Kicking it with Keanu
Profiled!
"I don't cry much in real life. But I kind of like to suffer," says rad dude Keanu Reeves. "People don't respect artists who don't suffer." Pay him a little respect on the next page.
What's KEANU REEVES all about? In a word, kinetic: Made of movement, on the move, moving up fast. No matter which way you cut it, this kid's kinetic! Keanu can't seem to sit still, and his career is cruising too, at top speed by now.
Watch him work and you know at once there's a quirky spirit moving around in that fine physique with the handsome face. Call it loco-motion, maybe, because from awkward adolescent and troubled teen to goofy and gawky, happy-go-lucky nowhere man, this guy's 15 feature-film roles have run the gamut of unconventional characters. Unconventional but always interesting. Keanu's won more than a few hearts playing the good-intentioned innocent -- and almost always with a very scruffy sense of style! In fact, the closest he's gotten to clean cut lately, onscreen anyway. was his role as a young undercover FBI man in Point Break and a few scenes in the recent My Own Private Idaho.
But no matter what he's wearing or how messed up his hair is, Keanu seems to appeal unconditionally to audiences -- and has ever since his very first acting venture, a high school production of The Crucible. One night during that play, as Keanu delivered the line, "What am l?" a girl in the audience, who happened to be sitting near Keanu's mom, responded under her breath. "A hunk." Who wouldn't agree?
The combination of good looks and talent seem to have blessed this boy with plenty of attention, but he likes to keep things low key. He frequents non-flashy Hollywood clubs, plays bass guitar and is into reading good books -- one of his favorite authors is sci-fi genius Philip K. Dick. And though he's been known as a motorcycle maniac, he's toned it down considerably since a couple of dangerous liaisons with near-death. The long, gnarly scar that crosses his chest is a reminder of his first serious bike accident (he says he "ran into a mountain" and then discovered he'd won the Dangerous Liaisons role while in the hospital recuperating from that one). And he has scars on his calf from another.
All in a day's play? Maybe so, but at 27 Keanu's doing a little less time spinning his Harley wheels and is getting his action from acting -- obviously with plenty of potential for ongoing success. If anything's for certain at this point, it's that the kinetic Keanu Reeves can't be stopped. He's kick- started his career and revved it into major motion. Currently going full steam ahead, it's apparent that this bodacious dude is in the midst of one very excellent actor's adventure!
Additional Data Bank
Keanu was born September 2, 1964,in Beirut, Lebanon.
- He got his unusual first name from his father, who's Hawaiian/Chinese.
- As a kid growing up in Toronto, Ontario, Keanu and his friends were into building go carts. Their specialty? A design called the Fireball 500.
- Though he didn't do all that well in high school, Keanu was such a hot goalie on his school's soccer team that he was nicknamed The
- Wall and voted most valuable player.
- In Toronto, a group of avid fans have invented a dance called the Keanu Stomp. It's based on the way he walked in the film The Prince of Pennsylvania.
- Keanu's first big paycheck came from a Coca-Cola commercial at age 16.
- Keanu's musical tastes run from the non-mainstream sounds of Hüsker Dü, the Pixies and the Ramones to his favorite music -- the blues.
- Keanu's said that someday he'd like to get married and have three kids.