Reeves has acted onstage. His performance in the title role for the Manitoba Theatre Centre's production of Hamlet was praised by Roger Lewis of The Sunday Times, who declared Reeves "one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet."[3][4] On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Reeves worked with illustrator Alexandra Grant to author a book, Ode to Happiness. He has also produced a documentary, Side by Side; and directed the film Man of Tai Chi. In 2014, he starred in the title role of the action movie John Wick
Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Bond (née Taylor), a costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr.[5] His mother is English while his father, who is a Hawaiian-born American, has Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry.[6][7][8][9][10] Reeves has said: "My grandmother is Chinese and Hawaiian, so I was around Chinese art, furniture and cuisine when I was growing up".[11]
Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves's father earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin at Hilo International Airport.[12] 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.[13]
Reeves moved around the world frequently as a child and he lived with various stepfathers. After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother became a costume designer and moved the family to Sydney, Australia[14] and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The couple moved to Toronto and divorced in 1971. Reeves's mother married Robert Miller, a rock promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, a hairdresser named Jack Bond. The couple's marriage ended in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters, and Reeves grew up primarily in Toronto. Within five years, he attended four high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves stated he was expelled because "I was just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often. I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school."[15]
Reeves excelled more in hockey than in academics, as his educational development was challenged by dyslexia. He was a successful goalie at one of his high schools (De La Salle College "Oaklands"), and earned the nickname "The Wall". Reeves dreamed of playing hockey for Canada but an injury ended his hopes for a hockey career. 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.[16]
In January 2011, on the BBC program The One Show, Reeves spoke of his English ancestry via his mother, mentioning his happy watching of The Two Ronnies comedy show, among others, when younger, and how his mother imparted English manners that he still has today.[17]
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 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[18] 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.[19]
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 ex-stepfather Paul Aaron, a stage and television director, 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.[citation needed]
After a few minor roles, Reeves received a sizable 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.[citation needed]
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, but his performance was received negatively.
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.[20] 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."[21]
However, Reeves's 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.[22] The Devil's Advocate did well at the box office and garnered good reviews.
Reeves promoting The Day the Earth Stood Still in Mexico in 2008.
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.[22]
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.[23]
Reeves leaving the press conference for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Berlinale 2009
His appearance in A Scanner Darkly (2006), based on the dystopian science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, received favorable reviews, and The Lake House, his romantic outing with Sandra Bullock, was a success at the box office.[24] He went on to play the lead character in two 2008 films, Street Kings and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In February 2009 The Private Life of Pippa Lee was presented at Berlinale.[25]
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 acted as the leading role in 47 Ronin.[26]
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 complimented by Alexandra Grant's illustrations.[27][28] 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.[citation needed]
Reeves′s first directorial film, Man of Tai Chi, premiered in 2013 with showings at the Beijing Film Festival[29] and Cannes Film Festival.[30] The work was awarded in Beijing and praised by recognized director of action genre films, John Woo. Reeves's most recent film, John Wick, directed by actor/stuntman David Leitch, opened in October 2014, to positive reviews.[26]
n January 2009, it was announced that Reeves would star in the live-action film adaptation of the anime series Cowboy Bebop,[31][32] initially slated for release in 2011. Due to 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 installment of the Bill & Ted series was possible.[33] 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 & 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."[34]
Personal life
Reeves' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Reeves is entitled to British citizenship through his English mother. He holds Canadian citizenship by naturalization. He grew up as a Canadian and identifies as such, and holds an American green card.[35]
During his initial rise to stardom, Reeves preferred to live in rental houses and hotels. He was a long-term resident of the Chateau Marmont. Around 2003, he bought his first house in the Hollywood Hills. He has since purchased an apartment in Manhattan on Central Park West.[35]
Reeves is a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.[36]
Reeves gained internet notoriety in 2010. Photos of him, seemingly depressed while eating alone, were posted to a 4chan forum. The images were soon distributed via several blogs and news sites. These pictures led to the "Keanu is Sad" or "Sad Keanu" meme being spread on internet forums. An unofficial holiday was created when a Facebook fan page declared June 15 as "Cheer-up Keanu Day".[48][49]
On the first anniversary of "Cheer-up Keanu Day", Reeves was interviewed for an article in British newspaper, The Guardian. When prompted about the unsolicited attention, he responded, "It is hopefully, in a quiet and enjoyable way, transformative. The kind of thing that takes you from this one place to another – to look at yourself and, y'know, it can always be worse. I hate that sentence: of course it can always be worse!" [50]
Stalker intrusions
On September 12, 2014, Reeves awoke when he heard someone in his home. He found a female stalker in his library. She said that she was there to meet him. While he calmly talked to her, he called 911 and alerted the police. They arrived, arrested her and took her in for psychological evaluation. On September 15, 2014, a second female stalker made her way into his home through a gate that was left unlocked by a cleaning company. This time, the intruder undressed and took a shower in Reeve's bathroom and then proceeded to swim naked in his swimming pool. The cleaning crew became suspicious and alerted Reeves who was not at home. He then notified the police who arrived to arrest the stalker. Both incidents occurred at his Hollywood Hills home.[51][52].
No comments:
Post a Comment