He arrives and is dressed in black: not  Neo-style (like in Matrix) but wearing a smart jacket: a bit detached, combed hair, thoughtful, looking like in Devil's Advocate. Keanu Reeves is the biggest mistery in American cinema. He is 36 (but he still looks like he is 17), he is a movie icon and, since Matrix, an A-list ultra-paid superstar.

Not at all talkative and mysterious, the beautiful Keanu is loved by audiences (he has also a website called www.dogstaronline.com after the name of his band). But he is loved also by very important directors of the like of Kenneth Branagh (Much Ado About Nothing), Francis Ford Coppola (Bram Stoker's Dracula), Bernardo Bertolucci (Little Buddha): they all agree in saying that Keanu has got a special "emotional" intelligence  which is typical of the most great naturally-talented actors. And he is so busy: right now, he is filming Hardball and in March he will be in Sidney for Matrix 2-3. meanwhile, we can see him at the Italian cinemas in  The Replacements and The Watcher.

Football is the subject of The Replacements. Do you like this sport?
I like it very much but when I was a teenager, in Canada, I used to play hockey. I was good at it and named The Wall; I used to dream to take part to Olympic Games. The movie is about a footballl players ' strike and a great coach, played by G. Hackman, has to turn a team of mediocre athlets into a winning team.

Did you have to train for it?
Yes, for 2 months. Now I am phisycally stronger and I have learnt to play football ( never done before). I like my characters to become part of myself.

The Watcher is being released here : you play a dangerous serial killer.
I am a nightmare for J. Spader (he acted in Sex  Lies and Videotape). He is Campbell, an FBI agent traumatized by the horrors he discovered while making research on serial killers. He moves to another town in order to escape from me. But it not enough because I have just chosen him as my last victim.

An unusual role...
Yes, I accepted it because changing is exciting. I like to try whether I can play any character. And I don't want to be typecast.

Do'nt you fear a negative reaction from female audience?
No... and, anyway, it is a risk I want to run - whatever the consequence.

You say NO to a fortune when you refused to do Speed 2. Instead , you are going to do Matrix 2 and 3. Why?
Matrix is more than just an action movie, it is a psychological drama - first of all, it is "real". it is intelligent and sophisticated.And I want to keep on this work with the Wachowski brothers, the two directors and scriptwriters of this saga.

The plot of the two sequel is totally unknown to the public...
Yes, I can't speak of it. I just add that the mythical town, Zion, will be shown. Larry Wachowski is very much interested in the philosophical issues dealt with in these movies. He spoke to me about it but vaguely. And he told me to read Hume and Schopenhauer.

So you must study and training...
Yes, I like good books. But I like even more training. In November I will start training in kung-fu for the action scenes: such scenes  were so outstanding and special in Matrix 1.

Anything new in the cast?
No, just the same actors. This makes it easier. We are a well-mixed group who get on well. There will be also Charlize Theron, Carrie-Ann Moss, Lawerence Fishburne.

A lot of your fellow actors say you are bothered by celebrity and you would like to be less famous.
Not true. I want to work in Hollywood. Cinema has been important  in my life. But I want to have a privat life, as well. I am like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland: nobody knows who is behind the mask.

So you are the typical a-house-and-face actor - a typical icon...
I don't know..., it depends on the moment and on the feelings, I am fairly instinctual. Sometimes I work because I feel alone, sometimes I want to be alone. Sadly, I am not in love right now: so I like to work together with a lot of people. Now I am more mature but I feel the same way like when I was 16 and got my first money - working for a  theatre. And acting is still a play for pleasing my curiosity.

And do you think to be more "balanced" in your feelings now?
No, I am still a mess inside. I am a messy and "secluded"  36 years old guy but I keep on trying to improve...

After Little Buddha, they say you have become a Buddhist.
Not really. But I have learnt meditation and  this was helpful in quite a few moments. And I have also learnt that sometimes it is better  just to sit down, on a armchair, and look out of the window.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Don't blame Keanu Reeves for looking just a tad wiped out.

The star of "The Matrix" flew to New York from London just a few days before, expressly to hype his new movie "The Replacements." This time around, Reeves dons a helmet and jersey to play a has-been quarterback with one last shot at glory as a replacement football player.

But on this bright and early Manhattan morning, glory is the furthest thing from Reeves' mind. Unshaven, with mussed hair standing on end and clad in a slightly rumpled black suit and beat-up shoes, he seems to be trying his best just to stay awake. Turns out that the star had zipped into New York on the Concorde, just mere days after the fatal Air France crash of the supersonic jet.

And while Reeves, 36, may specialize in playing smoothly superhuman characters on the big screen -- think of the explosives expert he portrayed in "Speed" (1994) or his slick computer geek in "The Matrix" (1999) -- he does 'fess up to some very human fears. He's actually afraid of flying.

"I try not to be," he says. "If anything ever seems to be going wrong, No. 1, I always think I can survive. I make plans. I'll jump out of the plane or I'll jump out and find a hill and try to roll down the hill. It's completely ridiculous."

The same word could describe the schedule Reeves keeps. The actor essentially lives out of a suitcase and leaps from one film to the next. Just this year, Reeves has four films hitting theaters: "Sweet November," "The Replacements," "The Gift" and "The Watcher."

But he insists the hours he keeps aren't a big deal.

"Well, after 'The Matrix,' I didn't work for like seven, eight months," he says. "So that was a pretty long time. And after 'Devil's Advocate,' (1997) I didn't do 'The Matrix' for almost 11 months."

Reeves is something of an enigma. The Lebanese-born actor, who grew up in Toronto, cut his teeth in such "serious" flicks as the dark murder saga "River's Edge" (1987) and the diabolical society drama "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988).

Yet Reeves broke through not as Mercutio in a stage production of "Romeo and Juliet," but as the sweetly dense Ted in the goofy kiddie time-travel comedy "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989). Unfortunately, the bumbling Ted persona stuck to Reeves for years.

But the laconic actor, who once elevated the exclamation "duuuuude!" to a national mantra, is anything but a dummy in person. He's the antithesis of Ted: thoughtful and low-key.

And he's pursued roles that would, in theory, help establish him as a respected actor.

"I've felt like acting more and I wanted to act as much as I could and so I've been lucky to be able to get a chance to do it," he says.

But he admits that the career took a toll on his personal life.

"Other parts of my life -- you know, sometimes it's hard to maintain," he says. "I maintain friendships, but you can talk about what you've done but it's sometimes nice to have shared experiences and I've kinda missed out on that sometimes."

Still, Reeves says, he fears that every job will be his last.

"But that's what keeps you going in a way too, I think," he muses. "It's that whole ambition-wanna-work engine."

For now, Reeves will have little time to call his own. He just wrapped "The Gift," which has him playing the wife-beating hubby of Oscar-winner Hilary Swank. And in late March or April of next year, he starts filming the highly anticipated sequels to "The Matrix," two physically taxing films that should keep him busy for months.

"I'm really excited by (writer/director Andy and Larry Wachowski's) ambition and by their scope and by their storytelling and their ambition for the ideas that they want to communicate and for the cinema that they want to create," he says.

Aside from his acting career, Reeves is also a member of the band Dogstar, which he formed in 1993 with two buddies. So far, Dogstar has released three albums, but hasn't exactly invaded the Billboard charts.

But if Reeves could have either the No. 1 album or movie in the country, he says the choice is no-brainer.

"I'm an actor, and so I would pick the movie," he says. "I hate it because I love them both. But I am an actor, so I'll make that distinction. But that's all I'll say. I love to play music."

Keanu Reeves has a bone to pick with Erica Kane. Reeves, whose new film, The Replacements, opens today, is sick and tired of the movie industry shouldering all the responsibility for the decline of civilization, and says watchdog groups should aim its bull's-eye at another equally culpable genre: daytime television.

"I think soap operas are [just] as violent as action pictures," the 35-year-old actor tells TV Guide Online. "It can be in terms of corruption or distortion of existence."

When it comes to defending the "adult content" of his own work, the star of Speed and The Matrix says his conscience is clear. "I don't want to go out and do a porno, but I want to show life," he explains. "Maybe it's important to make a film that doesn't show morality so we can speak about morality. You have to show the dark side as well. [But] I'm a fairly moral person and my films tend to be."

Reeves will get a chance to show off his lighter side in the feel-good comedy The Replacements, in which he plays an unlikely football hero. That's quite a change from The Gift, the film he recently did with Oscar winner Hilary Swank. "I play a wife beater and that was a good opportunity for me to not be the leading man," he says of the thriller, which opens later this year. "It was a really rewarding artistic experience."

Other projects in the pipeline for Reeves: Sweet November with Charlize Theron, Hard Ball with Diane Lane, and next spring he begins work on two Matrix sequels, which will be filmed back-to-back.

All this begs the question: When's nap time? "After The Matrix, I didn't work for seven or eight months," he says. "It's hard to maintain friendships. You can talk about what you've done, but it's nice to have shared experiences. I've kind of missed out on that."

In The Replacements,Keanu Reeves and a rag-tag bunch of scab football players are brought in during a football strike. The humorous band of players, led by a coach played by Gene Hackman, all add to the fun of the film, but the actors had to go through some serious hard knocks to prepare for their roles. Despite his athletic prowess in past roles such as The Matrix,where he had to learn some martial arts, and "Point Break" where he learned how to surf, Reeves says he never has had such a more physical role.

He did play former football player in "Point Break" but this time he had to actually take the field in front of a full stadium. This time, the usually-internal actor, had to work on the outside just as much.

"You have to do your interior work as well as the physical work to play these parts",says Reeves, comparing his "Matrix" and "The Replacements" roles.

So, football coordinator Allan Graf, who worked on Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday" coordinated a three-week training camp for the actors to whip them into believable football players who are subbing for the pros.

Reeves started six months before filming, getting himself into shape, bulking up a bit and acclimating himself to the East Coast cooler climate.

Keanu is a real good athlete and worked long and hard on looking like a real quarterback, Graf notes. The put him together with T.J. Rubley, a former quarterback with the Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos, and they worked hard through the filming.

Reeves and Rubley worked two hours a day in camp together, going through routine drills. Reeves also did a ton of research, studying football history and exercise techniques, as well as team playbooks.

Some of the other actors enjoyed the football camp. Others didn't.

The had ice packs after practice, we had bruises, we went through hell for three weeks,says stand-up comedian Faizon Love.

But, as Reeves says in the line-up in the film, Pain heels and chicks dig scars.

Some of the other "Replacement" football players include:

Jon Favreau. "I bulked up and went to the gym because I had to play a linebacker" says the actor from "Swingers" and "Deep Impact".

Orlando Jones. The Mad TV star jumped into show biz while attending a South Carolina college just to impress an aspiring actress.

Faizon Love. A big (in size) stand-up comic who was convinced by an English teacher to pursue his love for acting.

Michael "Bear" Taliferro. The only former pro football player on the squad, he was with the Denver Gold, Arizona Outlaws and British Columbia Lions before landing parts in The Last Boy Scout,"Life"and "Bad Boys".

Ace Yonamine. The large sumo wrestler makes a living as a plumber when he's not taking small acting roles in his native Honolulu.

Rhys Ifans. He has another scene in his underwear where he reveals his short-comings just like he did in "Notting Hill". It's becoming a character trait for him, he admits. The toughest part of the shoot was filming actual games, and much of that was done during down time at Maryland Stadium while the Ravens exhibition games were going on.

Other football movies have been filmed during halftimes, such as "Heaven Can Wait" and The Program, but it takes a lot of coordination. Graf rehearsed four complicated plays with 60 players and 90 extras, and they had nine minutes to do complete it all. The cast arrived in full costume and 500 crew members were ready to jump into the packed stadium to do the scene. Hackman took his place on the sidelines, Reeves and the cast ran into the stadium of cheering fans.

"It was the biggest high any of us have ever had," Graf recalls. And even Reeves claims it was one of his greatest moments facing that thunderous crowd.

But, the best present for Reeves, was working with an idol on his 35th birthday on Sept. 2, 1999.

"I got to act with Gene Hackman on my birthday, which was one of the best things that ever happened to me,says Reeves.

Equally gushing with praise, Hackman says, "I like working with young actors, and he's become one of the best. Keanu is hardworking, highly professional and always prepared."

NEW YORK--There are many excellent adventures to have in the city of Chicago. Keanu Reeves had one of the unscripted variety the day he wandered into Cabrini-Green.

The year was 1989. He was here to promote a little teen comedy about two lovable boneheads named Bill and Ted. Restless in his hotel suite, he decided to go out for a meandering walk through the city. And he got lost. Reeves found himself in the middle of an area not usually frequented by movie stars.

"It was a very strange moment in my life. My heart started beating a little faster because I saw all these really tough-looking kids. You could hear some gunfire in the background. I was a little upset," Reeves says.

He remembers freezing for a few moments to take it all in. And that's when things got a bit tense. A few punks started screaming for him to stop walking. "You, KEY-ON-NOO?" one bit out.

A dumbstruck Reeves could only nod.

A slow smile spread over the boys' faces. "Whoa! Excellent, dude," said the Chicagoans.

. . .

And now he is returning to Cabrini. It's a few hours before he catches a plane to Chicago to film the new movie ``Hardball,'' about teaching kids how to play ball in the projects. Over breakfast, the exceedingly sweet, shy and persistently deep-thinking Reeves says that day taught him a lesson.

``That day in Cabrini, I felt the power of a movie,'' he says. ``It really can unite the world in this weird, weird way.''

Now it's fans of Reeves who are uniting. The grosses for ``The Matrix'' were real, not virtual. The sold-out shows this summer for his band Dogstar are further evidence.

It's Keanu Mania: Act II.

Some doubted he could go the distance. After all, Reeves is a favorite whipping boy of the critics. One wrote, ``No one merely dislikes him. They either love him or ridicule him.'' Another opined, ``People look at Reeves and see nothing going on.'' Still another described his ``serene blankness.''

Reeves prefers the term ``laid-back.''

It's difficult to pin down his appeal.

The actor of Chinese, Hawaiian and British descent says cheerfully, ``In grade 12, I was picked by the science class to be class president. As a joke. But hey, I was a good class president,'' he says.

Reeves, 36, knows how to get hit and get back up again. It's like football, which is the subject of his new movie ``The Replacements,'' opening Friday.

Reeves plays Shane, a down-on-his-luck former football player who blew the big college game. He's recruited as a punky QB replacement when the pro team in Washington goes on strike.

Reeves says, ``He's a hard-luck guy who is severely underestimated.''

Reeves can sympathize. ``I never felt underestimated from my peers,'' he says. ``But from critics I've read reviews that hurt.''

For ``The Replacements,'' Reeves checked into the Hotel of Pain. First, he bulked up from 180 pounds to 192.

``I never played football as a kid, so the training was tough for me. At night, I had these six ice packs in my freezer and I'd just sit down and wrap my arms around both knees and wince from the pain.''

. . .

Keanu has the kind of bohemian past that goes with a free-spirited name.

He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, before bombings became a daily fact of life. His mother, Patricia, a former showgirl, split from his father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves (who is serving a sentence for cocaine possession), and moved Keanu and his little sister Kim to New York City. There Patricia married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director.

But the family split after relocating to Toronto, and Reeves called two more men ``Stepdad''-- a rock promoter and a hair salon owner.

Meanwhile, Reeves' childhood obsessions were Shakespeare and hockey. He left high school to act. From the start, he garnered excellent reviews in Canadian plays and TV movies. The next stop was Hollywood, where Reeves won raves for his role as a troubled teen in 1986's ``River's Edge.'' His followup was the box-office smash ``Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.''

He confounded critics with a series of eclectic movie roles: ``Dangerous Liaisons,'' ``Little Buddha,'' ``Bram Stoker's Dracula'' and ``My Own Private Idaho.'' He drove home a higher payday with the $121 million-grossing ``Speed.''

Reeves is blitzing Hollywood these days. He is back on the A list, which doesn't exactly rock his world. ``The industry's perception of me has changed,'' he says with a sigh. ``I never considered myself anything but a working actor.''

He is working. And working. And working.

He's filming ``Hardball,'' directed by Brian Robbins, about inner-city baseball. Based on the Daniel Coyle book Hardball: A Season in the Projects, Reeves plays a directionless man whose drinking and gambling lifestyle is challenged by a friend who promises to loan him some money if he agrees to coach a boys' baseball team in Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project.

``I meet these kids and my whole life comes together,'' explains Reeves.

Later this year, Reeves stars in ``The Gift'' with Hilary Swank.

In one of his first bad-guy roles, Reeves plays a wife beater who takes out his frustrations on Swank.

Was it hard to go to those places? ``It's pretend,'' he says, slowly. ``But in a way, exploring that horrible part of the psyche was revelatory. It was a chance to take a look in some very dark places. Was it fun for me in the end? No. Was it a learning experience? Yes.''

Reeves will be sequestered in Australia next year to shoot ``Matrix II'' and ``III.'' He'll reportedly be paid $30 million plus 15 percent of the gross for the 250-day shoot.

Scripted by Chicagoans Larry and Andy Wachowski--whom Reeves dubs ``The Brothers''--he was the only choice to play the sensitive Neo. ``Keanu was the first actor we spoke to who understood just how much of a commitment this would require. Most of the others just assumed they would have stunt doubles, but that defeats the whole purpose of wire fighting, which is to show the actor in action,'' says Andy.

``I love that the movie was about truth and a quest for truth,'' responds Reeves. ``Questioning absolutely everything has always been a part of my nature. I'm not nearly as skeptical, but there is definitely a lot of Neo in me and lot of me in him.''

. . .

Like Neo, Reeves lives like a nomad. He simply settles into different hotel rooms on shoots. He doesn't have much stuff, counting a motorcycle as his most prized possession. ``I would like to have a happy home to put my belongings, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. So I work and I stay with family,'' he says.

Is a personal life missing? Reeves has laughed off speculation about his sexual orientation. He loves the rumor that he was once married to Dreamworks honcho David Geffen. ``A good one, but untrue,'' he says.

For kicks, he likes to rock out with his band, Dogstar, which just released the CD ``Happy Ending.'' ``I just did a bit of touring with the band because I find it so personally fulfilling,'' Reeves says. ``Sometimes it's nerve-racking walking onstage. Some nights, I walk out there relaxed. Others I'm quaking. I just hope I can put on a good show.''

Now he has groupies of a different sort. ``On a good night, I get the underwear, bras and hotel room keys thrown onstage. You start to think that you're Tom Jones,'' he says with a laugh.

Reeves says music is his escape. ``You retreat to cope or figure out your life,'' he says. In his down time, ``I basically tend to sit on my couch and stare out the window.''

That's what he's doing right now, staring out the window into a foggy summer morning.

``It's still true that I am afraid of the dark, but I mean that in a real philosophical way,'' he says.

Yes, sometimes Keanu is really deep.

``Things are getting brighter all the time,'' he says, smiling.

Distributed by Big Picture News Inc.

***

Catching up to Keanu

BY JAE-HA KIM staff reporter

If you think that cute guy you saw heading into Tempo last week looked a lot like Keanu Reeves, there's a good chance that it was.

Reeves has returned to Chicago to film "Hardball." He first made his presence in the Windy City known four years ago when he shot "Chain Reaction." You can bet that he'll be out and about in the city this time around, too.

Note: Keep your eyes peeled for announcements of his band Dogstar's performances. Wherever Reeves goes, the group follows.

Here are some of Reeves' favorite stomping grounds:

* The Four Seasons. Boul Mich. Home away from home for movie stars.

* Cabrini-Green. Where a good chunk of "Harball" is being shot.

* Metro. Wrigleyville. A big music fan, Reeves has headlined there and caught some bands.

* Raw Bar. Wrigleyville. Has been spotted there partying.

* Cubby Bear. Wrigleyville. Went there to hear bands.

* Double Door. Wicker Park. His band has played there.

* Park West. Lincoln Park. Ditto.

* Gibsons Steakhouse. Near North Side. A favorite dinner spot.

* Tempo. On Chestnut. Late-night spot. The regulars leave him alone.

Keanu Reeves is in an excellent mood, making self-deprecating quips about being a high school dropout, speaking magnanimously of the hit boy bands who've eclipsed his own group, Dogstar, and joking about his fear of the dark.

This ebullience is worth noting only because the enigmatic 35-year-old actor is as famous for his reticence in interviews as he is for his deadpan acting style.

But today, looking casually chic in a black Byblos suit jacket and olive-green T-shirt, he's happy and - for him - almost loquacious.

And why not? His career, historically spiked with critical barbs and box-office disasters ("Johnny Mnemonic," anyone?), has been firing on all cylinders since last year's smash "The Matrix," for which he received some of the best reviews of his career.

"The Replacements," in which he plays a soulful scab quarterback for an NFL team, opens Friday. He's wrapped "The Gift" with Hilary Swank, "Sweet November" with Charlize Theron and "The Watcher" with Marisa Tomei and James Spader.

And he's just headed to Chicago to film "Hardball," in which he plays an aimless young man who agrees to coach a Little League team from the projects.

Come November, he'll start training for a punishing schedule of filmmaking, shooting two "Matrix" sequels simultaneously.

Has the laid-back Reeves - so often seen as the slacker dude he played in 1989's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" - turned workaholic?

"This past year has been busy, but before that I made two films in two years," Reeves says in the unhurried baritone that has been interpreted as a mark of either Zen-like cool or a lack of intelligence.

"I love acting, and I love it more and more, so it's great to have the opportunity to do it. And I got to have some really great acting experiences this past year, like working with Mr. Hackman."

In "The Replacements," Gene Hackman stars as a veteran football coach who is coaxed out of retirement to recruit a team of replacements after the regulars of the fictitious Washington Sentinels go on strike.

To prepare for his role as Shane Falco, a disgraced quarterback, Reeves packed on 27 pounds and spent two months learning the game.

"I'd never played football," says Reeves, who earned the nickname "The Wall" playing goalie for his high school hockey team. "[But] I really wanted everyone watching the film to believe that Shane Falco was a quarterback.

"To go to training camp was a way for me to learn my character. I started to learn the dynamics of the team - who sits where, how you go to the field, who gets taped up, how people get warmed up, what the dynamics are between all the different players."

Asked to compare his football training regime with the arduous four months he spent learning kung fu moves for "The Matrix," he says: "There were different kinds of pain.

"[During the 'Replacements' training] I had six ice packs in my freezer. At the end of the day, I'd sit down and wrap my arm, my knees, sometimes my feet. I had 240-pound linesmen in cleats stepping on me."

Reeves admits the film's underdogs-make-good plot is a familiar one, but he says he accepted the role because it offered something more.

"I thought that all the characters in this film had heart; these people felt real," he says. "They all felt like they came from a situation of loss. They had a reality to them that I related to.

"So even though it jumps into clich- like, there's the underdog team, the misfits, there's a bar fight, the girl and the guy looking at each other and falling in love, with the swooning - when I was watching everyone do their performances, I didn't think they were just effects.

"I felt like each one was a person, and that the comedy was coming out of the humanity."

He says he particularly responded to Shane Falco: "[He's] a hard-luck guy who gets a second chance to put his life back together."

The $12 million that Reeves reportedly snagged for the role may also have been part of its allure.

Yet to hear Reeves tell it, being one of the highest-paid actors of his generation - he received $10 million for "The Matrix" and will pocket $30 million for its two sequels - is no big deal.

"For me, I guess I don't connect the enjoyment and the money," he says. "I work on a part and hopefully realize a part, and make good films. Some of the successes I've had I'm grateful for, because it creates other opportunities. [The way] I look at it is, I get to act again."

This non-materialistic philosophy is reflected in his footloose lifestyle - he rides a motorcycle, plays bass in the struggling indie band Dogstar and lives out of hotels: "I'd like to have a home with my belongings in it, but it hasn't quite worked out yet."

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised primarily in Toronto, the actor - whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian - is philosophical about his detractors.

"I've never felt underestimated by my peers," he says. "By critics, sometimes. I try not to [read reviews], but I'm just such a sucker for that. It's the bane of the actor: You've got to check in with what's going on around you. It's just the nature of the beast."

As if he's revealed too much by responding to what he complains is a "deep" question, Reeves quickly recovers his man-of-mystery aura by finishing up with a cryptic non sequitur.

"In grade 12, I was picked by the science class to be class president - as a joke." He pauses. "But you know what? I was a good class president."

NEW YORK -- Team player, good guy, no guff, miraculously attitude-free, hard-working, a total professional.

These accolades for Keanu Reeves come from fellow actors in The Replacements, a new summer sports movie that opens Friday.

Orlando Jones, the Mad TV star who plays one of Reeves' strike-breaking team members in The Replacements, offers this tribute: "I'll tell you, Keanu's a completely different cat than what people see on film. When I see him in interviews, he always talks reserved, as if he's clawing for his privacy.

"In person, he tends to be sort of gregarious and kind of funny. His perspective on life, it's not at all what you'd expect from a guy who is a movie star. I found him to be a lot more of a regular guy."

Brett Cullen, who plays the villain whom Reeves replaces as quarterback for the Washington Sentinels, says Reeves is "one of the sweetest guys I've ever worked with ... His work ethic was impeccable. I think he's great. He's a wonderful guy."

Welshman Rhys Ifans -- who played Spike, Hugh Grant's slovenly roommate in Notting Hill -- says Reeves impresses him for his egalitarian ways.

"Keanu was definitely a team player ... I always thought he was kind of cool, a bit of a surfer, and he is. He's a cool guy and he works very hard."

Reeves was so cool that when The Replacements started shooting under Pretty In Pink director Howard Deutch on location in Baltimore and the surrounding area, Reeves quietly let his co-stars know where he and they stood. An enormous trailer was hauled in for Reeves' use. He never moved in. Reeves quietly talked with the crew and the superstar trailer was hauled away, replaced by a modest one exactly the same as the trailers for everyone else.

"Well," Reeves says, playing it humble now, "generally I don't need much space. Just give me a room, give me some water, maybe some fruit in the morning, give me some breakfast. So I generally don't need that much."

As symbolic gestures go, Reeves scored a touchdown with his fellow actors from the get-go. It helped the movie's final outcome, too, Reeves believes.

"In the spirit of the film, us coming together as actors and working on the piece really did mirror what occurred on screen (in the story) and I think that benefited the film."

The trailer incident, and the accolades of his co-stars, run deeper than The Replacements, too. Reeves' laid-back personality and idiosyncratic career serve as a template for how to have a satisfying life, a lasting career and a good personality in Hollywood.

Reeves, after all, is not one of the greedy superstars who has deliberately gone out of his way to grab the big bucks. He passed on a role with Pacino & De Niro in the cops-and-robbers thriller Heat to do his own Hamlet in Winnipeg. He turned down $11 million for the Speed sequel to go out on the road with his bar band, Dogstar. Artistically, that was smart. The sequel stunk. All it cost Reeves was money.

Eventually, Hollywood insiders were publicly doubting his star power: "If an actor has nine lives," said one pundit in 1999, "Keanu Reeves certainly is working his way down the list."

Then came The Matrix, a megahit last year, and Reeves was hot again. The Replacements is his first role since.

"Keanu's a whole other animal," enthuses Jon Favreau, a writer, director and actor who took a small role as a crazed player in The Replacements just to be in the same movie as Reeves and Gene Hackman, who plays the team's coach.

"He doesn't want to be famous, I think. He just loves acting and he loves the life of the filmmaker. But, when it came to going out at night, it was very hard to get him to do anything social because he didn't want to have to deal with that. He didn't want to be out in the bars, out in the streets, and be mobbed by people. He's been famous all his adult life and it's not a novelty to him."

Fame, says Reeves (who was born in Beirut and raised largely in Toronto), is just the price an actor pays if he wants the opportunities that he cherishes.

"I want to work in Hollywood," he says. "The experiences I've had have been some of the best in my life, and I want to act. So, if a film is successful and that has other kinds of consequences, then I'm willing to go through that. Sometimes, it's fun."

The worst part, though, is no surprise. "The loss of privacy sometimes is frustrating," says the intensely private Reeves. He fights to keep his private life private. "Of course, of course." Asked how he succeeds in staying so private, he gives up one of those Keanu classics that makes it clear the subject is closed. "Because I'm so private."

So no one really knows who he dates and whether his unnamed girlfriend really was pregnant last year, as the press reported during the filming of The Replacements.

What is public is Reeves' love of the game -- of acting.

He also happens to be an enthusiastic National Football League fan, although, as a youngster growing up in Toronto, he never dreamed about playing football. Instead, he fantasized about what he now calls "ice hockey" for the benefit of Americans who might think mere "hockey" is played on roller blades and not a sheet of glistening frozen water.

"I always wanted to play for Canada in the Olympics," he remembers. "I always wanted to be an Olympic goalie when I was playing the game."

Reeves played diligently until he left Toronto permanently in 1985 for an acting career in Hollywood. He was good enough to get a tryout from the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.

The 6-foot-1 Reeves still plays casually in Los Angeles. But his dedication runs to finding authenticity in his acting roles. So, for The Replacements, that meant bulking up by 23 pounds to a playing weight of 192 for his football scenes.

"It was important to me to be believable as a quarterback," he says, "so I did all I could to achieve that, and part of that was to have the body and embody it."

It's part of his own game plan. "My ambition is to hopefully play different types of characters and to do different kinds of films in style and scope. I guess it's just me wanting to act and not wanting to be just one thing."