Keanu Reeves Calls REUNITING w/ Alex Winter On Broadway 'Bill & Ted On Steroids'

Tiana, you made the first move for this, I understand. Yes. You made an ungodly hour FaceTime of sorts. What did it take? Ungodly for you, maybe. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't so bad for me. It was London, you were in L.A. Yeah. I was a little jet lagged, and then the muse called. It did. What did you think when his name popped up on your phone at that hour? Well, we talked pretty regularly, but his face jammed into a webcam, saying, you, me, Gato, that was the thing. You know, look, it was exciting. We love theater, we have similar taste in theater and literature, and we like acting together. It's a play about two old friends, two old friends who have performed together, so there's stuff there that I knew we could work with, but it was a big challenge. We knew we were diving into something that would take a lot of work. So did it take much convincing for him, or was it pretty easy to get him on board? Yeah, it was quick. The muse struck you, too. And then it struck Jamie just as quickly. Jamie Lloyd, the director. It went to Jamie Lloyd right away. I mean, this was three years and change ago, and the three of us were kind of in the trenches quickly. Wow, wow, three years in the making, and Keanu, you said coming to Broadway was a childhood dream for you? For sure, yeah. So what do you think a young Keanu would think of you getting this opportunity and doing this now? He'd be really happy for me, and he'd be like, oh, that's cool. That means I might get to do that, too. I think young Keanu is getting to do this. Yeah, I think so, too. Yeah, definitely young Alex. Inner kids in these characters get to do a lot. It's safe to say there's no stunt work. You're gonna leave that part of your career to decide for right now. Well, I don't do stunts, but there's a lot of action in this play, and I mean, I don't wanna misguide anyone, but it's a very physical. It is, yeah. And it has the cooperation, collaboration, and the fun, and the thing, but it's a physical. I mean, you've been training for months. Yeah. I have a dream, I have a dream. It's physical, yeah. You have to be ready for eight shows a week. And this is not your first run with Broadway. No. So how does it feel to return? It's exciting. I love theater. I came up doing a lot of theater, but to be able to do Beckett, to be able to work with Keanu on a stage, to sort of go out and just live with the audience and come in with Brandon and Michael, and that's incredibly exciting. Yeah. And you said that working with Keanu was like being in a band together. I'm curious, what would this band name be for you guys? The band is called Wild Stallions, if you weren't aware. It does exist, and been going for quite some time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when you guys first met, obviously you've known each other for quite some time now. I pulled this old photo of you guys circa 1991. Yeah. If you guys wanna take a look. That's the Vogus premiere, I think. Is it? I think so. We got dressed up. Yeah. I bought that in Bangkok. I remember buying that piece of, yeah. Nice. Yep. We look like we're having fun. Yeah, that was a fun night. Right on. Yeah. What were your first impressions when you guys first started working together? Well, we auditioned on Bill & Ted 1, and I remember being in the waiting room, and I had my motorcycle helmet, and he walks in, and he's got his motorcycle helmet. We started talking bikes, then we started talking bass guitar, then we started talking theater, then we started talking literature, and then I didn't see him again for a while, because the audition process took so long. It was months later, we got sort of thrown back together and thrown back together. I remember once, we were waiting so long, talking about waiting, waiting, waiting, that we were like, wanna go for a ride? And we literally took off on our bikes, went for a ride, and then came back and did whatever auditioning we were supposed to be doing. It was kind of an affinity. When you meet a friend, a friend is a friend, whatever your industry is. It was sort of like that vibe, I guess, that then became useful to us when we did Bill & Ted. And we just sort of fell into this thing. Yeah. You met in the industry, but you've maintained this friendship outside of that for so many years. What's the key to keeping a friendship like this? Monthly dinners? I don't really think about that. It just kind of, I mean, I don't know. I think it's trust, I'd say, is probably, if I had to choose a single word, sort of like a loose trust, though, like you just kind of know the person knows you, and you know them, and you kind of, you go through so many things in life, you know, permutations, and good times, and bad times, and ins and outs. That sort of loose trust of like you're okay with that person wherever you are. They kind of meet you where you are, I guess, I'd say. And there's a lot of themes in Waiting on Godot. You've got absurdity, there's comfort, and companionship in a world where time is uncertain. So how do you guys relate to this show at all? I mean, we have some age on us now, and I think that perspective, the age gives you a whole other perspective of time. I feel like my 25-year-old perspective of time, and our living perspective of time now is so different, the past, the future, what happened, what have we done, what are we doing, what is time? I mean, all of that is. What have we gained, what have we lost, who have we lost? What do we fear losing? Like, just where you are in your life at this point in your life. You know, we're both 60, and the characters are basically around that age, and so it's kind of written for, you can really relate to so much of what the characters are going through. And this is, like I said, a new format that you guys are working together on on Broadway as opposed to on screen. What did you guys learn about each other? Anything new that you've learned about each other throughout this process? Well, we're nine days into rehearsal, and as you said, we've been going through the year, so what is that new, new, new, new, new? Something that's abstract, I would say. Abstract new. You know, there is abstract. There are times when we're just like, because we're performing, we've played music together, like we've done different types of performance together that isn't Bill and Ted. But there's like, the text is so rich, and it gets at so much in terms of intimacy, vulnerability, fear, hopes, lack of hope. But there will be some times where we're just kind of in the trenches together, and I just, it's almost like a completely different way into you. Like, it's like, oh. You know, and you kind of roll with it because it's part of performance, but it'd be hard for me to concretize what that is. It's almost like when you're playing music and you're like, you just hit on something. But that's very new. That's not something we're normally doing or have done doing Bill and Ted. New and exciting. It's like Bill and Ted on steroids. It really is, yeah. Other, yeah. Like cracked all the way open. Super turbo something, intensity, kind of like the work that we would do on the floor in rehearsal for Bill and Ted as artists. Right, yeah. This is even more concentrated and more, more. Yeah, more in depth, more vulnerable, more everything. Okay, my last question for you. Waiting for Godot, obviously you said before your director is Jamie Lloyd, who also directed Sunset Boulevard, Evita. I don't know if you've seen, it's gone, those two shows have gone viral from Jamie Lloyd for at the end of the play, at the end of the show, the male lead comes out and takes their bow in their boxers. Have either of you decided if you might take on that tradition or are we leaving that behind? Well, we don't, this show, we don't have any clothes on at all, so. Don't tell me. Oh, sorry, Jamie. It's like a, that's a thing. Tickets are gonna help. Giving away, giving away. I mean, you can't help it. It's just, you just wanna bare your soul. Everywhere, all the time, all you wanna do is just bare your soul. He was the first one to practice the bow with the boxers. Yeah, and then without the boxers. And then, yeah. Now you're really gonna sell the tickets. Yeah. Talk about promoting a show. Yeah. Well, thank you guys so much. Thank you. I think that was all our time, but so fun to talk to you guys. Congratulations, I can't wait to see it. Thank you so much.