Keanu Reeves - What it's like to work with him

There's a quiet, dark dignity to Mercutio. Nobody knows where Mercutio actually comes from. Everyone seems to have parents, you know, but he doesn't. And what struck me was that he said, I need to play Mercutio. Not I want to, I would like to, I need to. This is a guy who had something to express through this form. There was something in him that needed to be expressed. Quarterback Punk. There was so much intensity on the movie set of Point Break, with all the energies and the egos and the incredible artists there. Keanu was made for that role, and how he was in real life is how the role was in the movie. In other words, Keanu was doing something called no acting required. I know very few young actors who would undertake roles like that, with that kind of emotional exposure, that kind of dangerous idea of playing a gay character. Keanu was fearless in doing that. I think he wanted to explore that whole side of life that people never see or even don't want to look at, and move on. Keanu is, it's hard to explain. I could sit here and say he's a really nice guy, but the thing that I'm sure most people don't know about Keanu is that I've really developed an incredible amount of respect for Keanu because he's so honest. There's no BS about Keanu. He doesn't say or do anything to make anybody else happy. He does what he feels is right, and he says what he feels. He works so incredibly hard. It's rare that you get a fellow actor who says, is there anything else that I can change for you? Would you like me to do something? What is it that's not working for you? Can I change something? That's incredibly rare. There's no BS about him. There's nothing fake. When I first started being around him, I felt incredibly jaded. All the bad thoughts that I was thinking, I felt like a horrible human being because he's pretty equal with everybody. He doesn't seem to think any bad thoughts, so I felt pretty rotten for the first couple of weeks. You just get to hang out with him, and there's an ease. There's an incredible ease that's attached to Keanu. I don't know where it comes from. I don't know if it's peace of mind or what it is, but it's so comforting just to be around for long periods of time. I didn't expect that from him at all. He's Keanu. He has every reason to be stuck up and have a big head, but he's not that way at all. He's a really nice person, a really wonderful person. It's really nice to be around that for a change. It's about the work. It's about the work, plain and simple. From the early days when he was just a young actor who needed to play Mercutio to The Hamlet, it was always about the work and how to continue to grow and express yourself through the work. And the theater and film is his outlet. You always try as a director to kind of find someone's personal life and then relate it to a character, and in this film, it's about a character who is fatherless, and his father is the person he has been admiring most in life, the charming, unbelievably urbane, funny, brilliant attorney. And that last scene in Devil's Advocate is amazing because he is confronting this incredible fear and at the same time courage himself. I respect his ability and his courage to go out and do that for himself because it's truly something that he does for his own pleasure and for his own growth. He's an incredible man. I can't tell you how amazing Keanu Reeves is. Oh, he's wonderful. And he never played football before. And you'd never believe it from the way he moves and the way he throws the ball. The fight scenes were definitely harder in a whole different way. The love scenes are difficult when you're a private person, and thank God it was with Keanu because he's my friend and I trust him and we have a really, really strong relationship and friendship, so it was a lot easier. But they can be really difficult. You know, some people have an easy time with it and enjoy doing them. It's a bit tougher for me. Keanu's completely, totally committed to what he does, to his work. One of the most professional people I've ever worked with. If I say to him, hold on, where does this scene come, he'll go, it comes exactly after this, this, X, you know, like he knows everything. There's nothing that he leaves up to chance. You know, he's very deep, deep, deep. It was lovely the fact that we'd worked together before because there was a level of trust and we felt comfortable with each other. There were going to be no weird surprises. It meant that we could work really easily together. I think the thing that I found the most surprising and the most beautiful was that, you know, since Chain Reaction, Keanu went on to do lots of movies, one of which was The Matrix, Matrixes, and he was completely unchanged by this stratospheric, huge global success. He was still the same sweet guy. So I suppose it's his humility and the fact that he hadn't changed. I mean, we were both a little bit older and a little bit wiser, I hope, but in essence he was the same person and I thought that was very beautiful. Keanu was really helpful in the final forming of the character because he had a really good take on him and there are certain lines in the movie which were so Constantine. They just sort of emerged from him. It was wonderful. Keanu puts on a facade in the press. I think Keanu's Keanu. And, you know, women, of course, think he's handsome. Guys think he's butch. The guy doesn't go wrong. I think it's the choices. He picks the best scripts on the planet to make movies. You know, you'll never see him in some stupid movie. It just won't happen. It's not Keanu-like. And I think when you get to that point where the audience is like, oh, Keanu's in that movie, then it's going to be cool, you're going to be here forever. No, he's great. A hundred miles an hour, every scene, he's fantastic. You know, you couldn't want to work with anyone better, really. And I think that I've enjoyed his performances over the years, but this is especially good. And I think it's a great film, and he's done a great job. It's great working with him, you know. I mean, he's extremely giving on and off screen and extremely supportive of other actors when they come to his, you know, you know, partake in his films. He's not changed. He's just, he's more of the same person that I grew to love and admire when I first met him. And I'm thankful that he hasn't changed. He's just grown into the man who I love and admire. Absolutely. Had you wanted to work with Keanu for a while? Well, I mean, I grew up on Bill and Ted and Point Break, and those are some of my favorite movies. And I've always loved his movies. I mean, talk about The Matrix, the guy's unbelievable. And you know, sometimes you meet those people, those kind of icons, and you're disappointed. Keanu was anything but. He's such a wonderful actor to work with. He loves rehearsal, which I love. When he's on set, he's focused, and he's giving. And he's incredibly thorough. There's not one line he hasn't thought through, which really provides an anchor when you're working. You never think, is this scene spiraling out of control? Have we deviated from the truth? Thank you. I learned that Keanu's very tall, much taller than I realized before. Well, I've got shoes on that have to be a little tall. And he is one of the most disciplined, caring, hard-working people I've ever worked with. So passionate about what he's doing, in every detail, so conscientious, and incredibly kind.