Keanu "After Matrix"

DAVID GERMAIN (AP)

BURBANK, Calif. From featherhead to virtual-reality savior of humanity. What an odd set of bookends to the career of Keanu Reeves.

For more than a decade, no matter the far-ranging roles and genres he tried, Reeves was inescapably identified as the most-excellent but nitwitted dude Ted of 1989's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and its sequel, "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."

Now Reeves, 39, faces life after Neo, the most-solemn messiah of "The Matrix" trilogy. What does he do for an encore?

The same thing he's done all along: Mix things up.

"I love doing supporting roles, different genres, different scales of moviemaking," Reeves told The Associated Press during an interview at a soundstage at Warner Bros., the studio behind "The Matrix" franchise. "It's important, a wish of mine to be able to do that." "It sucks to have a bad review, but it's not like after I get a bad review, I run outside and start drinking and have a kind of catastrophic depression."

In December, Reeves played second fiddle to Jack Nicholson in the romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give," as an emergency-room doctor wooing an older woman (Diane Keaton). Already completed is a role as an orthodontist in the low-budget comedy "Thumbsucker," and Reeves is shooting the occult comic-book adaptation "Constantine."

Reeves' approach - follow an action flick with a moody independent feature, move on from a star turn to an ensemble film - has fueled Keanu-bashing among critics. Despite serious turns in "Dangerous Liaisons" and "My Own Private Idaho" early in his career, Reeves was pigeonholed by "Bill & Ted" as a screen simpleton and castigated when he strayed from lunkhead parts.

What The Critics have Said

Some of his performances have been called stiff and taciturn. Critics have scorned his attempts at villainous roles in such films as Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare comedy "Much Ado About Nothing."

For all Reeves' aloof exterior, the criticism stings. Filmography

"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) $40.5 million

"Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" $38 million.

"Point Break" (1991 $40.7 million

"My Own Private Idaho" (1991) $6.4 million.

"Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) $82.5 million.

"Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) $22.5 million.

"Speed" (1994) $121.2 million.

"A Walk in the Clouds" (1995) $50 million.

"The Devil's Advocate" (1997) $60.9 million.

"The Matrix" (1999) $171.4 million.

"The Replacements" (2000) $44.7 million.

"Hardball" (2001) $40.2 million.

"The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) $281.5 million.

"Yeah, I mean bad reviews suck, man," Reeves says. "It's terrible. It's a drag. But it's still just a review. It sucks to have a bad review, but it's not like after I get one I run outside and start drinking and have a kind of catastrophic depression."

Before he turned brooding into an art form with "The Matrix" movies, Reeves excelled mainly at playing the lovable cretin ("Bill & Ted," Ron Howard's "Parenthood" and Lawrence Kasdan's "I Love You to Death") or the cookie-cutter action hero ("Speed," "Point Break"). He handled those roles so well that critics and audiences sometimes assumed Reeves was a meathead himself.

"Sometimes a lot of journalists feel that Keanu is the people that he plays. It's really not fair to say that," says Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix" trilogy. "I don't think ("The Sopranos" star) James Gandolfini is in the Mafia. But people think that Keanu is not bright. He is very bright. He's a very good actor. Keanu's very well read, he's very conscious of the world, politics, the economy."

In conversation, Reeves is highly articulate, though he peppers his speech with dude-like "yeah, man's" and the occasional "most certainly." His demeanor is a mix of California-casual and fidgety furtiveness.

What His Co-Stars Say

His co-stars say Reeves is gracious and easygoing, but closer in spirit to the guarded Neo than the goofball Ted.

"I would never say he has the carefree Ted in him," said Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Neo's soul mate, Trinity. "I would say he's so funny and has a great sense of humor. He's a very kind person."

Politely reticent, Reeves gushes about Matrix creators Andy and Larry Wachowski and the film work itself, but clams up when things stray to his private life, especially to hard times he has borne.

His sister has been battling leukemia. Three years ago, Reeves and then-girlfriend Jennifer Syme had a stillborn baby. A year later, after the couple had split, Syme died in a car crash. And there was the 1993 drug-overdose death of Reeves' friend and "My Own Private Idaho" co-star River Phoenix.

Asked how he copes, Reeves turns stone-faced and glances away, muttering something about "work and friends and just trying to, uh, oh ...," before his voice trails off.

When he looks back, Reeves has a pained look in his eye as he gives a slight nod for the next question. With wordless courtesy, he has managed to change the subject and make it tacitly clear that such matters are off limits.

"He's very funny when he decides not to talk," says Laurence Fishburne, who co-stars as Morpheus in "The Matrix" movies. "I wish I knew how to do it. I've watched him and Clint Eastwood do it. It's amazing. They can just not talk, and that's that."

Born in Lebanon, Reeves is the son of an English showgirl and a Chinese-Hawaiian father. After his parents divorced, Reeves moved with his mother and sister to New York City and later Toronto, where he excelled at hockey and took up acting in his teens.

Reeves appeared in such acclaimed teen dramas as "River's Edge" and "Permanent Record" before "Dangerous Liaisons," "Bill & Ted" and "Parenthood" put him on Hollywood's rising-star list and "Speed" made him a box-office heavyweight.

He looks forward to showcasing a cheerier side in "Something's Gotta Give" and "Thumbsucker," which should help break the perception that he gravitates toward dark, somber characters.

Reeves notes that his pre-Neo Thomas Anderson character in "The Matrix" had a lighter, rogue-ish quality, while his title role in the action-thriller "Constantine" calls for a good dose of irreverence.

So Reeves is lightening up on screen. Has he lightened up in real life?

Keanu "After Matrix"

Hollywood superstar KEANU REEVES wastes no time worrying about the gossip surrounding him - because he's convinced it's all just a myth.

The hunky MATRIX star often finds himself the subject of salacious rumours but unlike some of his fellow stars, he refuses to allow the erroneous stories get to him.

And the 39-year-old actor lays no blame on the public for buying into the media frenzy that surrounds most 'A' list entertainers.

He says, "Man, I don't take it to heart. I really don't. You know, it's the external manifestation of the work.

"The outside view of Hollywood, in terms of being a celebrity, is kind of a myth to me. It's ephemeral, it's like something that's not real. I can understand why people get confused, because, if you're outside it, it's fantasy.

"You're watching fantasy on the screen and it's mesmerising."

19/01/2004 01:48

Life beyond Neo

Post-Matrix, Keanu Reeves is happy to play second fiddle to Jack Nicholson, and eager for another go at Shakespeare, finds David Eimer

It’s been 22 years since Keanu Reeves started acting professionally, and he doesn’t look as if he’s changed at all. Now 39, his hair is still jet black, the finely angled cheekbones haven’t been obscured by fat, there are no visible lines on his face and that 6ft 1in frame is as lean as it has ever been. Either he’s the Dorian Gray of Hollywood, or else he got very lucky in the genes department.
But Reeves doesn’t act like a man who has been blessed. He sometimes appears to have a death wish: he has crashed the vintage British motorbikes he likes to ride no fewer than eight times. When he talks about driving them, it’s one of the few occasions he gets really animated. “In LA, I like to ride to the ocean through the canyons. Especially on the day after Christmas,” he smiles. “Maybe I’ll take the helmet off to feel the wind. It’s against the law, but what does that mean? Whose life is it, anyway?” Perhaps his attitude stems from the fact that he has experienced more than his fair share of tragedy. His long-term girlfriend, music executive Jennifer Symes, was killed in a car crash in 2001, a year and a half after their unborn child had died, and Reeves’s older sister Kim has fought a protracted battle against leukaemia. So, despite his youthful looks, at times he comes across as distinctly world-weary. “I feel my age, oh, yeah,” he says slowly in his inimitable drawl.

Given the rumours that swirl around him like the multiple Agent Smiths that attacked him in the Matrix films, he could be forgiven for feeling a little paranoid, too. There was the chatter about his “marriage” to the DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen in a secret ceremony in Mexico, a story Geffen said he wished was true; and more sinister mutterings, after the deaths of fellow cast members Aaliyah and Gloria Foster, that his presence had “cursed” the Matrix shoot.

Sitting on the edge of a sofa in a bland New York hotel suite and looking unusually smart in a brown suit, Reeves claims he isn’t bothered by the whispers. “Man, I don’t take it like that. I really don’t. You know, the external manifestation of the work ...” He pauses. “The outside view of Hollywood, in terms of being a celebrity, is kind of a myth to me. It’s ephemeral, it’s like something that’s not real. I can understand why people get confused, because, if you’re outside it, it’s fantasy. You’re watching fantasy on the screen and it’s mesmerising.”

In other words, don’t confuse the Reeves you see in the cinema or read about in gossip magazines with the real man. It’s a typically convoluted reply and, like many of his utterances, not strictly an answer to the question he has been asked. It’s a trait that has led some to wonder just how bright he is. Reeves didn’t help his own case by once describing himself as a “meathead”, but while he lacks formal education, having dropped out of high school, he’s intellectually curious and far from stupid. That inscrutability, though, is a vital part of Reeves’s appeal, and the reason he was the perfect choice to play Neo, the messiah figure who defends mankind against the machines in the Matrix trilogy. Most A-list stars tend to play off their own personalities: Tom Cruise is always the eager beaver, looking to better himself; Tom Hanks an everyman in a confused world. Reeves is far less easy to read, which allows audiences to impose their own ideas on the characters he plays.

The Matrix is in the past now, even if Reeves, who was paid £8m upfront for each of the two sequels, will continue to make money off his reported 15% share of the box-office profits for some time yet. After all the hype and media glare, as well as the time he spent shooting the trilogy in Australia, does he feel relieved that the saga is over? “Well, it has been years of my life,” he points out. “No, it’s not a sense of relief. It’s kind of a new time, personally and professionally. It’s like: ‘Okay, what do I do now? Who am I now?’ The work on those films defined my life over the past three years, so for me now, it’s about doing new things. It’s like the ship has sailed, but we’re still waiting to see where it goes.”

Not that he’s hanging around. His latest film, the romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give, sees him playing an idealistic doctor who falls for Diane Keaton’s divorced playwright. But she really wants to get together with Jack Nicholson’s roguish music mogul. And you don’t need a crystal ball to work out what happens. It’s very much a supporting role, and not many stars of his status would take such a part, but he seems to have relished the challenge of playing someone who’s so frank about their feelings after the enigmatic Neo.

“He does wear his heart on his sleeve, and it hurts when you do that. Always to be vulnerable is somehow the most enriching way of being, yet when it all goes awry, it’s the most painful way of being. But if you don’t do it, you end up all closed up,” offers Reeves. “It’s a great role, and it kind of balances out the piece. Jack Nicholson’s character is at a place in his life when he’s withholding, he’s stuck in his ways. My character is the opposite: a man who is open and ready to be in a relationship.”

Despite a list of movie credits that goes back to 1986’s Youngblood, Reeves hasn’t popped up in many romantic comedies. It’s a surprise, given the number of female fans he has, but he has been astute in the way he’s jumped between genres. Early on, he combined the popular but inane Bill and Ted comedies with more rigorous work like Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. Then 1994’s Speed launched him as a mainstream action star, and he was canny enough to avoid making its dire sequel. His choices are sometimes bizarre, like 2000’s knockabout comedy The Replacements, or the overly sentimental Sweet November, but he has a fear of being typecast. “My friend has an expression for it. He calls it, ‘That guy.’ You know, when you see an actor, you go: ‘Oh, it’s that guy.’ I don’t want to become ‘that guy’. Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunities to orientate my work in different directions. That’s what I want to do in my career, if I continue to have a career.”

Reeves reaches over and knocks on the table as he says that. He claims that for a long time, he was far from confident about whether he would be able to sustain a career in films and so never took a break. “I guess in the past I didn’t feel secure enough that I could leave the business for a year, of my own volition. I didn’t feel secure that when I returned from my trip around the world, or came out of my house, or whatever, that I would be a working actor again.”

At the same time, he appeared far from convinced about the job, and when he took up playing bass in the band Dogstar in the mid-1990s, it seemed he might abandon it altogether. “From the outside, it might have looked like I was trying to escape acting, because for three summers in a row I got the chance to go play music. But it wasn’t home. I never thought: ‘Oh, I’ll do this instead of acting.’”

Born in Beirut to an English dancer mother and a Chinese-Hawaiian geologist father, who left when he was seven and subsequently did time for drug-smuggling in Honolulu, Reeves was mainly brought up in Toronto. He took up acting at school. “I decided to become an actor when I was 15, which is young. I was playing Mercutio in an English class, and it was fun, so I started doing school plays and stuff,” he recalls.

By the time he was 20, he’d moved to LA and made an impression in 1986’s River’s Edge. But his love of Shakespeare led him to turn down a part in Heat to play Hamlet in a provincial Canadian production in 1995. He says he’s up for another crack at the bard. “I’d like to do the ‘Scottish play’. A couple more years and I’ll be ready. I’ll be 41, which is a transitional point in life. You’re still a warrior, but you’re not young,” he muses.

While he’s not at his best in period pieces — his performances in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Much Ado About Nothing were rightly slammed — his desire to play Macbeth shows his ambition and courage. He won’t let the criticism stop him, even though it can be hurtful. “I’m not going to do something because someone suggests it, or the opposite. But it’s a drag, because you want to be understood, and sometimes people have reactions to me that seem a little personal.” With all that has happened to him, he certainly knows what tragedy is. Does he feed that grief into his acting? “My hope, in terms of trying to relate my life to my work, is that I can understand what I know and seek to understand what I don’t know; part of the interest for me in dealing with roles is trying to seek what I don’t know. But whatever life experience I have is who I am, and so whatever that is comes with me.”

It is an oblique response, but there are signs that the melancholy that has sometimes threatened to overwhelm Reeves is lifting. After years of moving between a room at his sister’s house and the Chateau Marmont hotel in LA, he has finally bought his own place. “It felt like the right time, and I’m really enjoying it,” he smiles. “I’ve got some rented furniture, because I haven’t had time to buy any, I’ve bought a bed and I’ve done a mini renovation. It’s great.” A happy Keanu Reeves? Now that’s a story.

REEVES' TOUGHEST ROLE YET

Hollywood hunk KEANU REEVES' chose his latest movie role as a cancer-stricken hero to help him gain more insight into his sister's illness.

In Reeves' most challenging role yet, THE MATRIX star agreed to play the tough detective in CONSTANTINE to help him understand his sibling KIM's battle with leukaemia.

Reeves, 39, will star as a man who dabbles in the occult and teams up with a sexy police officer, played by British beauty RACHEL WEISZ, to fight evil forces.

The actor has provided constant comfort to Kim, 37, for the past three years as she has fought the disease.

An insider adds, "He also insisted on a clause that allowed him time to look after Kim."

The Visual The Visual Effects Society Visual Effects Awards Nominees

NOTE: Productions in each category are in alphabetical order

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Jim Rygiel, Dean Wright, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook

The Matrix Revolutions
John Gaeta, Kim Libreri, George Murphy, Craig Hayes

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
John Knoll, Charles Gibson, Hal Hickel, Jill Brooks

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year in any Medium

The Hulk
Dennis Muren, Scott Benza, Michael DiComo, Wilson Tang

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Jim Rygiel, Dean Wright, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook

The Matrix Reloaded "Trailer Top Crash"
John Gaeta, Dan Glass, Adrian de Wett, Greg Juby

Outstanding Visual Effects Photography in a Motion Picture

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Alex Funke, Rob Kerr, Henk Prins

The Matrix Reloaded “U-Cap Facial Photography”
Kim Libreri, George Borshukov, Paul Ryan, John Gaeta

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Carl Miller, Mike Conte, Tami Carter

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Pat Sweeney, Mike Bienstock, Grady Cofer, John Hansen

THE 'MATRIX' SEQUELS

Kathy A. McDonald

(Variety) The Herculean task of shooting "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" --- the back-to-back sequels to sci-fi phenomenon "The Matrix" --- can be grasped by the numbers involved: a 270-day production sked, 150 sets, 2,100 visual f/x shots and thousands of costumes, including signature black suits for 160 stunt doubles for Agent Smith. Complicating the storytelling process on the trilogy, produced by Joel Silver and written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, were various realities in the films. These included the machine-generated Matrix, the real world inside the hovercraft ships and the underground refuge called Zion. As if that wasn't enough, a video game was being shot at the same time.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Conceptual artist Geof Darrow began the complex design process by rendering detailed drawings of the sequels' mechanized beings and elaborate sets, such as the massive, cave-like Zion Temple.

Production designer Owen Patterson and an art department of 400 then had to realize those intricate designs, from Zion's various levels, to the gritty ship interiors made of steel and conduit, to a mile-and-a-half long freeway, to the final rain-soaked street and skyscraper-crashing confrontation within the Matrix between Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving (news)) and Neo (Keanu Reeves (news)).

All the combat, stunts, production design and visual f/x in the sequels continue the visual aesthetic established in "The Matrix," and expand into two new realms: the machine city and Zion, where humans have made their last stand.

Zion is located in vast caverns near the Earth's center. Per "Matrix" lore, it holds the habitat for the world's last 250,000 humans. Patterson describes its look as the exact opposite of the machine-made Matrix. "It's reminiscent of early 20th century industrial design, very decrepit but still practical," he says.

The uppermost levels of Zion contain the command center and loading dock, which have a scavenged, rusty patina.

Under a cistern-like dome, Zion's dock area is fitted with steel platforms, elevators, bunkers and enough airspace to host a swarming invasion of airborne, octopus-like machines called Sentinels.

Zion's human fighters battle the relentless Sentinels on the expansive carrier-sized landing dock using Armored Personal Units (APUs). Much of the action was CGI, but Patterson's sets included massive ducts and sections of the dock. The prop department made a life-sized mock-up of a 14-foot high, steel-cage enclosed machine-gunning APU for visual f/x capture as well as for close-ups.

According to Patterson, collaboration between departments was extraordinary. To add texture and rubble to the landing dock set, Patterson used the visual f/x files to create molds and cast physical models of "dead" Sentinels. Colors and textures he added to the models were then incorporated into the CGI version.

COSTUMES

Color palettes were key to defining the separate worlds within the film: the virtual Matrix exudes an incandescent green; the real world is all blue tones.

Patterson collaborated with costume designer Kym Barrett ("Three Kings," "Red Planet" and the new "Superman") to coordinate those hues.

Barrett and Judith Cory, department head/hair on both films, had extensive meetings with the Wachowski brothers to define the look and costume of each character.

"There's a definite look to the Matrix, but with no particular time period," Cory explains. "It's not in an actual time realm."

Many costumes had to accommodate wire harnesses as well as be created in multiple versions for stunt doubles.

The principals each had two to three looks that evolved over the course of the films: the slick, stylized, latex and leather ensembles within the Matrix, versus the down-and-dirty natural look of the characters in Zion.

Dressing the citizens of Zion was the most difficult assignment, Barrett says, involving more than 1,000 extras who were outfitted in rustic clothing made from non-processed hemp and vegetable fibers.

Barrett took inspiration from the natural fibers found on mummies in China and Mongolia. "We found shapes and textures that were delicate and beautiful, but raw. We tried to stay along that vein," she explains.

MAKE-UP/HAIR

"Matrix" lore holds that within the computer-generated realm, physical events don't affect the way a character looks, no matter what's happening. During "Reloaded," Carrie Anne Moss (as Trinity) maneuvers through traffic on a motorcycle at high speeds, but her hair stays coiffed and in place.

"Revolutions" climaxes with a fight sequence referred to as the "super burly brawl" between Neo and Agent Smith. For almost eight weeks, actors and stunt doubles shot the sequence in pouring, monsoon-like "chubby" rain --- water that was thickened to appear larger and more droplet-like on screen.

Keeping the actors and stunt doubles looking spot-on under the downpour was one of the biggest challenges for make-up department head Peter Robb-King, whose job spanned both sequels.

Wigs and make-up had to be waterproofed; costumes were insulated to keep the talent somewhat dry. He elucidates the Wachowski brothers' attention to detail. "We would shoot and make it perfect and then shoot again to make it super-perfect," he recalls.

The marathon nature of the back-to-back sequels tested both cast and crew, as long hours were required for such an extended period of time. "We had a nucleus of good people who stayed the course," Robb-King says.

Copyright © 2003 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Variety is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc. and used under license. All Rights Reserved.