Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen & Aziz Ansari Have an Epic Conversation

I saw Speed in a drive-in movie theater. Whoa, that's pretty cool. In Albany, New York. Was the car moving the entire time? Yeah, we're like, whoa. I'm Aziz Ansari. This is Seth Rogen, Keanu Reeves. We're here at our press junket day for the film Good Fortune. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for coming. Thanks for watching this content. Keanu, my first exposure to you, it sounds weird in that context. It does sound weird. It sounds like I'm being exposed to COVID-19. My first exposure to Keanu, we're basically the same age. I was born in 1982, yeah. Yeah, and I'm 83. For me, I remember Bill and Ted. Oh, I remember very much. My big Keanu thing was Speed, though, because I had the Speed VHS. I was in so much earlier than you, with all due respect. I was really into Bill and Ted. I was in South Carolina, so Bill and Ted maybe just didn't make it down there. I remember kids on the playground standing in circles and screaming, excellent. And that was, to me, maybe one of the first cultural times I saw a movie affecting my direct culture in my friend groups. And it was like, oh, this is a big thing. And it was awesome. And then I stayed. I saw Speed at a birthday party. What year did Speed come out? I have no idea. Maybe 91 or something like that? Yeah. So my friend's ninth birthday party, we all went and saw Speed in the theater together. And it was amazing. It was OK? Oh, it was incredible. Are you kidding? Blew our minds. I saw Speed in a drive-in movie theater. Whoa, that's pretty cool. In Albany, New York. Was the car moving the entire time? Yeah, we were like, whoa. I think it's the only time I've ever been to a drive-in. It was a doubleheader. True Lies. What? True Lies finish. Whoa. And then Speed, I didn't know what Speed was about. I thought it was about, like, drugs, like the drug Speed. And I thought it was going to be awkward, because I was with my aunt and uncle. And I was like, this is going to be this weird drug movie. But then Speed started, and I was like, holy ----. Because it's such a good, like, one of the best. Was Point Break after Speed? Point Break is first. Yeah, no, yeah, I was also big on Point Break. That was a big movie in my household, because Patrick Swayze. No, like, because of Dirty Dancing was a huge movie in my household. And so anything Patrick Swayze did. And my parents loved action movies. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I watched, like, more action movies as a kid than, like, I used to always watch Terminator 2. That was, like, my favorite. I was a big Arnold guy as a kid. Can we tell a story when we saw James Cameron? Yeah, we saw James Cameron and Catherine Bigelow together having dinner. Wait, we got to frame this. We were sitting in this hotel lobby. And then we were like, can we go outside and sit outside? They're like, sure. And we went out there. And there was only two people sitting there. It was a small outdoor area, like, smaller than this space room right now, pretty narrow. Maybe held eight people total. And we go back there, and there was like, oh, OK, we can have this conversation. We were talking about work stuff. And we're like, oh, there's nobody back there. And then I walk out there, and I'm like, there's two people that look like James Cameron and Catherine Bigelow. Yeah, sitting literally, like, three feet behind us, to the point that we couldn't even be like, holy ----. Instead, we were, like, texting each other, literally. We're just, like, smiling at each other, like, having drinks and being like, is that James Cameron and Catherine Bigelow? Holy ****, I think it is James Cameron and Catherine Bigelow. And you were like, go talk to them. And I was like, **** you. You go talk to them. I'm like, what am I going to say to them? We're like, we got to say something. We're such big fans. Yeah, we did have to. Yes, it seemed almost impossible not to say something. But then, James Cameron came over and said hi to us, and was very nice, and was totally geeking out as, like, a young Aziz. Like, oh! He allowed us to geek out on him. And I was like, Terminator 2! As Catherine Bigelow stood, like, 15 feet away, kind of standoffishly, being like, I don't want to talk to these guys. No, she's kind of shy. She seemed shy. Seemed a little shy. But we told her that we'd done good. We had just worked with you. Oh, yeah? That was our in. James Cameron, I said something about Terminator 2, and he's like, first 10 pages. Wrote them on ecstasy in two days. I was like, is it true you wrote the Terminator 2 script in six weeks? Because that's, like, one of my favorite factoids. Maybe or maybe not, while on ecstasy. He had a vision. He knew how to get there. What was your first exposure to Mr. Rogan here? I'm trying to think the first thing. I mean, maybe. I was just always there. Would it have been 40-year-old Virgin, I think? Probably. I think I eventually got into Freaks and Geeks from Netflix, like DVDs and stuff. And obviously loved that as well. And then we worked together pretty early on. We did work together. In 2007 or something. What was it? The Observing Report. I wonder how that's aged. I wonder how I work in that film. I don't know. At this point, it might have actually come back around to be completely acceptable again. There's a whole group of people that are really into it for the wrong reasons. Exactly. Yeah. It's like the Punisher. But I remember whenever I first saw your stuff, and you were doing so many things. Like you were in 40-year-old Virgin. You were writing Superbad. And I remember looking up how old you were. And you were like a year older than me. And I was like, this is a mistake on IMDB. This guy cannot be. This guy looks way older than me. No, he cannot be this successful at doing all this stuff. And I'm still like trucking away, doing whatever I was doing, open mics or whatever. I was like, wow, this is incredible. This guy's done all this stuff. But then we worked together soon after that. And have always been a kind friend. What was your exposure to Aziz? First day of set. Exactly. Day three of shooting. Is this movie? We got a director. When you came over to me, you were like, who is this guy? I would say it was probably Parks and Recreation. Yeah. A good one. Yeah. And then going into seeing stand-up stuff. Yeah. And what about, what was your exposure to Seth? Wasn't there like a, I don't know the order. Super bad? Yeah, maybe super bad. Yeah, that was early. But when's that, like 2000? 2007, I think. So I got to Seth Rogen late then. Because when was Freaks and Geeks? 1999. Wow. Right. There was like four years of unemployment in there. So you weren't missing much. I caught all that stuff on DVD afterwards. Yeah, yeah. Everyone did. That's why it was canceled. What's funny is that Freaks and Geeks was canceled really fast. And there's like 17 episodes of it. Is it an hour-long show? Yeah, and at the time there was Cutting Edge. I know my goddaughter was just like, you should watch Freaks and Geeks. Oh, it's really good. It holds up, I think. People still like it. Yeah, I think it's incredible. Isn't there a big kind of like comedic writer, actor tree that comes out of Freaks and Geeks? Yeah, a lot of Jake Kasdan was direct to the pilot of Freaks and Geeks. Bill Pope shot the pilot of Freaks and Geeks. And The Matrix came out the day Freaks and Geeks wrapped. Wow. Really? And so, to me, they're inextricably linked to one another. And the whole time we were shooting Freaks and Geeks, Bill Pope was the DP, and the whole marketing campaign was everywhere. And the whole thing was, what is The Matrix? What is The Matrix? And we'd always come into work and be like, Bill, what is The Matrix? And he'd be like, I'm not gonna tell you. But I remember one day he's like, I'll just tell you this, the scene where you see what it is is like one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a movie. And I was like, you see what it is? Like, what? Even that blew my mind. And then the day the show wrapped, me and Jason Segel drove to a movie theater in the valley, smoked weed out of a glass bong in his car for like 45 minutes, and then went and saw The Matrix, and it was a mind-blowing experience. And then a few weeks later, I went to Vancouver and did a ton of shrooms and saw The Matrix again, and it was an even more mind-blowing experience. But the scene where your mouth, I was with my friend, the scene where your mouth ran away, I was with my friend, and he got up and ran out of the theater. He was just like, **** this, I can't deal with this. We might need to give the home audience a minute, because I'm sure they're all in shock that you got high before you saw The Matrix. They probably just need a minute. The fact that we took a glass bong with us. A glass bong. We were really going for it. We knew it was going to be a big thing. Aficionado. Yes, exactly. Aziz, what was it like working with Keanu? It was an incredible experience, and you know, I was very, you know, we were talking about The Matrix, and I was just, you know, Keanu's such an icon, and these movies mean so much to me. I remember when I first sent the script to you, I was like, whoa, could you imagine, like, you get a script, and you're like, okay, Seth, we want you to be in this movie, we want you to play Neo, and you're reading the script, there's all this stuff, and then you get to the last page, and it's like, music. Rage against the machine. Wake up. I fly away. Fly into the screen. The end. Holy ----, I'm in. And now you're reading my lighthearted comedy. You're like, do I fly into the sky? Bro, you gave me wings. You gave me wings. You are him, you gotta make him fly. Yes, but your script shared an ambition. And it has a vision. Good fortune. A comedy. And. It's a comedy and. Yeah. And it has a lot of heart. It really does. Speak to that. You wanna speak to it first? I mean, you wrote it, you speak to it first. Well, I think, look, when I look at, you know, your films, they're very funny, but you do care about the characters. Yes. And it's so important, and there is heart to it. When we started making comedies, that was sort of a revolutionary idea in some ways, I think, because we were really coming off the heels, and these are some of my favorite movies, of like, Dumb and Dumber, and Something About Mary, and these movies, like, that were big and funny, but like, not really making any attempt to like, actually connect with you on like, an emotional level. Yeah. Or have any like, reality to them, in a lot of ways. When it got to that scene where, you know, the character's like, emotionally connected, which all these movies have, just in those scenes, they're really silly. And we were like, oh, what if the tone is like, such that by the time you get there, those scenes aren't silly, and they sort of feel like real scenes, and actually people talking to one another. Yeah. And that's all based on Judd, and Freaks and Geeks, and Jim Brooks, and like. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking of Broadcast News when I said that, yeah. I mean, there's sort of like, waves of tone, I think, but like. How much did you guys collaborate, or what was the discussions between the two of you? Like, was it before the script was written? Was it post? Was it like, what was the? I think it was an idea you actually told me like, years, and years, and years, and years, and years ago. Like, 15 years ago. Well, we had this idea of, I don't think it was an angel, but it was like, a guy being like, I'm gonna show you this lesson, and then the guy being like, no, I. You essentially pitched us the movie, Mr. Destiny. Yes. I remember, which is a Jim Belushi movie. I remember you hadn't heard of that movie. And then Evan afterwards was like, this is Mr. Destiny. Yes, and as you were pitching it to us, we're like, this is great. It's also the movie, Mr. Destiny, which is a good movie. It was just that core idea of like, a character like Gabriel saying, I don't even think it was an angel. It was just like a guy saying like. Yeah, it was like a guy. It was a Destiny Man. The movie was called Destiny Man. And you were gonna be the Destiny Man, and like, I was a guy who like, could have been in on like, Instagram, and I like, said, no, I'm gonna do this internship. And my whole life, I feel like, if I'd just been part of this. It was like sliding doors, kind of. It was more like a sliding doors. And you were the Destiny Man. Which is what Mr. Destiny is about. I started writing this movie about like, these two guys. Like, the idea of these two guys. One guy that's been like, screwed by the last 20 years, works two to three jobs, burdened by student debt, sleeping in his car, and then there's the other guy who's just like, blessed by the last 20 years, living in a giant house, made all his money, blah, blah, blah, blah. What happens when their worlds collide? But I had like, a rough draft, and we were working on another film, called Being Mortal, that got shut down, and was this whole thing, and the day that like, broke in the news, everyone's texting me, Aziz, so sorry. I was like, I can't be in this place. And then you went into like, a manic frenzy, and wrote the script very fast. No, I had it written, and I said it to you, because you were supposed to work that day, and I said, hey, you know this is a bad day for me, if you want to help me. Instead of working, read this. Read this, no, you were supposed to work, we were supposed to shoot, so I was like, I know you're free, so do me a favor, if you'll read this. You couldn't get out of it. He called me like, two hours later. It's the fastest anyone's ever read a script, and called a director back. He called me two hours later, said, I'll do it. And when I originally sent it to you, I thought you would be the angel, and then we'd find a guy to be this rich guy, and then we could, I could never find someone, because I was like, the Jeff guy needs to be like, funny, you gotta still enjoy this guy. Threading a needle with that guy. Yeah, even though he's. You do that, you, Jeff, yes. So then we said, hey, let's make you Jeff, and then we're like, who do we get to be the angel, and then you come up, and we're like, whoa, this is all coming together in a great way. We spent a lot of time rehearsing. I remember we were in my house reading some of the scenes, and some of the biggest laughs in the movie are things we came up with together in those times, but to go back to your original question, obviously, Seth is one of the greatest writers alive, so to have him be a collaborator is such a blessing, and you're one of the few people that's pulled off what we're trying to do with this, is make a funny comedy that has heart, that gets people in the theater, so I always really respect your feedback. That's so nice. It was a great idea, right off the bat. If you had to give yourself your own angel duty, what would it be? My own angel duty. What does that mean? Yeah, like my task as an angel. The texting while driving thing is pretty good, I gotta say. Wait, you're telling me I have a budget guardian angel? Kinda. He's not that psyched about it, and I get why on a grand scale of angel tasks, but on a tangible day-to-day level, you'll probably save him a lot of lives. I mean, that's part of my arc, is that I realize the importance of what I do. Yes, that's right. I mean, you help me with scripts and stuff. I'd be a script angel. You're already doing that. Hey, maybe look at this character's arc. Maybe he needs a little more here. Exactly. An arc angel. Oh my God. There you go. You did it, guys. I mean, it's funny. You guys are both sitting here, and you both are angels in my life, you know? We're green light angels. Yeah, you're green light angels. Whoa, you got Kyoto? You get more money. Exactly. Your budget just went up. Does he have a gun? No, wings. Trench coat. That's why it was a fairly low budget. All right, Keanu, what are your angel duties? Because you've already done it in the movies. I mean, there's so much to do. I mean, people think you're an angel in real life. Do you find you feel, I mean, you seem very naturally great, but do you feel pressure to be even, like, you know people view you as so great. Right. Do you think that helps you be nice all the time? I mean, yeah, I think sometimes. Yeah. There's certain situations where, yeah. People tend to live up to what people think of them. Yeah, a little bit. For sure. That's a good thing to live up to, though, was just being a nice dude. Being a super nice, chill dude. How nice do people think, like, me and you are? Do they just think we're just like, I feel like we're nice people as well. Yeah, but not like you. No, not like, no, it's another thing. Which is funny, because all you do is kill people. Yeah, I know, right? Your whole thing is shooting at people. It's not all you do, but it's a lot of what you do. Hey, man, there's some, like, be excellent to each other. Yeah, that's true. You also have that. You probably are. And Vaya con Dios. Yes. Some people like it, some people don't. I mean, that's why it's so easy to watch you kill people in some ways. It's because you know deep down that it's, like. Make believe. You thread the needle of being incredibly likable and killing tons of people, which is a really hard needle to thread, honestly. Killed my dog. That is a real, that is a real thing. When we met Catherine Bigelow that time, she was talking about how, you know, you'd never done action before Point Break. No, it was the first one, yeah. And that led you into that. But I remember reading some interview with you. It was before you'd done that stuff, and they were talking about, like, you were talking about the stuff you were getting offered, and it was stuff where you were very nice and, you know, sometimes playing characters that have this naivete. Sure. We have to mention Parenthood, which is also, like. Oh, yeah, which we talked about a lot when we talked about you doing this. One of the great, yeah. I just worked with Ron Howard, and we talked about you so much. Oh, man, they, wow. I had just worked with you, and to me, that was also one of the all-time, like, it's such a funny performance. It's so great. Slappin' the salami. Slappin' the salami, I was just gonna say. It's all about slappin' the salami, which is, like, truly one of the great line reads of all of my life. Yeah, that and, you know, the Bill and Ted stuff, like, it was interesting to kind of use that palette to, you know, whenever. Oh, tone-wise? Yeah. You had a fine Gabriel, and I remember, like. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, you totally, you gave me that vermouth of, bring some of that frisant of the innocence of the kind of Bill and Ted and Todd. You referenced Bill and Ted. Yeah. And Todd. Because there's, yeah, there's such a sweetness to those guys and all the humor of their night. I thought also, too, the energy of that, like, the kind of the frisant, the kind of, kind of a moving forward. Yeah, yeah. Like, that kind of, like, thing. Very Gabriel, yeah. The question of, like, what do we think an angel, what is an angel excited about? Do they have sex? I mean, I. They'd probably be excited about having sex. I mean, what would an angel. Are they puritanical? Would sex be repulsive to an angel? Because are they religious? Are they, are they. Are they Christian? What kind of angels are we talking about? Yeah, Catholic angels? You don't seem like a particularly religious angel. I don't, yeah. Archetypal. It's weird, it's like, as an angel, you couldn't experience those things, rather than you. Like, you never got to eat food and stuff. Like, that was all. Right. I mean, that was very much, obviously, influenced by Wings of Desire and the whole idea of just, like, the human experience of even just, like. Right. In my head, Gabriel never got to just hang out with guys and, like, you know, laugh and just kind of consistently live as a person and have a job and all these things. And, you know, what I love about your character is that, you know, he becomes friends with us, but also Felipe, the guy that he washes dishes with. And. Yeah, Felipe. And he's never danced before. Like, I remember writing that scene and being like, oh, like, that's something fun. Like, that's cool. And then you took. Well, I'm working hard, you know what I mean? I, it's. I'm just in. You're on rooftops, you're in cars. I'm just, I'm just keep working. They can hear music, I guess, already, stuff like that, but they just can't dance. I think you can hear music because of, when you're in the car with a taxi and driving, you hear the music, but dancing, I don't think Gabriel ever danced. Eating would probably be amazing. Yeah, but they probably don't. I mean, do they have metal up in heaven? Yeah, there's a certain music that they don't hear, but they're on earth a lot also. What, like heavy metal? Yeah. Well, they hear it. Yeah, so they might appreciate it. Do they have Pantera and Pugazi in heaven? Yeah. Yeah, food, sex, drugs. Driving cars, that'd probably be fun. Driving motorcycles, I imagine. Yeah, yeah. How about doing ---- that you don't die? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like. Really go for it. Just ******* jump out of an airplane. That'd be cool. Like, just ******* throw yourself off a mountain. That'd be fun. Drown yourself, like go down. Just keep swimming, just keep going. Just hold a bowling ball. Just keep going, just keep going. So then you could even push the human experience. Yeah, that's true. Set yourself on fire. That'd be cool. The whole Groundhog Day element of it. Electrocute yourself. You could read, you could just keep learning. Yeah. All the learning you could do. I'd learn piano. Learn one song. I did learn one song for a movie. What did you learn? A few months ago, a Thelonious Monk song. You did? Wait, what song? And you played it on piano? I played it on piano, and my teacher was very impressed. Just clear that ecstasy story with Jim Cameron. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure he's cool.