Handsome and nice

(Translated from Brazilian, translation edited by Anakin McFly)

The hunk Keanu Reeves showed his generous side by distributing money and motorcycles to his "poorer" colleagues from Matrix Reloaded.

by Karen Wells

Keanu Reeves, 38, is a mystery in Hollywood, even with more than 40 movies and 3 phenomenal box office hits - Speed (1994), Matrix (1999) and now Matrix Reloaded. There is much speculation around the fact that he's not seen with girls, and even over his IQ. One thing we know for sure is that Keanu has a rock band (formerly Dogstar, now Becky), loves to ride bikes and lives from hotel to hotel. Last year, on the Australian set of Matrix Reloaded, he gave a Harley Davidson to every one of the 12 stuntmen who got hurt so that he would look good on screen. And he did more than that: he gave part of his US$90 million profit to the technical crew, including his part in the box office takings - US$230 million just in the US. Despite his shy and robotic ways that make him look tense (and add a lot to his charms), Keanu was good-humored when talking to CAPRICHO.

You wear amazing clothes in this movie: the cassock and the leather boots, the sunglasses. What do you wear in your daily routine?
I wouldn't wear that cassock unless I was going to a costume party (laughs). I'm not very attracted to sunglasses as well.

How did it feel to shoot the sex scene with Carrie-Anne Moss?
These scenes are very uncomfortable because you're naked in front of a lot of people. But Carrie-Anne and I looked for information about what the scene would be like and what the directors wanted from us. Then we demanded that it be in a pleasant place. I trust Carrie-Anne a lot and everything turned out being pleasant, even more so because it was a complicated scene. Neo had to show Trinity that he shared that love, but was very afraid of that relationship.

Were you totally naked?
It wasn't like Adam and Eve. I used a tapa-sexo and so did she.

In the movie, you have an intimate scene with Monica Belucci. She said you kiss really well.
She kisses fantastically too. In the movie 'Dracula' we also did a lot of kiss scenes.

She said that she kisses you in every movie.
Yeah, and I can't wait to work with her again. (laughs)

When making his choice in the movie, Neo chooses love above destiny.
I think Neo rejects the idea of destiny. He believes that he's investigating his life. And he makes personal choices, privileging love.

Would you choose love either?
If it was reciprocal, of course I'd choose love.

Is it true that you gave away part of your profit to help the movie production team?
I gave part of my salary to create a fund, which will be divided among the people that generally have no part in the movie profit.

And why did you do this?
Because I wanted to.

Jada Pinkett Smith, Matrix Reloaded's Niobe, said that during the shootings, you got 12 Harley Davidsons and you gave them as gifts.
It's true. To shoot the scene where Neo fights multiple Agents Smith, it was three weeks of daily work and 12 stuntmen. In one moment in that sequence, I'm grabbed by an agent; I flip backwards, grasp their heads and bang them against each other. Just to make that, the stuntmen had to throw themselves to the ground 21 times. I wanted to find a better way to say "Thanks" to the guys that helped me to create the most amazing fight scenes in the movies. I gave each one a motorcycle.

Laurence Fishburne, who plays Morpheus, said that he didn't like to see your fight scenes being shot, because you demand too much from yourself.
But that's my job. I had to do what the Wachowski brothers (the directors) asked for. There's such a strong energy in those movies, that you have to believe in what you're doing and go deep in it. If I do something that isn't good, I get unsatisfied for days. Then, I'd rather be tough on myself anyway.

Did you, in any moment close to the end of the shoot, think of something along the lines of, "Enough, I don't want to do these fight scenes anymore"?
No, 'cause that isn't my way. I did what had to be done. As soon as I gave my last punch in the movie, I thought "We made it, I hope we got it all right."

And that was the moment to get a whiskey bottle and celebrate?
I had a Scotch bottle in my trailer. How did you know that? I had a glass every Friday evening, to relax.

Did you know how to fight before doing this movie?
No, I didn't grow up in a violent environment or something like that. I had high school fights, when the boys called us to kick some ass after the classes. But I was never challenged.

Someone said that you're addicted to literature. What are you reading now?
No, no, I like reading a lot, but I'm not addicted to literature. I read now and then, but I can't go around teaching 20th century comparative literature.

You're also into music and you have a band. Any tour in sight?
When I finished shooting the two last Matrixs, we performed in Japan and Bangkok. But now we're on vacation.

What did you learn from Neo and what did Neo learn from you?
That's like asking what I learned with my mother and what she learned from me (laughs). Neo is a very beautiful man. His ethics, his moral, his search for authentic life and the way he relates to people and to himself are things that I admire in him.

Myths and Truths

by Marcelo Bernardes

All the truth about the rumors surrounding Keanu Reeves, which in a Hawaiian dialect means "cool breeze over the mountains"

Name and nationality
Keanu Charles Reeves was born on September 2nd, 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon, where his father (who has a Chinese-Hawaiian background) worked as a geologist. When they moved to Australia, Keanu got a sister, Kim. The couple would divorce soon, and Keanu and his sister were taken by their mother, Patricia, to New York. Their mother would soon marry Paul Aaron, a filmmaker. After moving to Toronto, Canada, Patricia would face another divorce and one more marriage - with the rock concert producer Robert Miller, with whom she had another daughter, Karina, born in 1976. Keanu's father moved to Hawaii and, in 1994, he was arrested for 10 years for carrying cocaine. Forgiven, he only needed to go to jail for 2 years. In 1986, Keanu, who is a Canadian citizen, moved to California in order to start his artistic career.

Modern nomad
Going against the trend of most Hollywood stars, Keanu doesn't have an address. He keeps an apartment in New York (which he never uses) and has a room to "land" in in his sister Kim's house in Los Angeles. Keanu's life has been that of a modern nomad, living in hotels and motel rooms. His favorite hotel is the legendary "Chateau Marmont" in Los Angeles, where Leonardo DiCaprio also likes to spend some time. "I would love to have an all-set house, with my stuff in its places, but that hasn't happened yet."

Scars
Keanu has lots all over his body, and has already shown a huge one on the right side of his belly, in a photo shoot for the magazine Vanity Fair. The scar was the result of a bad motorcycle accident in 1987, in which the actor lost a spleen (What is a spleen for?).

Being or not being gay
In 1995, a strong gay rumor emerged in the actor's life. According to tabloid "sources", he had married the millionaire music producer David Geffen, one of Steven Spielberg's partners in the movie studio "DreamWords SKG". To put an end to the rumors, Keanu agreed to appear in the cover of the gay magazine "Out", in which was revealed that Geffen had a very close personal assistant who looked like the actor, and that that would be, really, the producer's so-called boyfriend. Keanu's declarations about being gay are always ambiguous. To the Vanity Fair magazine, he said "There's nothing wrong about being gay, so to deny it is to make a judgement." In 1990, to Interview magazine, he said he was straight and, after a brief pause, he added "but you never know..."

The myth that Keanu could be gay was, as other ones, started with the movies. Movies like River's Edge, in 1986 (What. Matt was not gay at all. He has a freakin' girlfriend and makes out with her in the film. - Ani), and My Own Private Idaho, in 1991, he plays a homosexual role, and they helped to keep the myth going. "There's something really closed about his personality", says the actress Monica Belucci, who just shot scenes with him in Matrix Reloaded. "He's very shy. You want to know more about him, but he doesn't let anyone get close to him as a person."

The girlfriends
Since the beginning of his career, the actor has refused to comment on facts regarding his private life. But it's hard for him to deny that his most important relationship was with Jennifer Syme, David Lynch's assistant. The romance was publicly announced by Keanu's assessors in August 1999 because Jennifer was pregnant. But the baby girl, to be named Ava Archer, died inside her mother's uterus, victim of a clot in the umbilical cord. The relationship between Jennifer and Keanu would chill out, but they remained good friends. In April 2001, Jennifer died in a car crash. Four days later, a very upset Keanu left a small chapel, helping to carry his ex-girlfriend's coffin to be buried in the Westwood Cemetery, in Los Angeles, beside their daughter.

Before Jennifer, Keanu had a swift involvement with the British actress and TV host Amanda de Cadenet. In March, at one of the post-Oscar parties, Keanu was seen with the actress Claire Forlani, who co-starred with Brad Pitt in "Meet Joe Black". According to the "US" Magazine, Claire was with Keanu at the famous "Viper's Room", in Los Angeles, when the actor played with his new band, Becky, last May 5th.