The saddest and at the same time the kindest
actor in Hollywood. The inimitable devil's advocate and funny
Ted. The breathtaking Keanu Reeves is the hero
of today's video on the Biographer channel. Why did Al Pacino dislike the Actor? Why was Keanu so close to death several times
and what sacrifices did he have to make for the sake of taking part in The Matrix? You will find it out very soon! But before that, click on the subscribe button
and on the bell to be the first to know about the release of new video-biographies of your
favorite celebrities. Have you pressed the button? Anyway, you're breathtaking! Enjoy the video. CHILDHOOD Keanu Charles Reeves was born on September
2, 1964 in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut. His mother, Patricia Bond, was a showgirl
and his father, Samuel Reeves, was a geologist. Keanu owes his spectacular appearance to Hawaiian
and Portuguese roots of his father and English and Irish roots of his mother. Such an unusual name of the boy came from
the Hawaiian language and translates “cool breeze over the mountains”. Keanu Reeves' father wasn’t just a simple
man. He didn't even get higher education. Moreover, he received a high school diploma
during his imprisonment in Hawaii on charges of selling heroin at the airport. Over time, he started not only to sell substances,
but also to use them. Two years after Keanu's birth, a new member
of the family, baby Kim, was born. As soon as Keanu turned 3, Samuel abandoned
the family. After that, he was arrested more than once
for possession and sale of drugs. Patricia could not count on his participation
in the children's lives, or even on alimony. At the age of 13, Reeves met his father on
the island of Kauai for the last time. After that, he stopped communicating with
him for many years. “I didn't have a father. Perhaps I would like to have him. You feel it especially acutely when you start
to grow up and you need a man's advice. I can't say that I was very worried about
the inability to communicate with Sam, for me it was a complete stranger” After the breakup, Patricia moved to Sydney
in search of greener pastures, where she got a job as an assistant organizer of performances. She was paid little, and life in Australia
was much more expensive than in Lebanon. The woman changed men one by one. In the end, Patricia decided to try her luck
in New York. The next move was not easy for the children. The brother and sister were just getting used
to Australia, and the next change of scenery was very stressful for them. But in New York, Keanu was for the first time
behind the scenes of the theater, where Patricia got a job for a while. Little Keanu loved being part of the magical
process of creating the show. “In fact, children usually want to become
someone whose work they see every day. The theater was home for me, we had been hanging
around behind the scenes since childhood, so I simply did not have a special choice…” But they didn't stay in New York for long. Keanu was 6 years old when his mother married
Broadway director Paul Aaron. The family moved to Toronto – from that
time Keanu has always considered hospitable Canada to be his homeland. Originally being qualified in design, Patricia
decided to start a career as a costume designer, and was very successful in this. She created images for Emmylou Harris, Dolly
Parton and David Bowie. Keanu's love of cinema appeared in particular
thanks to his stepfather. Paul Aaron took him to rehearsals, thanks
to which the boy got acquainted with real filmmaking. Keanu was even an assistant on one of the
productions that Paul was directing. “I was bringing soda to Lillian Gish when
Star Wars was coming out. She’s like, ‘Cinema these days…’ … It was a great honor for me. … I was going to theaters and rehearsals
with my stepfather when I was a kid. So I guess it’s probably my tradition. Unfortunately, the marriage broke up due to
Paul's infidelity less than two years later. Despite the breakup, the man continued to
communicate with Keanu and Kim, to whom he really attached. In the future, he would still play a role
in the formation of Keanu's career. A difficult period began in Patricia’s life. A single mother worked from morning to night,
trying to provide her children with everything they needed. The situation was complicated by the news
about Keanu’s and Kim’s dyslexia, which affected their school performance. Because of the ridicule and biased attitude
towards Reeves, Keanu quickly became withdrawn and insecure, but as he grew up, he was able
to cope with his complexes. Despite dyslexia, Keanu Reeves has been playing
chess at a decent level since childhood. He even challenged adult players, charging
the opponent a dollar for each game. After a while, Keanu's mother remarried. Patricia's chosen one was a rock music promoter
Robert Miller. In 1976, a daughter Karina was born in the
family. Keanu didn't really like studying. The future actor changed several schools,
including the prestigious school of performing arts. He was flunking out of the last one for bad
behavior and conflicts with teachers. In acting classes, the teachers were not particularly
pleased with him, because of them Reeves doubted his abilities. Keanu admitted that he skipped the hated school
for the sake of going to the cinema. I remember there’s a beautiful, wonderful
cinema in Toronto called the Bloor Street Cinema … And I remember summer nights just
like riding my bike and just going, locking my bike up and going into a movie. I didn’t even know what it was! But I would just go and they had salty good
popcorn and I’d just chill out.” He got the opportunity to attend an International
Film Festival while living in Toronto. Could he think that after many years he would
come there not as a spectator, but as an actor to present the films in which he starred? Reeves took part in his first production
of "Damn Yankees", when he was nine years old. Critics gave the musical a negative review. Not only adult actors who performed the main
roles got unflattering reviews, but even little Keanu. Thereby it greatly undermined his confidence. Soon the guy got another hobby. It was hockey. He excelled at the game, and felt confident
on the ice. Teammates even nicknamed him "the wall" for
the fact that Keanu was a first-class goalkeeper. But at the age of 14, he was seriously injured
and doctors made a diagnosis,which sounded like a sentence. They stated that Keanu could no longer play. He was flunking out of another school and
decided not to return there anymore. Keanu never received his certificate of maturity. Keanu moved out from his parents and started
working part-time in three places at once: sharpening skates on the local hockey field,
cutting bushes in parks and cooking in an Italian restaurant. And that's when Paul Aaron stepped in. It was he who helped Keanu start his career
in cinema, inviting him to auditions and encouraging his passion for acting. THE BEGINNING OF AN ACTING CAREER In 1983, Keanu got the main role in the musical
Wolfboy. It told about two teenage boys who ended up
in a psychiatric hospital and fell in love. Participation in the production gave Keanu
the first popularity among the locals. The people on the streets who recognized him
were not always tolerant, so he often heard insults. After that, he was offered to become a correspondent
for the Canadian youth TV program Going Great. In 1984, Keanu Reeves first appeared on television,
starring in a Coca-Cola commercial, and also in an episode of the TV series Hangin' B.
Now he is a great actor who is loved by millions, but the guy was happy with any small role
back then. And while young Keanu and I are waiting for
new offers from studios, write in the comments which films with this actor you like the most. We really want to know your opinion. With the help of Paul Aaron, Keanu got the
role of Mercutio in the musical "Romeo and Juliet". Critics noted his performance, and that encouraged
the guy. He understood that he was on the right track. After that, Keanu got small roles in the TV
series “Hangin’ In", "Heat in the night" and "Comedy Factory". Before that, he got another commercial, that
time it was Kellogg's corn flakes. Acting career started to gain momentum. Soon the aspiring actor managed to get his
first role in a feature film. Keanu played a hockey goalkeeper in Peter
Markle's sports drama "Young Blood". And although the main star of the film was
Patrick Swayze, it was a good opportunity for Keanu to prove himself. In addition, his old sport skills came in
handy here. After that, Reeves decided to leave his hometown
and go towards his dream. With the help of his former stepfather, he
received a green card and moved to Los Angeles. There, Paul persuaded a familiar agent, Erwin
Stoff, to take Keanu under his wing. He considered the name of the ward too exotic,
so he tried for a long time to convince Keanu to come up with some kind of nickname. The actor began to offer various crazy options,
for example, Chuck Spadina, and as a result, the manager abandoned the idea. The job was found pretty quickly. In 1986, as many as 8 projects were released
with the participation of Keanu. However, we can’t call all of them successful. Keanu played a young version of the hero in
the Disney studio television movie “Young Again”. According to the plot, a businessman wanted
to become a teenager again, and his wish came true. The short film "One Step Away” could not
be called successful. However, it gave the actor the opportunity
to play the main role for the first time. In the same year, Reeves was offered to play
Private Chris in Oliver Stone's film about the Vietnam War "Platoon". However, Keanu, being a devoted pacifist,
refused the role. As a result, Charlie Sheen got the main role,
and the film won an Oscar in several nominations. Did Keanu regret the refusal? Who knows. He continued to actively star in television
films such as "Act of Vengeance" and "The Brotherhood of Justice" as well as in the
low-budget romantic drama "Flying". Let's be fair: critics were not always delighted
with the game of a novice actor. But Reeves was not discouraged and continued
to move towards the dream. Together with Drew Barrymore, he played in
the musical "Babes in Toyland” Reeves got good reviews when he appeared in
the teen drama "River's Edge." The guy played a schoolboy Matt, who had a
dilemma: to tell the authorities about the murder of his classmate by his friend, or
to keep the crime a secret in the name of friendship. The film “Under the Influence" also received
quite positive reviews. After getting a couple of cameo roles in the
TV series “The Tracey Ullman Show” and “Trying Times”, Reeves appeared in the
film “Dangerous Liaisons". It was a chance for Keanu to show a new side
of himself. The cast of the film was very good. John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer and the
novice Uma Thurman took part in this project. But everyone thought that director Stephen
Frears was taking a big risk by inviting to a serious role an actor who mostly played
teenagers. The film "Dangerous Liaisons" won three Oscars
in 1989, but Keanu, unfortunately, received a lot of criticism. Nevertheless, hard work bore fruit and the
actor began to earn more. Now he could afford more expensive housing,
but instead of spending money on amenities, he bought a motorcycle. Riding in the California hills became his
passion. Keanu loved night trips when there were almost
no cars on the highway and it was possible to accelerate to breakneck speed. Such adventures did not always end well. One day he miraculously managed not to fall
off a cliff. The actor spent a week in the hospital with
broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. After the accident, Keanu needed to recover. That's why he lost several contracts. His sister Kim helped him get back in shape. She came to Los Angeles specifically to take
care of her brother. As for the bike, despite the fact that due
to his love of extreme sports, Keanu lost serious projects for almost a year, he returned
to the hobby as soon as his wounds healed. And in future, he would risk his life more
than once for the sake of thrills After returning to work, Keanu continued to
play in teen films. In 1988, the comedies with his participation
"The Night Before" and "The Prince Of Pennsylvania" were released. The drama "Permanent Record" that followed
them was criticized, but at the same time many praised Keanu's acting. From time to time, Keanu played a teenager
on the screen. The actor even began to worry that he would
never get out of that role. Reeves was actively looking for a film that
would help him change the direction of development. Still, the audience, who loved Keanu for his
teenage roles, had another chance to see the actor in this role. In 1989, the cult film “Bill and Ted’s
Excellent Adventure" was released. The story was made up by Ed Solomon and Chris
Matheson back in 1983 in a student improvisation class. Based on the staging, they wrote the script
in just four days, meeting in local coffee shops. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Keanu
Reeves and Alex Winter starring as Bill and Ted, but initially each actor auditioned for
the opposite role. However, after seeing the audition recordings,
Solomon and Matheson decided to swap the actors. Initially, Bill and Ted's time machine was
supposed to be a Chevy van. But the producers were afraid of the similarity
with DeLorean from "Back to the Future" and replaced the machine with a phone booth. It's strange that those guys didn't remember
about another time traveler with a phone booth. (FOR THE VOICE ACTOR: to say ironically) "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" became
a cult. The film performed decently at the box office,
received animation, game and comic book versions, and also a sequel - unfortunately, not as
successful as we would like it to be. And, of course, Bill and Ted gave us an iconic
meme: But, more importantly, the film launched the
career of Keanu Reeves, who even seriously was afraid that he would be remembered only
for the role of Ted. That character really strongly influenced
his image in the press and the reaction to his game at first. NO LONGER A SCHOOLBOY In 1989, the tragicomedy “Parenthood" was
released. The actor played together with Dianne Wiest
and Steve Martin. The film received rave reviews and several
Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Thanks to working with director Ron Howard,
other filmmakers began to pay attention to Keanu
“Life Under Water", released in the same year, could not show the same success. However, as well as the next project, the
black comedy "I Love You To Death" did. However, participation in the second film
gave Keanu the opportunity to try himself in a non-standard role for him as a guy with
not very high moral principles and a craving for drugs. In addition, thanks to the film, he met River
Phoenix, who became his close friend. They bonded over a shared dream of a bright
acting future and a difficult childhood. River's parents were hippies and lived very
poorly. The two guys spent a lot of time together
and influenced each other in many ways. River became interested in motorcycles, and
Keanu caught up with light drugs, which at that time were a common thing for Los Angeles. After a short break, Keanu Reeves got a role
in the comedy “Tune in Tomorrow”, where he was on the same set with the famous Columbo
- Peter Falk. Although the film was not particularly successful,
Keanu, in any case, gradually was getting out of character as a schoolboy. In 1991, the Gus Van Sant's independent film
"My Own Private Idaho" was released, where Keanu played the role of the rebel Scott,
who engaged in street prostitution as a protest. Gus Van Sant was inspired to create the film
by Shakespeare's plays "Henry IV" and "Henry V", as well as John Rechy's novel "The City
of Night". The director had problems with financing due
to the controversial and unusual theme of the film. He dreamed that Reeves and River Phoenix would
play the main roles. But he hardly believed that the actors' agents
would be interested in a project that did not promise them high fees. And if Reeves got the script, then River's
agent didn't even tell him about the offer. Keanu agreed, unexpectedly for Van Sant. He was impressed by the story and believed
that Phoenix simply had to agree to star with him. At that moment, River was spending time with
his family in Florida. Without even thinking, Reeves, who was in
Toronto at the time, hopped on a bike and drove thousands of miles to deliver a script
to a friend. River liked the script, and he agreed. Some actors and crew members settled in Van
Sant's house, during the preparation for the film. They were all young, cheerful, open and creative
people. Therefore, very soon that place turned into
an almost continuous house party with jam sessions every night. The music, of course, was accompanied by alcohol,
as well as something heavier and more dangerous. The director did not prevent that at first. The team was shooting an independent movie,
and such an atmosphere probably was getting everyone in the right mood. But at some point everything got out of control
and Van Sant had to move out of his own house for a while to get some sleep at least and
edit the script. When the director returned, everything was
ready for filming. The original script had only 70 pages, which
corresponded to about a 70-minute film. Van Sant wanted the actors to complement the
story with improvisation and give them full creative freedom. The director gave copies of John Rechy's novel
"City of Night" to River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves to help them get into the thinking
of street dealers. Being a bookworm, Reeves read not only that
novel, but also 5 other Rechy's books. As for Phoenix, he stopped reading after the
first paragraph. They were different, but that was the strength
of their duet The actors really got into this project. River Phoenix even wrote his own version of
the famous campfire scene and the director agreed to shoot it. The key words that expressed the idea of the
difference between love and sex, uttered in this scene, were invented by River. “My Own Private Idaho" received critical
acclaim and was nominated for several prestigious film awards. Keanu was recognized in the world of big cinema,
acting in that film, although he continued to be associated more with Ted than with Scott. ACTION
The next film introduced Keanu to the world of stunts, fights and weapons. It was an action crime film "Point Break”,
where Reeves was back in the company of Patrick Swayze. The actor played a FBI agent who infiltrates
a gang of surf robbers. It was originally planned that Patrick Swayze
would play the role of Johnny Utah, but after reading the script, Patrick convinced the
producers his character was Bodhi and the role went to Keanu. Neither Patrick Swayze, nor Keanu Reeves,
nor Lori Petty had ever surfed before filming. Moreover, Laurie Petty had never even seen
the ocean. Two months before the start of work on the
film, all three went to Hawaii, where they took a course in surfing. Reeves liked this kind of outdoor activity
so much that it later became his hobby. In addition, to prepare for the role Keanu
Reeves watched the work of real FBI agents in Los Angeles and trained with a real football
team. Interestingly, the "MythBusters" later checked
the authenticity of some of the events of the film. They expressed doubts about the realism of
the scenes with the character of Keanu jumping without a parachute and catching Swayze. It turned out that it was possible from a
physics aspect, but in that case, the guys would have been in the air for no more than
90 seconds. In the movie, they still had time to talk
and even argue. "Point Break" was criticized immediately after
its release, but had a good box office. The film really became popular a little later,
and the role of Johnny Utah made Keanu a real young star. In 1992, he was recognized as the most attractive
man by the MTV Movie Award. At some point, Keanu became interested in
playing the bass guitar. The actor acquired his first musical instrument
at the age of 23 and had one single music lesson. Further learning to play the guitar was individually,
by daily fingering of the strings. In 1991, he met Robert Mailhouse and together
they created a rock band "dogstar". Rumor has it they met at a grocery store. Their similar hobbies led to friendship, and
soon to joint creativity. Night after night they experimented with music
- Keanu played bass guitar, and Rob was on keyboards and drums. In 1994, vocalist and guitarist Bret Domrose
joined them and just a couple of months later they already went on tour in America. The band has existed for almost 10 years and
has released 3 albums. But back to Keanu's acting career. Thanks to the popularity that came to him
after the release of "Point Break", he got the opportunity to work with one of the greatest
directors of all time. NEW HEIGHTS
The idea to make another adaptation of "Dracula" came to the mind of actress Winona Ryder,
who proposed this project to Francis Ford Coppola. She thought that the director would refuse
due to employment, but when he heard the word “Dracula”, his eyes lit up. It was one of his favorite stories. It was Winona's wishes that had a great influence
on the choice of the cast of the film. Keanu Reeves was also on the list of candidates
she approved. The actor at that time starred in several
films in a row and was physically exhausted. He would even turn down the role, but he couldn't
miss the opportunity to work with a great director. Unfortunately, Coppola did not have mutual
feelings for him. At the casting, nothing foretold troubles. Keanu showed himself well, and Winona continued
to insist on his candidacy. The director agreed, but later he regretted
it more than once. Coppola gathered all the actors to prepare
for the film and made them read out the original novel by Bram Stoker, instead of the usual
script. It took 2 days, during which Keanu was unsure
of himself, was confused and read expressionless. Probably, fatigue affected the quality of
Keanu's work, since many who worked with him remembered him as detached and emotionless. Later, Coppola said that he had incorrectly
selected an actor for the role of Harker. He wanted the girls to fall in love with the
character for his appearance, so he was looking for a young blockbuster hero. However, as a person, Coppola had no complaints
about Keanu. …of all the young people I’ve met in the
film industry he’s so endearing and sincere, and a good person, and a generous person,
and I’m glad I came to know that. He’s the nicest person you’ll ever want
to meet. - Francis Ford Coppola
The director carefully made sure that the film looked as authentic as possible. For the wedding scene of the Reeves and Ryder
heroes, Coppola invited a real Romanian priest. For many years there were talks about whether
the actors were really married. Ryder regularly mentions this funny fact,
jokingly saying that the couple has been married for almost 30 years. According to Reeves, he regularly receives
messages from Ryder with the text "hello, husband." The film was released exactly on the 95th
anniversary of the original book about Dracula. It became a box office hit, and was repeatedly
nominated for an Oscar, but received mixed reviews from critics. Keanu got the worst of it. Critics and viewers didn’t like the actor's
performance, and Reeves' attempt to do a London accent was called "the worst accent in cinema". One particularly scathing review stated that
Reeves had to "visibly restrain himself from ending every sentence with the word "dude." Keanu said that the main reason for the failure
was physical exhaustion. Filming completely sucked the energy out of
the actor, so he took a short vacation, part of which he spent with his friend River Phoenix. In 1993, Keanu starred as Prince Siddhartha
in Bernardo Bertolucci's film "Little Buddha". Reeves got the role due to his exotic appearance
and the success of his previous projects. Bernardo had seen My Own Private Idaho and
he saw me. I didn't know anything about Buddhism. When I was a kid, my mother had Chinese artifacts,
so to me Buddha was this big fat smiling guy. Part of the filming took place in Kathmandu
and Bhutan. Working on the film was a real extreme adventure
for Keanu. The process of shooting a film about spiritual
search was not as pleasant as Keanu thought. The entire film crew suffered from constant
poisoning and, as a result, diarrhea. However, everything has its advantages. Keanu needed to lose a lot of weight for one
of the scenes, so poisoning and an orange diet helped him in this. The film was quite good, although it did not
receive any major awards. Cinematography only was noted. But Keanu was hardly worried about critics
at that time. On October 31, 1993, River Phoenix died of
a drug overdose. Keanu Reeves was grieving the death of a friend. It was always difficult for him to get along
with people, and River was a family and support for him. He felt lonely and crushed. All I can say is that I have never felt a
thing like that before in my life...I was very sad, and something beyond sad. I don't know what it is, just that you sob
for hours. Meanwhile, Kenneth Branagh's film "Much Ado
About Nothing" was released. Reeves became part of an excellent cast, including
Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Kate Beckinsale, and many others. It’s interesting that the filming of that
film was before the filming of "Little Buddha”, and actor Brian Blessed taught Keanu basic
meditation. That helped him prepare for the role of Buddha. The film was warmly received by critics and
ranked 11th in the list of the greatest Shakespearean films on Rotten Tomatoes. In turn, Keanu added the film to the collection
of his acting failures. His performance did not impress critics, and
he was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award as the worst supporting actor. But this did not affect the number of offers
of new roles at all. Soon Gus Van Sant invited the actor to star
in his new film ”Even Cowgirls Get the Blues." Keanu didn't fully understand the concept,
but agreed - probably in order to reminisce about the filming with River Phoenix. The film dedicated to the deceased actor,
unfortunately, did not repeat the success of “My Own Private Idaho”. The movie failed at the box office and was
negatively received by critics. A series of failures changed to great success. In 1994, a movie thanks to which Keanu got
to an unprecedented level, was released. A-list At first, Keanu refused to act in the film
”Speed". In his opinion, the script was too similar
to the movie "Die Hard". However, the studio hired Joss Whedon for
the final version of the script. He totally changed the original concept of
the main character. Now Jack was not a desperate rebel, but a
courteous, kind-hearted policeman, striving to help people. In the end, Keanu agreed. Keanu immediately found a common language
with a colleague in the film, Sandra Bullock. Now they looked perfect at the trial readings. At that time Bullock was a newcomer and Keanu
felt some responsibility for his colleague. He supported her in everything, helped work
on the role. Moreover, relatively recently in an interview
with Ellen DeGeneres, Sandra admitted that she was in love with Keanu. After a while, Ellen showed that video to
Keanu and he said that he liked Sandra too. Who knows if he said it to be polite, or it
really was, but in any case, it's impossible to deny their chemistry on the screen. Another reason why Keanu Reeves still agreed
to the role was that Jan de Bont offered him to perform some tricks on his own in the film. A fan of extreme sports, Reeves could not
refuse such an opportunity. As a result, Keanu got so excited that he
performed 90% of the stunts without the help of stuntmen. For filming, Jan de Bont made Keanu get a
short haircut. When the 20th Century Fox film company knew
about it, the production of the movie was almost postponed. The producers were simply terrified, fearing
that the audience would not recognize Reeves. Unfortunately, the filming period of “Speed”
was overshadowed for Keanu by grief for River Phoenix. It was then that the actor knew about the
tragedy. To make filming easier for Reeves, De Bont
changed the shooting schedule so that the actor could work on lighter scenes. Reeves was extremely quiet and spent all his
free time alone in his trailer. The film became a real box office hit, and
Keanu received a fee of $ 1.2 million for his work. The action movie was included in the list
of the 100 most spectacular films of the XX century. Keanu finally got on the "A-list" - a list
of actors with the highest fees. After the success of "Speed", Fox studio wanted
to shoot a sequel — but Reeves flatly refused to participate in it. This act seemed to be utter madness.However,
later Reeves' decision turned out to be correct. The sequel of 1997 failed miserably at the
box office, besides receiving the "Golden Raspberry" for the worst sequel. Meanwhile, Reeves starred in the cyberpunk
movie Johnny Mnemonic. Keanu was a fan of William Gibson - the author
of the story of the same name. The scropf of this film was written on the
basis of this story, so the actor gladly agreed to play the main role. The director of the project, Robert Longo,
was actually a famous artist. Before the Mnemonic, he shot only a couple
of clips as a hobby. But one day he had Gibson's story, and the
artist suggested the author make a film based on his work. Gibson agreed, and even volunteered to write
a script for a future movie on his own. Initially, the film was conceived as a psychological
drama, for which the authors could not find funding for a long time. In the end, they were able to negotiate with
Sony Pictures, but soon regretted it. The film was in development for a long time,
during that time Keanu Reeves was able to become a Hollywood star. Sony Pictures decided to turn a cozy art-house
black-and-white film into a summer blockbuster, seeing the success of “Speed”. Later Robert Longo admitted that the final
version turned out to be only 65% of what he wanted to do. Over the years, "Johnny Mnemonic" gained the
status of a cult work. But when the film was released, it could not
even recoup the production costs. In addition, Reeves' acting work wasn't appreciated
by everyone : in 1996, he was even nominated for the Golden Raspberry for that role. But neither that nor the box office failure
of the film had any effect on the actor's career. Keanu 's next work was a Melodrama “A Walk
in the Clouds". Now it is loved by many viewers. Paradoxically, Reeves received another nomination
for the Golden Raspberry anti-award in the category "Worst Actor" for his role in that
film. At the same time, he was nominated for the
“Most Desirable Man” at the MTV channel awards. Critics were not thrilled with the “Chain
Reaction”, released a year later. The film earned only 10 million more than
was spent on its production. It was a very disappointing result, given
the conditions in which the film had to be shot. The actors and crew had a tough time due to
the record cold winter on the Great Lakes and filming in bad weather. And guess what anti-award Keanu was nominated
for such suffering again? In the same year, the crime comedy "Feeling
Minnesota" was released. The newcomer Cameron Diaz was Reeves' partner. According to Keanu, he smoked so often on
the set of the film that he eventually became addicted to cigarettes in real life. The film, like its predecessors, was not successful. Keanu was much more lucky on the theater stage
during that period. In 1995, he played Prince Hamlet at the Manitoba
Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. The reviews for his act were excellent. According to critics, Reeves was able to make
the image of the prince fresh, lively and even spontaneous. Nevertheless, it began to seem that Keanu
Reeves did everything out of himself in the field of cinema, and it was not worth expecting
new successful films from him. However, they hurriedly wrote him off. Working on the next project was not easy for
Keanu, but the role he performed is considered one of the best in his career. Of course, we are talking about Kevin Lomax
in the cult "The Devil's Advocate” Initially, they were going to make a big epic
blockbuster out of the film, with the devil, lightning from the eyes, explosions and so
on. But all serious actors refused to participate
in such a project, including Al Pacino. The script was rewrote several times, completely
changing the concept. In the beginning, the candidates for the main
role were Brad Pitt, John Cusack and Edward Norton. But everyone refused in favor of other projects. Then the producers drew their attention to
Keanu. Reeves was incredibly pleased to have the
opportunity to work on such an interesting project. And when he found out that Al Pacino could
be his partner, he agreed to a lower fee so that the producers could pay the price requested
by the great actor. The new version of the script was really able
to please Al Pacino and, after five refusals, he still told the producers the cherished
"yes". When Al Pacino found out that Keanu had donated
part of his fee to him, he gave the same amount to charity. Malicious tongues said that Alfredo did not
like the level of Reeves' acting . Keanu said that Pacino from time to time seemed to test
his limits. He played each take in a different way as
if he wanted to understand whether his partner would be able to improvise and give his character
something new. But, according to the director, the actors
did not compete, but supported each other. Preparing for the role, the actor spent a
lot of time with various lawyers in New York. He also read many articles and excerpts about
famous lawsuits. The film, which is now considered a cult,
at first did not receive rave reviews. Critics called it more interesting than brilliant,
and the website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 63%. And yet, "The Devil's Advocate" was awarded
the Saturn Award in the category "Best Horror Film". After the release of the film, the media began
to talk about a possible romance between Keanu and Charlize Theron. The actors often appeared together, but in
fact they were just good friends. Keanu Reeves' personal life was always a well-kept
secret. For a long time, many considered him gay. They said that he had an affair with the famous
media magnate David Geffen. The rumors were not confirmed. Although the actor was earning millions, he
continued to live in hotels. He didn't see any point in buying his own
housing. Reeves spent most of his royalties on charity,
as well as helping his sisters and mother. He spent a lot of money except on motorcycles. Keanu still loved speed and risk. And, of course, he got into accidents. Old injuries almost denied him the opportunity
to participate in a new, very interesting and physically challenging project. During the preparation, Keanu felt a pain
in his neck. The tests showed a displacement of cervical
vertebrae, which could soon turn into serious health problems. He had to have an urgent operation, but fortunately,
Reeves managed to convince the producers of the project to understand his situation and
not fire him. A month after the spinal surgery, Reeves went
to prepare for filming in a fateful film. MATRIX In order to attract viewers to the film by
almost unknown directors Larry and Andy Wachowski at that time, the Warner Brothers studio was
going to take some bright star to the role of the One. Brad Pitt, Ewan McGregor, Tom Cruise, Leonardo
DiCaprio and many others were considered. But they all refused for various reasons. For example, DiCaprio was afraid that too
many special effects would kill his acting, and Nicolas Cage did not want to leave for
filming in Australia. For a long time, the main candidate was Will
Smith. But he refused the project, because at that
time he did not consider himself a mature enough actor for such a serious role. Although Will was delighted with the script,
and was sure that it would be a great project… “That's the role Keanu was born to play. When I watch the movie and I see the choices
he made, there are a hundred occasions when I think, 'I would have messed that up..” Then the choice was between Johnny Depp and
Keanu Reeves. The latter expressed the strongest interest
in the film after reading the script, and showed himself great at the auditions. "Why did I choose "Matrix"? First of all because of the script. Because of how the characters spoke, and what
they said. I liked both the dialogues and the idea as
a whole. I was just amazed.” Keanu was interested in science fiction and
philosophy and, at the request of his brothers, read Kevin Kelly's book "Out of Control",
the work of scientist Dylan Evans on evolutionary psychology and Baudrillard's collection of
essays "Simulacra and Simulation" before filming. The Wachowskis realized that, at least in
part of the script, they and Reeves were on the same page. And when the actor agreed to months of training,
the studio, along with Wachowski, realized that she had finally found her The One. The actors had to quickly learn how to fight,
somersault and almost run on walls, so those who played the main roles, before starting
work on the set, trained daily for more than five months, honing their movements in martial
arts. “We thought it would take a few weeks. We were wrong – in order to bring the movements
to automaticity and make them believable, you need to repeat them thousands of times
... it was very difficult, but also very interesting.” After prolonged persuasion, the famous Chinese
director of action films Yuen Wu-Ping commenced to teach the actors to fight. Under his guidance, the actors had to master
not only kung fu, but also the so-called wire fu. It’s some kind of kung fu, but the actors
were suspended on special cables that facilitate the execution of intricate tricks. Each actor was assigned a personal Chinese
coach, and Keanu's mentor did not even speak English. The result exceeded all expectations: no understudies,
no stuntmen, no nefarious techniques like simplifying the script were needed. Actors fight as if they know how to do it
for half their lives. In addition to the fact that the preparatory
course itself was exhausting, it was even more difficult for Keanu than for the others,
since the actor was just beginning to recover from an earlier injury. The film crew arrived in Sydney in March 1998. Everyone was in high spirits, but suddenly
a new problem appeared: Reeves was informed that his spine had not fused. The actor couldn't fight for a while, and
Wachowski had to rearrange the shooting schedule in such a way that he could first shoot simpler
scenes, and leave the fights and other action for later. One of the most difficult scenes was the one
in which Morpheus and Neo arranged a training duel. Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves rehearsed
the whole fight a month before the start of filming. And although the actors were already moving
synchronously and knew where and how to improvise, it was still very difficult to shoot the fight. Yuen Wu-Ping greatly praised Keanu Reeves'
desire to bring everything to perfection. The actor also wanted to do everything flawlessly
when shooting the previous scenes, but here his perseverance reached its peak. Because of the injury, he badly rehearsed
a triple kick and made mistakes in his movements, take after take, but he did not want to stop
shooting. As a result, it took 21 takes to film this
trick. “When I watched this self-torture, I got
goosebumps. It was very painful to follow this.” On the set, everyone was amazed at how Reeves
rushed into battle, forgetting about moral and physical fatigue. Even with a sore neck, he studied on weekends,
when the actors were supposed to rest. But the most difficult part was the scene
of the duel between Neo and Agent Smith in the subway. All its participants remember it as the most
difficult scene they have ever had to shoot in their lives. It was necessary not only to fight, but also
to actively use the support cables that helped to perform tricks. The choreography of the fights was honed as
never before, but the situation was complicated by the fact that there were no stuntmen here
– Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving did all the work themselves. It took a huge number of takes before it turned
out exactly what was needed, and as a result, the entire episode was filmed ten days longer
than planned. By the end of the work, everyone was completely
exhausted.. The sacrifices for the role did not end there. The last episode of Neo's release from the
Matrix was filmed. It’s the episode in which he wakes up for
the first time in a capsule filled with a transparent liquid. For this episode, the actor completely shaved
off his hair and eyebrows and could safely grow them after filming without delaying the
workflow. Despite the difficult shooting, the working
on the film is remembered fondly by the actors. "This is the best film I've been involved
in in my entire career. The atmosphere on the set was just amazing
– we were a nice company of best friends who enjoyed every second spent together on
the set, every common good fortune, big and small, who believed from the very beginning
that this would be a wonderful film." "The Matrix" was released on March 31, 1999
in the USA. Neither the producers, nor the actors, nor
other members of the crew had any idea that the film could turn out so good. Even Reeves, who had been filming for a long
time and knew what fame was, had no idea that it was possible to be so imbued with the film
and its characters. He was surprised that people go to the Matrix
three or ten times, while his e-mail box was overflowing with letters. “And then they tell you that people start
dressing up like the characters in the movie. Honestly, I didn't expect this.” The creators began filming the sequel two
years after the premiere. But we'll talk about this in the second part
of Keanu's biography.It depends only on you how soon the second part will be released. As soon as we get 3 thousand likes under this
video, we will immediately release the second part. And if you want to learn even more interesting
things about the Matrix, click here. What made this film a cult one, what references
did only 7 percent of the audience notice in it, and how were the cult scenes filmed? The answers to all these questions are here. Follow the link and watch. And that's it for today. It was Biographer, see you soon! Bye-bye.
