Keanu Reeves: To Strive for Perfection

It was August. It was hot. And it was the third time he had begun a shot face down in the dirt, grass and mud strategically placed on his helmet for continuity. Not exactly the glamour business most people assume that acting is, and seemingly a long way from the craft of the Shakespeare Company, the coaching of Silvana Gallardo, or the training of The Toronto School of the Arts. But this is a man of many talents, and in signing on to do The Replacements, Keanu Reeves returns to comedy, a genre in which he's not had a lead role since Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).

In the ten years between Reeves continued the work in action-adventure films he began with Point Break (1991). And although Speed (1994) brought him unprecedented success, he also tackled Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing (1993) & Hamlet (1995), romance in A Walk in the Clouds (1995) & Feeling Minnesota (1996), mythic drama in The Devil's Advocate (1997) & The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), and science fiction in Johnny Mnemonic (1995) & The Matrix (1999). Such is the range of an actor who broke out of the teenage angst films of the 80s to become, in the words of one critic, "one of the most gifted romantic leads of his generation."

The critics haven't always been as kind, but no one has questioned Reeves's willingness to take chances both physically and professionally in order to extend his talent. Reeves can ask for and receive an eight figure salary, especially following the overwhelming success of The Matrix, but he often accepts much less for a project he believes in, or one with a challenging role outside the leads he's often offered. He seems to relish roles that make him stretch, whether those challenges are physical or mental/emotional, and his tendency to push himself toward perfection has been well-noted.

Some of the physical changes - weight gained or lost (Little Buddha, TLTICS), the iron-pumped physiques of Speed & The Replacements, or the martial arts training of the Matrix - are readily apparent to audiences. Others are transparent on the screen, such as the effects of sitting for hours in the bone-chilling gel of the Matrix pods or the exhaustion of lugging around fifty pounds of weapons in the lobby sweep.

Reeves equally embraces the mental and emotional challenges as well - studying Buddhism (Little Buddha), preparing psychologically for the roles of a serial killer (Driven) or a violent wife beater (The Gift), memorizing the 1500+ lines of iambic pentameter in Hamlet - and uses the depth of his skills to make the craft of "acting" invisible - as it should be. As Roger Ebert described his work in A Walk in the Clouds: "Reeve's performance is almost transparent, and that is the highest compliment I can pay it."

After all, except for a few select genres, the audience should not be able to tell that an actor is performing. One of the "arts" of acting is that the crafting of a role should NOT show. Unlike most other professions, acting is not just skills and experiences. In an interview, Reeves pointed out that "It's finding the interior of the character that's the challenge" (Empire, 1999). "Your acting journey is a personal journey. It's a creative act, and it's a searching act. You just search for what's inside, try and set up situations where the unexpected can come out" (Interview, Premiere, 1997).

Keanu Reeves's personal journey began in Beirut, Lebanon, which, in the late 50s and early 60s was a gleaming seaside resort and the perfect place for a lovely, English-born dancer and costume designer to find work. There Reeves's mother, Patric, met Hawaiian-Chinese geologist Samuel Reeves, and their only son was born September 2, 1964. The new family later moved to Australia, where daughter Kim was born in 1966. When her marriage ended, Patric took her children to New York City, where she continued her costume design work. In 1970, she married theatrical director Paul Aaron, and the family moved to Toronto.

While growing up in Toronto, Reeves had one great passion - hockey - and he played goalie on his high school team. But another passion was beginning to develop, and around the age of fifteen, he decided to become an actor. He auditioned for the High School for the Performing Arts, and was one of 25 admitted, but he left before graduation and moved his study of acting to Leah Posluns community theater. He began doing a series of commercials, appearances on Canadian TV series, and low budget pictures, and, in 1984, he was cast in Wolfboy, which became a cult hit.

Then came the role that changed everything - his energy, his focus, his drive for his craft. He was cast as Mercutio in a Leah Posluns production of Romeo and Juliet. Witty and whimsical, impulsive and satirical, passionate and loyal, angry and sad, Mercutio is the one character who pushes for the truth in Romeo's life, standing by his friend, even to the death. The role cut to the heart of the young actor, pushing him to do more, learn more. So in 1986, he moved to California, staying at first with his former stepfather, Paul Aaron, who had relocated to LA.

What followed was a series of well-received, teen-oriented films, two of which, River's Edge and Permanent Record, received high praise for their stories as well as the talent of Keanu Reeves. The "teen films" culminated with the release of the highly successful Bill & Ted series. But Reeves, always pushing himself harder, sought the more adult roles, taking on an FBI agent in Point Break and a writer in love in Tune in Tomorrow. No one was surprised when he took the risk of playing Scott Favor in Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho. Based on Prince Hal of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Scott was a role that explored cruelty and love, ambition and devotion. It was one of several roles that fall outside the norm of Hollywood "high concept" and that challenge actor, director, and audience as well.

In many ways, then, Reeves's success of last summer, The Matrix, brings him full circle. The mythic themes of the epic storyline, requiring a higher level of intellectual understanding from both audience and cast, were combined with a ground-breaking series of special effects and action sequences that were demanding on performers and crew. In essence, as Reeves states: "The Matrix is about one's relationship to what is truth, what is reality, the subject, the objective, simulacra, what is simulated. The quest for truth and the quest for compassion in it as well. It's fighting for the individual, individuality against systems, against control" (Interview, Hong Kong, 1999).

A new way to push. To extend. To turn craft into art. And, to Mr. Reeves, "Art is about trying to find the good in people and making the world a more compassionate place."

Perfection, indeed.

Additional Sources: The Toronto Star, Maclean's magazine, and the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). Special thanks to "Chrys" and "Jayde," for supplying some missing articles for my research.