090630 - KEANU'S SHAKESPEARE LOVE
Anakin McFly: Yep, Keanu does Shakespeare. He's been obsessed with Shakespeare since his teenage years, and that's where he first got noticed as an actor. After entering Hollywood he got a reputation for reciting Shakespeare to himself to calm himself down or psych himself up - for example on the set of Speed, or when just walking down the street, or during interviews in answers to questions.
He also played Hamlet in 1995, and The Sunday Times' theatre critic Roger Lewis declared him one of the three best Hamlet's he had ever seen, noting that Keanu's performance on the last night was far better than on the first (when most reviewers and critics had seen him) due to a decrease in stage fright.