Keanu reeves
Keanu
Charles Reeves born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian[a] actor, director,
producer, and musician. He gained fame for his starring role performances in
several blockbuster films, including comedies from the Bill and Ted franchise
(1989–1991); action thrillers Point Break (1991), Speed (1994), and the John
Wick franchise; psychological thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997);
supernatural thriller Constantine (2005); and science fiction/action series The
Matrix (1999–2003). He has also appeared in dramatic films such as Dangerous
Liaisons (1988), My Own Private Idaho (1991), and Little Buddha (1993), as well
as the romantic horror Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).
Reeves
has earned critical acclaim for his acting. One New York Times critic praised
Reeves' versatility, saying that he "displays considerable discipline and
range... he moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanor that suits a police
procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles". However, Reeves has spent much of his later career being typecast. A recurring
character arc in many roles he has portrayed is one of saving the world, as can
be seen in the characters of Ted Logan, Buddha, Neo, Johnny Mnemonic, John
Constantine, and Klaatu. His acting has garnered several awards, including a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
During
his film career, Reeves has engaged in several forms of artistic expression.
Active as a musician for over a decade, he played bass guitar for the bands
Dogstar and Becky. Acting onstage, he performed as Prince Hamlet for the
Manitoba Theatre Centre's production of Hamlet. He wrote the text for a picture
book, Ode to Happiness, illustrated by Alexandra Grant. He has also produced a
documentary, Side by Side, and directed the martial arts film Man of Tai Chi.
Keanu
Charles Reeves was born in Beirut on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia
(née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr.
His mother is English and hails from Essex. His father, an American from
Hawaii, is of Chinese, English, Irish, Native Hawaiian, and Portuguese descent.
Reeves has said, "My grandmother is Chinese and Hawaiian so I was around
Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine when I was growing up." He has also
spoken of his English ancestry, mentioning watching comedy shows such as The
Two Ronnies during his childhood, and how his mother imparted English manners
that he has maintained into adulthood. Reeves' mother was working in Beirut
when she met his father.
Reeves'
father earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin at Hilo
International Airport. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three
years old, but Reeves knew him until he was six. They last met on the island of
Kauai when Reeves was 13. Reeves moved around the world frequently as a child,
and lived with various stepfathers. After his parents divorced in 1966, his
mother became a costume designer and moved the family to Sydney, and then to
New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director,
in 1970. The couple moved to Toronto, Ontario, and divorced in 1971. When
Reeves was 15, he worked as a production assistant on Aaron's films. Reeves'
mother then married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced
in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, a hairdresser named Jack
Bond. The marriage ended in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and
his sisters, and Reeves grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto.
Within
five years, Reeves attended four high schools, including the Etobicoke School
of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves stated he was expelled because
he was "just a little too rambunctious and shot [his] mouth off once too
often... [he] was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the
school". Reeves excelled more in sports than in academics, as his
educational development was challenged by dyslexia. He was a successful ice
hockey goalkeeper at De La Salle College, earning the nickname "The
Wall". He dreamed of playing ice hockey for Canada, but an injury forced
him to consider other career paths.[citation needed] After leaving De La Salle
College, he attended Avondale Secondary Alternative School, which allowed him
to obtain an education while working as an actor. He later dropped out and did
not obtain a high school diploma.
Reeves
began his acting career at the age of nine, appearing in a theatre production
of Damn Yankees. At 15, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and
Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre. Reeves dropped out of high school when he
was 17. He obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to
Los Angeles three years later. He lived with his ex-stepfather, Paul Aaron, who
was a stage and television director. Reeves made his screen acting debut in an
episode of Hangin' In. In the early 1980s, he appeared in commercials
(including one for Coca-Cola), short films including the NFB drama One Step
Away and stage work such as Brad Fraser's cult hit Wolfboy in Toronto. In 1984,
he was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV youth
program Going Great.
His
first studio movie appearance was Youngblood (1986) in which he played a
Québécois goalie. Shortly after the movie's release, Reeves drove to Los
Angeles in his 1969 Volvo. His stepfather had convinced Erwin Stoff in advance
to be Reeves's manager and agent. Stoff has remained Reeves's manager, and has
co-produced many of his films.
After
a few minor roles, Reeves received a sizeable role in the 1986 drama film
River's Edge, which depicted how a murder affected a group of teens. Following
this film's critical success, he spent the late 1980s appearing in a number of
movies aimed at teenage audiences, including Permanent Record, and the
unexpectedly successful 1989 comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,
along with its 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
From
1991, Reeves played bass guitar in the grunge band Dogstar. During the early
1990s, Reeves started to break out of his teen-film period. He appeared in
high-budget action films like Point Break, for which he won MTV's "Most
Desirable Male" award in 1992. He was involved in various lower-budget
independent films, including the well-received 1991 film, My Own Private Idaho
with River Phoenix. In 1992, he played Jonathan Harker in the Francis Ford
Coppola-directed blockbuster Bram Stoker's Dracula.
In
1994, Reeves's career reached a new high as a result of his starring role in
the action film Speed. His casting in the film was controversial, since, except
for Point Break, he was primarily known for comedies and indie dramas. He had
never been the sole headliner on a film. The summer action film had a fairly
large budget and was helmed by novice cinematographer-turned-director Jan de
Bont.
Reeves's
career choices after Speed were eclectic: despite his successes, Reeves
continued to accept supporting roles and appear in experimental films. He
scored a hit with a romantic lead role in A Walk in the Clouds. He made news by
refusing to take part in Speed 2: Cruise Control – despite the offered $11
million paycheck, which would have been his largest to date – in favour of
touring with his band and playing the title role in a 1995 Manitoba Theatre
Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Of his performance, Roger
Lewis, the Sunday Times theatre critic, wrote, "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."
However,
Reeves' choices after A Walk in the Clouds failed with critics and audiences.
Big-budget films such as the sci-fi action film Johnny Mnemonic and the
action-thriller Chain Reaction were critically panned and failed at the box
office, while indie films like Feeling Minnesota were also critical failures.
Reeves finally started to climb out of his career low after starring in the
horror-drama The Devil's Advocate alongside Al Pacino and Charlize Theron.
Reeves took a paycut of $1 million for The Devil's Advocate so that Pacino
would be cast, and later took a 90 per cent paycut for the less successful The
Replacements to guarantee the casting of Gene Hackman. The Devil's Advocate did
well at the box office and garnered good reviews.
The
1999 science fiction-action hit The Matrix, a film in which Reeves had a
starring role, was a box office success and attracted positive reviews.
Reeves'
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
In
between the first Matrix film and its sequels, Reeves received positive reviews
for his portrayal of an abusive husband in The Gift. Aside from The Gift,
Reeves appeared in several films that received mostly negative reviews and
unimpressive box office grosses, including The Watcher, Sweet November, and The
Replacements. However, the two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The
Matrix Revolutions, along with Something's Gotta Give and the 2005
horror-action film, Constantine, were box office successes and brought Reeves
back into the public spotlight. Reeves performed with the band Becky for a
year, but quit in 2005, citing his lack of interest in a serious music career.
In
early 2005, Reeves' accomplishments in Hollywood were recognized by the
Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.
His
appearance in A Scanner Darkly (2006), based on the dystopian science fiction
novel by Philip K. Dick, received favourable reviews, and The Lake House, his
romantic outing with Sandra Bullock, was a success at the box office. He went
on to play the lead character in two 2008 films, Street Kings and The Day the
Earth Stood Still. In February 2009 he starred in director Rebecca Miller's
film The Private Life of Pippa Lee, which premiered at Berlinale.
Beginning
in 2008, Reeves began pre-production on his directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi.
The film is a multilingual narrative, partly inspired by the life of his
friend, stuntman Tiger Chen. Filming occurred on mainland China and Hong Kong.
During Man of Tai Chi's five years of scripting and production, Reeves acted in
several B movies with lead roles as Henry in 2010's Henry's Crime and John in
2012's Generation Um.... During that time, Reeves also played Kai in the
critically panned 47 Ronin. Critics widely attribute the film's poor performance
to its direction, pacing, focus on special effects, and editing.
In
2011, he returned to other artistic mediums of expression. Having played music
earlier in his career, he forayed into literature by writing the text for a
"grown-up picture book" entitled Ode to Happiness. The text was
complemented by Alexandra Grant's illustrations. In 2011, he produced the
documentary Side by Side about the supplanting of photo-chemical film by
digital camera technology; Reeves interviewed several celebrated directors
including James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan.
Reeves's
first directorial film, Man of Tai Chi, premiered in 2013 with showings at the
Beijing Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. The work was awarded in Beijing
and praised by recognized director of action genre films, John Woo.
Reeves
has continued acting while exploring other forms of artistry. In October 2014,
he played the title role in the action thriller John Wick. The film, which
stars Reeves as a retired hitman, opened to positive reviews and performed well
at the box office. He reprised the role in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), which
was also well received, and is set to return for John Wick: Chapter 3 (2019).
In 2016, Reeves appeared in the horror thriller The Neon Demon and the
dystopian romance The Bad Batch.
Reeves
had a cameo in the action-comedy film Keanu, in which he voiced the eponymous
kitten. Keanu director Peter Atencio revealed that the filmmakers had contacted
Reeves' management about Reeves appearing in the film, who declined on his
behalf. When Reeves' sister showed him the trailer, Reeves contacted the
filmmakers directly about appearing in the film. As the film had been mostly
completed, they decided to have a scene where he voices the kitten.
In
January 2009, it was announced that Reeves would star in the live-action film
adaptation of the anime series Cowboy Bebop, initially slated for release in
2011. Because of budgeting problems, the script was sent for a rewrite, and the
project's status is currently unknown.
In
April 2011, Reeves referenced that a third instalment of the Bill & Ted series
was possible. He further elaborated on the film in December 2013 during a
taping of NBC's The Today Show, "I'm open to the idea of that. I think
it's pretty surreal, playing Bill and Ted at 50. But we have a good story in
that. You can see the life and joy in those characters, and I think the world
can always use some life and joy."
Reeves
has been linked to the maritime romance The Modern Ocean.
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