strong, open quality.

I think that a picture can tell a thousand words, and none of them can be right. Or true. I'm absolutely a very happy person.

I wish the little fella health and happiness and all that he hopes for!

Working on Bill & Ted was certainly an excellent adventure. I love those characters. I love the spirit of the film. I like the eternal goodness of these characters. I always thought of them as beautiful fools. They bring a wonder and naivete to the harsh realities of the world. I found them fun to play, and also working with Alex Winter was a great experience. We shared the same view of these characters and the film, and we had a lot of laughs making those movies. And Alex and I are friends.

On the street yes, sometimes people call out lines. Which is usually pretty fun. And yeah, my friend actually invited me to that arena football game. It was a good night.

I'm told it means "cool breeze over the mountains."

You know, shooting 47 Ronin was a great experience. It's a story that is very special and close to the Japanese actors, and I could feel that and respected that during the course of the filmmaking. And it brought another element to the filming, it heightened it even more than it usually is. Which was great.

I've actually never had my IQ tested! And you know, in terms of acting, it was just something that caught me from such a young age. In a way I had no choice because it was the choice.

Thanks!

For a long time in Los Angeles when I first moved there, when I was 20 years old, it was such a new world and so I saw some guys at a gas station once who had hockey equipment in their car, and I asked them what they were doing, and they said they were playing street hockey, so I asked them if I could play. So I became involved in a street hockey game that took place every weekend for over 10 years, every weekend, red versus black. We would take holidays off and sometimes summers, but the game was going on for over 10 years. That was cool to be a part of. It was a cool thing to have happen. Made some friends.

You know, I started to think about directing I guess around 2008? I think it was just through my life experiences, and I've always as an actor thought about the role in the story, and I just found myself starting to think about telling a story. And as I developed the screenplay with Tiger for the five years that we did, I originally was not going to direct, but as we kept working on the story, it kind of filled my vision and my heart, and it became the story that I wanted to tell. And so I directed it.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Here's some: Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, Stroszek.

Sure man. V-five! Virtual five!

Thank you very much! Yeah, The Devil's Advocate is one of my favorites as well. The Motorcycle Company is called Arch Motorcycles, and I went into partnership with a Los Angeles builder named Gard Hollinger. And we have built a prototype which you can see on the company website, and we are very close to finishing the production model.

That sounds yummy! You know, I had my first pastrami on rye when I came to New York. That's where I was introduced to pastrami on rye with mustard and russian, with a Coca-cola on crushed ice. And the kosher pickle.

It's always nice to say hi to folks. You know, it really depends on the moment. Sometimes you have the time to hang out, and other times you don't. But yeah, it's always nice to say hi.

Apples and oranges. I'm going to say some days cats, some days dogs. Depends on the cats and dogs you meet.

You know, I've been very fortunate in my life. Which I am grateful for. And I guess it's just to my tastes to keep life as simple as I can.

Yeah, Charlize Theron is lovely in that film. Heartbreaking.

I would say "My! Look how extraordinary that is!"

I first met Dennis Hopper on River's Edge, and Blue Velvet had not come out yet, but he was really open and congenial and you know, it was cool to sit and have lunch with the guy. But he was talking about his work, Frederic Elmes was shooting the River's Edge and he had shot Blue Velvet and Dennis Hopper was sharing the story of the guy he had just finished playing, just off the hook in this film, and I had been really affected by Eraserhead by David Lynch, and he was just really an open, cool, hanging out guy. To me, he is someone I grew up watching and was inspired by in Apocalypse Now and Easy Rider, and then when I got to work with him on SPEED, there was a part of me that was like "i'm doing a fight scene with Dennis Hopper" and I said to myself "My! How extraordinary!"

He was just so open, had a wonderful sense of humor and outlook on life that he shared, so it was really cool to have been in his life.

Thank you for that! I mean, I know it's not literal to the source material but I was hoping and I hoped that with the adaptation of the material that I was hoping to keep and was really attracted to the character, he's one of those optimist cynics, he is world-weary but as his core he wishes it was not so, and the burden of knowing too much. So I hope that at its core that we came across to the people who love the original.

I WISH! That was a rickety phone booth they had. It's lost in time.

Thank you for that! And it has always been my hope to be a part of works of art that entertain and that people can come away with something more or positive as they walked out of the dark into the world.

I do like Breaking Bad. I really enjoyed that series. The performances, the writing, the setup and the cinema, the storytelling. It was very engaging.

No, starting out, when I first had my professional work when I was 15, I just had the courage of youth, and the passion for what I wanted to do. I did not know, I had no expectations, I just felt I would be able to do it. I left home when I was 18, and I didn't know what was going to happen. I went from Toronto to Los Angeles, I've had breaks, first I got a role in an American movie of the week that was shot in Canada with Lindsay Wagner that helped me get an agent in LA, to make that jump going from Toronto to Los Angeles and Hollywood, I got my first car and drove from Toronto to LA. I don't know the answer to what sets apart the successful. You definitely need passion and perseverance, and as an actor, unless you are creating your own material, it's up to other people. You audition for work and if you have other opportunities where you can create or you can get asked to do work, it's up to other people.

My typical day when I am not working is usually working on working, so I have a production company, so I work on developing other stories and other projects, hopefully get to spend some time with some friends, hopefully get to see a movie or a play or something. In between jobs I am either working on working or trying to spend time with friends and family.

You know, I'm not an air guitar afficionado. But once in a while, the air guitar comes out. Especially when you first hear (especially for me) that chord or that moment in the song when the electric guitar cuts in, or blazes out, once in a while you just got to strum all those strings in the air.

That's funny.

You know, one of the first that I was exposed to was Ghost in the Shell and that was a cool moment to see that.

Chunky.

For Man of Tai Chi, the protagonist Tiger, we decided to not use a particular form of Tai Chi so we didn't use Yang or Chen style. We used elements from all of those, different schools and forms of Tai Chi, and we called it Ling Kong Tai Chi, because we wanted the idea of this character wanting to create his own style and not to make it so specific to one style to keep it open.

There was a really great hamburger place called Licks. I really used to love hanging out by the grade school I used to go to, I played a lot of street hockey and basketball there. We had wonderful parks, Ramsden Park, we had chestnut fights running around Ramsden Park. The Bloor Street Cinema, I would go see movies there. The University Cinema.

I will have to say a Pilsner or a Guinness.

Today I will choose Martin Scorsese. Steve McQueen. David Fincher. I'd love to work with Rebecca Miller again.

I'd love to do a Western. And also a musical.

Yeah, I mean I haven't been onstage since 1997 I think...I think about it often, actually. I would love to work with Richard Maxwell from the New York City players, and I would love the chance to play Macbeth.

My first experience with that was Sad Keanu, and I thought it was funny!

Mmmmm. When I think of a role, I start with my own life experience and who I am. And I get to meet this character. And I think we come to a third place, which is me and the character and transforming into this third entity to tell the story. So all of these characters have some DNA of mine, I share it with the character.

Yeah the documentary was exploring different opinions and feelings about digital and film and came to a place that ultimately it is for whatever the storyteller wants to use. It's really about the story. For me, I made the documentary because I was interested and concerned about what was going to happen to film, as I looked around and saw that digital was replacing film. So I started off being a fan of film. Through the course of the documentary and as technology as gotten better, I miss film and it is very special and unique, but I have also come to the feeling that digital technology is coming to a place that can also tell the story and can be beautiful in its way.

First of all, thank you very much for your kind words. You know, I'm a fairly private person, and also I think you can share your private thoughts with your friends using social media, but I have not done that yet. I tend to do that when I'm with them. I just have not found the time or way yet.

Favorite cupcake flavor? I am going to pick vanilla!

And thanks.

Advice is tough. If I am asked for advice I will do the best I can. But I always start off by saying first off "I hate giving advice." In some way, there's a responsibility to advice that I am scared of. But I will give advice. Especially on more practical things. Like practical advice I'm much more comfortable with. Life advice, not so much. What does your heart say? What do you hope to have happen? How are you doing? If something is hurting you, why and how and how can it be changed? I have had some exposure to Buddhism and some exposure to the Dao, and they certainly have influenced my thought, the experience of compassion and permanence, the idea of the nature of being alive.

I think the fictional one that would be interesting for my living world would be a time machine. I think it would be fun to be able to go back, or forward. And practical piece of technology, I am very grateful for the printing press and everything that has followed. Electricity is pretty great too.

I have kept a couple of things. I don't have the surfboard, but I think I have a coat from the first Matrix. I have the sword from Hamlet, I kept a lot of working scripts, I have the jersey from The Replacements, I've got Constantine's lighter and watch, I have Bill & Ted's shorts (Ted's shorts), I used to have the leather jacket from My Own Private Idaho but I gave that to a friend. And I think that's it.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. And your feelings. Glad I could help in any way.

You know, we made that in a villa in Greve, Italy, and some of the cast was living together, we had this one house, it was great to be working on Shakespeare with Ken, he gave me a voice lesson way back in the beginning, he introduced me to a wonderful vocal teacher, Cicely Barry, and it was interesting to work on a naturalistic approach to the text and the playing of it. I wish I could have played more of the role from the play of Don John! It was a great summer. There was romance, and intrigue both in front of the camera and behind. Sometimes life imitates art. Good luck with your production.

You know, it's classics like Goodfellas, Apocalypse Now, anything by Stanley Kubrick or David Lean or Frank Capra. Anything by Scorsese. Let's start with those.

I believe that there's a group of people that do Point Break Live in LA, and a couple other cities. I think they will do a new Point Break, but I am not a part of it. There are plans to do another one. And Point Break Live you get to play Johnny Utah in a stage version of it, and it sounds like a lot of fun.

"It's going to be different, it's going to be better, it's up to us, cuz they're not doing it"

I hope it does, I hope it can, but it does not look like it will. But I certainly loved playing the role, and I hope that maybe it will happen, but the people responsible for that did not pursue it.

I am not a vegetarian or vegan, I guess I don't really do junk food anymore? But I hope hamburgers don't count as junk food. Ranch style Doritos once in a while, that's pretty good.

You know, I don't have a favorite TV show, but I do know that I love watching The Olympics. Whenever the Olympics are on, I just love watching them, the moments that you get these incredible athletes dedicating so much of their lives to the moments that happen in the Olympics, and it is great to be able to witness that.

Thank you so much, you too!

See, I believe there are some black and white films where they have Frankenstein brains in a vat. Maybe the first brain I saw was in Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein? Certainly the Matrix Trilogy, I shared so much of the thoughts and perspectives of the story from the writers and directors, and I really loved the moment when the character that I played when he comes up to the moment where he asks the head of the Machines, the Deus Ex Machina, asks him (Neo) what does he want and my character says "Peace" and I thought that was wonderful and really something that I agree with, that for all sentient beings this idea of peace.

Absolutely!

I believe the other night we had an eclipse of the moon! Which was cool. In the cities, I wish you could see more of the stars, but I always love when I'm in places where you can see that blanket, that twirling, twinkling. That is one of my favorite things.

It's a tough question. Today I will choose: at that intersection of Hollywood and Gower, the car's not going to stop for the yellow light, so don't go through there.