Keanu's curse

Actor Keanu Reeves may be hot property in Hollywood, bul recently, there's been more grief than glamour in the troubled star's life

Keanu Reeves is one of Hollywood's comeback kings. After achieving heart-throb status in surfing thriller Point Break, he had box office flops Johnny Mnemonic and Walk In The Clouds before striking gold in bomb-on-a-bus action movie Speed. But it was the lead role in special effects science fiction blockbuster The Matrix that firmly re-established him on the celebrity A-list.

Yet white his professional life has never been better, Reeves' closely guarded private life lies in tatters.

After appearing to have found love with record company worker Jennifer Syme, the wandering star finally looked set to commit. And news that Syme was expecting his child reinforced the idea that Reeves was about to settle down.

Then tragedy struck when Jennifer discovered, eight months into the pregnancy, that her child - a daughter the couple had named Ava - had died in the womb.

Devastated, the bereaved parents attended grief counselling sessions but Jennifer, in particular, struggled to come to terms with the loss and was soon being treated for depression.

Almost inevitably, their frequently turbulent relationship buckled under the strain and they split up.

Then, in April, in a cruel twist of fate, Jennifer died after losing control of her Cherokee Jeep in Los Angeles.

The images of the ashen-faced star acting as pallbearer at his former lover's funeral, and fighting back tears as he comforted Jennifer's mother, were beamed around the world.

The 36-year-old has never spoken publicly about his loss and seems to be trying to ease his pain by throwing himself into his work.

In quick succession Reeves made a series of movies which challenge his sex symbol image. In The Gift, he plays a wife-beating brute opposite Hilary Swank and Cate Blanchett. The role let him give vent to raw emotions.

'I had to find a way to get inside the feelings of someone with extreme anger and frustration. We all have frustrations in our lives, and I probably have more than most people,' he admits candidly.

'Although I tend to keep my emotions locked in, among very close friends I show those feelings. By nature I'm a polite person. I don't like confrontation. But in this film, I had to bring to the surface a lot of anger for my character. Sometimes that scared me.'

His current release, Sweet November, reunites him with South African actress Charlize Theron, with whom he worked on Devil's Advocate.

'My character is an arrogant advertising executive who thinks the world revolves around him,' says Reeves. 'Then he meets a woman who blows him away. They have an affair then, suddenly, she wants to end it. That's what made it interesting for me and Charlize. She's a brilliant actress.'

The film is a remake of the classic 1968 Anthony Newley tearjerker. Theron's character is reluctant to commit to a relationship because she has a terminal illness, and Reeves acknowledges the difficulty of getting the films tone right.

'We had to tread a fine line between sentimentality and cliche. It's hard. The challenge for me was showing how the guy changes his attitudes and discovers a bit of humanity.'

The actor was able to draw on experience having watched his elder sister Kim wage war with leukaemia since the mid-1990s.

'It's a heavy thing to go through when you deal with someone's illness,' says the actor thoughtfully. 'My sister's doing better but it's been a struggle.'

Though devoted to his family, Reeves admits he still has doubts about his ability to sustain a long-term relationship. Although he'd bought Jennifer a home, he never moved in.

'I need a lot of freedom and a sense of being on my own,' he says. 'If you're in a relationship, you can't be selfish, you can't just do your own thing. It's not fair to you or your girlfriend.

'I feel pretty nomadic,' says the star who has famously lived out of hotel rooms for the majority of his film career. 'I enjoy the freedom of mind that comes with not feeling trapped by material considerations or responsibilities of that kind. There's a certain beauty in not having your spirit weighed down by your possessions.

'I give my money to my family and the rest goes info the bank. I just don't think about that stuff. I don't need to be surrounded by belongings other than my books, some clothes and maybe a laptop computer. I live a simple life.'

But even with all the success, acting, he reveals, isn't his first love.

`I'd rather have made my living in a band than as an actor,' he admits. 'But now I just play with my group, Dogstar, for fun. I could happily be on the road touring for my entire life.'

And at least life as a rock star has some unexpected perks.

'We get a lot of bras thrown on stage,' says Reeves, chuckling. 'And girls in the front rows like to expose their breasts to me.'

But Keanu admits he doesn't favour the direct approach.

'They're just responding to image,' he muses. `You could delude yourself and just enjoy the attention, but I'd rather have real contact with someone.

`I can be pretty solitary. I've had periods where I find it difficult to maintain long friendships and personal attachments. But it's a stupid defence mechanism on my part and I'm trying to be more open, although I still need to be alone at times.

'You find yourself smoking a lot of cigarettes, drinking a lot of coffee, and maybe enjoying a few bottles of wine on a lonely night. But I enjoy that. There are some nights where I find that there's nothing better than just staring into the distance and getting lost in your thoughts.'