Zeta-Jones will try to fill Turner's sweater in biopic

October 20, 2005

BY CINDY PEARLMAN

Break out the Clairol.

Catherine Zeta-Jones confirms to GLARE that she's definitely going to play sultry screen legend Lana Turner in a big-screen biopic called "Stompanato."

So we asked: Is Sharon Stone (who supposedly coveted the role for years -- and is already blond) a little ticked off at her? Is Sharon getting out her ice pick?

Zeta-Jones adopts a petulant voice. "Guess what?" she poses. "I really really wanted to do 'Basic Instinct 2!' "

She'll have to settle for the sultry Turner, whose basic instinct was to date a mob guy named Johnny Stompanato, who was then knifed in the Turner home by her daughter -- at least, that's the official story. Many still think Turner did the slice-and-dice work on her lover.

Who will play Johnny? "Keanu Reeves is still on to do it," Zeta-Jones says. "I think he'll be great."

Meanwhile, Zeta-Jones says she always wanted to play Turner. "It's just a great, great role," she says, admitting she's also a bit nervous about it. "I've got it in my head that the studio will turn around halfway through filming and go, 'She doesn't look like her!' "

The film will be directed by Adrian Lyne ("Fatal Attraction," "Unfaithful"). Zeta-Jones says the role of daughter Cheryl hasn't been cast.

Zeta-Jones is not only watching all of Turner's old movies, she has a secret weapon in the research department -- and he often sits across from her for Sunday dinners at the Douglas pad.

"My father-in-law, Kirk Douglas, is going to be my research engine," she says. "He's my Google when it comes to Lana Turner." (Douglas starred with Turner in the 1952 film "The Bad and the Beautiful.")

Zeta-Jones says they won't shy away from the rougher bedroom scenes that reportedly were part of the Turner-Stompanato heat fest. "It will make for some great screen moments," she purrs.

Meanwhile, Zeta-Jones locks lips with Antonio Banderas in "The Legend of Zorro," due out Oct. 28.

Big Picture News Inc.

ighRoller Magazine Sponsors One of the Biggest and Most Happening Events in Hollywood: the Antik Denim VIP After Party and Debut Show

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 18, 2005 -- Antik Denim is the hottest designer, boutique and brand to explode into L.A.’s in-crowd. This October 18, Antik Denim will be celebrating its debut show and one of the most anticipated After Parties among the young hippest crowd of Hollywood. With a western theme and cowboy boots welcome on the red carpet, this party will be seeing the presence of some of the hottest film and music stars of the moment: Jessica Simpson, Eva Longoria, Jenny McCarthy, Carmen Electra, Terri Hatcher, Lindsay Lohan, Katie Holmes, Nicole Ritchie, Rob Thomas, Jamie Foxx, Gwen Stefani, Keanu Reeves, Jared Leto, Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johansson, Owen Wilson and many more.

Press coverage on the runway will be extensive, including over a hundred prominent outlets using still photographers, videographers, journalists, editors, many of whom begin during seating period by shooting and interviewing VIPs and celebs as well as set up, gift bags, sponsor partners, and other news pegs – resulting in numerous feature stories.

The After Party will also be covered extensively by a full press-line, including stills, videos and interviews. Among the many covering outlets you will see People Magazine, In Touch, US Weekly, Elle, Forbes, The Washington Post, ET, Access and many, many more.

Group therapy

by /Interview by Gary M. Kramer / 10-05-2005

Filmmaker Mike Mills

Mike Mills’ screen adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel, Thumbsucker, is a coming of age dramedy about Justin (Lou Pucci), a teenager who’s trying to kick the titular addiction with the help of his orthodontist, played by Keanu Reeves. Honolulu Weekly met with Mills and Reeves to discuss their bad habits.

What attracted you to Walter Kirn’s novel?

Mills: When I first read the book, the thing that stuck out to me was the way Kirn showed family relationships in a really honest way. It was not contrived, nor did he make fun of people. I like that kind of compassion for the characters. It echoed my family, so it quickly became a really cathartic personal project for me. That’s what kept me going. After a while, I felt it was my story, my family.

Is Justin’s thumbsucking an addiction, an act of regression or a metaphor for innocence?

Mills: It works on many levels. It is an addiction—a way for Justin to deal with his anxiety and fears. It’s self-soothing. And when it is taken away, there are replacements, a series of substitutes—Ritalin, pot or sex. On another level, hopefully we can go, “I don’t suck my thumb, but I have some secrets,” or “I have some things about myself that I would rather put a mask on, and if people knew this secret thing about me, I’d be a little less lovable.” I think everyone in the movie is putting on masks. It is exciting to me when they make their shifts.

Keanu, how did you get involved in this movie?

Reeves: I was looking for work, I read the script. It’s a great role. I liked [the character] Perry’s richness of feeling. I don’t know another way to describe it. I believed in it.

Keanu, you are a big name in a small film. How was it to make a small movie?

Reeves: I’m just here to tell the story and do the work. I’m really happy with the film. My hopes and expectations were realized. The humanity and humor and insightfulness and intelligence—that’s what I read, and that’s what I experienced.

Mills: He never said “I’m special,” or “I’m different.” Working with Keanu was much like working with electricians or the grip—someone who wants to come to work.The worst thing you can do is pay too much attention to him.

So how do you deal with fear and shame?

Mills: I develop complicated careers where you have to talk to strangers. That’s actually a really honest answer.

Reeves: Aaay! Not well.

How long did you suck your thumb?

Mills: I wasn’t a thumbsucker. I am sure I did [it], but I wasn’t a prolonged thumbsucker. I had all the anxiety. I should have sucked my thumb—it would have made my life easier—but I didn’t. In doing this movie, I’ve had dozens of people come up to me and say, “I suck my thumb.”

What were you both like as teenagers?

Mills: We had this crazy, rascally gang…(laughs). I really wanted to live in a whale. It seemed so fucking cool.

Reeves: I always wanted to rob a bank when I was little. It sounded like fun. The plotting, the planning, the danger. Teenager—that’s a big stretch in time, isn’t it? In developmental aspects.

Mills: So many different phases.

What was your favorite phase?

Reeves: [laughs, blushes]

You’re blushing.

Reeves: Of course! Thank God! Thank God, I have something to blush for. Imagine if I didn’t. It would be like aaahhhh!

Exclusive Interview: Keanu Reeves "Thumbsucker"

Posted: Monday, October 9th 2005 5:39PM
Author: Paul Fischer
Location: Toronto, ON

One had the distinct impression that Keanu Reeves would rather be anywhere than talking to the press following the Toronto Film Festival screening of Thumbsucker, in which the actor plays a philosophical dentist. Often answering questions with an overt reluctance, Reeves does manage to maintain a certain sense of humour, bantering more with the film's director, Mike Mills, than with reporters. Always and consistently managing to maintain a veneer when it comes to the press, the actor admits it was fun to play this character because it's someone we've never seen from him, who was last on screen in January's Constantine. " I didn't hope to repeat myself."

There is little chance of that occurring in this small, quirky comedy in which Reeves manages to remain in the background, before adding comic moments to a scene. Asked if it was refreshing or a release for him to be able to do a smaller film such as Thumbsucker as opposed to a big studio movie where there's so much more riding on him, the 41-year old actor offers an initial laugh. "Well if you put it that way... You know, in terms of scale - no. But I would just say that the material itself was not so much liberating but enjoyable, just dealing with a kind of naturalistic piece for a change."

Reeves says that at this point of his career, he's searching for as much variety as possible. "I've been trying to work and working on Thumbsucker was great with a wonderful cast and a great role. I mean the working experience was great." Even in trying to get Keanu to discuss the parallels between his own anti-Hollywood journey, and the journeys traversed by the characters in Thumbsucker, was a challenge. "To go to work on something that one has a feeling for and believes in like I do and did for Thumsucker is a really good day and the story I got to tell as Perry Lyman, is kind of a tent pole that the film hangs on. That's one of the better days that I get to do that as an artist."

Despite his varying choices, Reeves emphatically denies that he is becoming more selective these days, to a point, as he continues to embark on the next phase of his career. "It's just the kind of things that arise are limited. If I have the ability to decide what I get to do, great, but writers also have to write something and meet the directors, and producers have to want to do it."

Reeves' next slate of films further proves his diversity. "I did a film with Richard Linklater which is called A Scanner Darkly, a Philip K. Dick adaptation. I did a film called The Lake House with Alejandro Agresti, a romance with Sandra Bullock." And despite recent claims on the internet, there is definitely no Constantine 2 in his future. "we didn't quite get to make it so if there is a sequel, it won't be from me."

At the time we spoke, the actor says that he wasn't booked for anything else. Finally asked if he has a career plan or flies by the seat of his pants, Reeves laughs. "Is there anything in between?" The actor does admit, though, that these are creatively rewarding times. "You know what? I'll just say that I'm 41 now and I feel things differently. It's a clich・but I mean in the sense that there's a kind of enrichening, a deepening of good and bad."

Hollywood film pays homage to Ore. town

Hollywood hit "Thumbsucker," which stars Keanu Reaves and follows the story of a 17-year-old boy who still sucks his thumb, was filmed in Beaverton.

In press materials, director Mike Mills gushed about the town - except he called it "Beaverwood, Oregon."

In its review of the movie, the New York Times referred to Beaverwood in its opening paragraph.

And in the credits, the filmmaker also botched the name of the town's mayor, Rob Drake, referring to him instead as "Roger Drake."

While it's always troubling when Hollywood gets major details wrong, the $1 million the crew spent in Washington County and spreading the good word about Oregon is bound to go a long way, said Bob Schmaling, an official with the Oregon Film & Video Office.

Constantine 2 Lives Sans Reeves

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who produced the supernatural thriller Constantine, told SCI FI Wire that he is definitely interested in doing a sequel, but was not aware that star Keanu Reeves has said he wouldn't be a part of it. "I love that character," di Bonaventura said during an interview while promoting his latest film, Doom. "I'd love to do another. [I'd love to] call Warner Brothers and push on it."

When told that Reeves told SCI FI Wire he probably wouldn't agree to a sequel, di Bonaventura looked over at his Doom co-producer, John Wells. "We hadn't heard that," di Bonaventura said.

The movie, based on the DC Vertigo comic book Hellblazer, made $229 million domestically, and cost $100 million to make. At the time of the film's release, Reeves said that he thought the Constantine character was one of the most well-rounded parts he's ever played on film. But in a recent interview at the Toronto Film Festival, he said that he thought the producers were disappointed with the box-office performance of the movie.

Di Bonaventura, however, insisted that although nothing is being currently planned, he and the other producers have not ruled out a sequel film. "We'd love to see a new Constantine," he said. "We had a good time making that movie. I'd love to do it again. It's just not in the works right now. ... He's such a great character I'd love to do it again."

Actor takes on the role of New Age orthodontist in 'Thumbsucker'

Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel
Oct. 8, 2005 12:00 AM

TORONTO - Inscrutable.

That's what Keanu Reeves is.

That's the public face he puts on for journalists, the folks who long ago tagged him perma-dude, the actor with the cool name and surfer-dim vocabulary. advertisement

"Vacant-looking," critic Leonard Maltin labeled him.

You don't get much out of him in interviews. Sometimes that's because he doesn't have much to say. But sometimes, it's because the press, even in small group settings such as this one, can't resist riffing on the first fragment of whatever he wants to say. He never gets to finish a thought.

Then again, there's a reason the small studio releasing the indie "Thumbsucker" has paired him with his director, Mike Mills, for interviews. And it's not just "that the movie isn't about Keanu," as the publicist says. Mills, a first-time filmmaker from the world of graphic design (think album covers), is here to fill in the blanks that Reeves leaves between thoughts.

But really, the guy is perfectly capable of expressing himself. And if people are saying that his odd, New Age guru/orthodontist in "Thumbsucker" is the role he was born to play, he'll run with it. A little.

"I liked his richness of feeling," says Reeves, 41. "I don't know how else to describe it. No matter what he was doing, he felt it. He just seemed so open."

If the ortho-doc seems like an adult, self-mocking version of the "Whoa, dude" Reeves we've all grown to expect, well, that's not his fault.

"I didn't think I was doing that in this role," he says, scratching his scruffy 20-day-plus beard. "But maybe I'm naive."

That gets a laugh, as does his take on the stardom that seems to have sat in his lap for the past 15 years.

"It's all drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll, every day," he growls. "24-7, 3-6-5."

He kids.

As does his co-star, Tilda Swinton, who shepherded this project about a functionally dysfunctional family (she plays the mom) dealing with a potentially brilliant 17-year-old who still sucks his thumb (Lou Pucci).

"I kept a poster of Keanu in 'The Matrix' on my wall throughout the whole preproduction of this film," she says. "I knew if he stayed with the project we might actually get it made. He was my 'power animal.' "

Reeves had the good taste to see, in the script from Walter Kirn's novel, a good movie. He wouldn't be the star. He wouldn't rack up a "Matrix" or "Constantine" payday ($15 million plus), or the perks.

But his name would get it made. And it did.

"The humanity of the piece, the humor and insightfulness, and intelligence, they were what I read, and what I experienced when I got to see what was on the screen," Reeves says. "I'm really happy with the film. In terms of my hopes and expectations, they were realized. It's a great role, and I had a great time performing it."

Mills says that Reeves, who has for years earned several times more than the entire budget of indie films such as this one, doesn't do "the star thing." Especially on the set.

"He never, with words or anything else, said 'I'm special or different' and never asked for anything special," says Mills. "Working with Keanu is like working with one of my electricians or the grip or anybody. The worst thing you could do was pay too much attention to him."

"I'm just there to try and tell the story," Reeves says. "I can't deal with other people's idea of who I am supposed to be. I'm just there to work."

It's a dream project for Mills, who came to see it as his own story. It's a breakout piece for young actor Pucci.

And for Reeves? He picks up some of his best reviews. And he returns to the city where he grew up (Toronto), in triumph.

"I remember I saw 'Blood Simple' here, which was the first time I ever experienced the Toronto Film Festival," Reeves says. "What was that, in like 1983 or something? 1984? Far back. Years ago, anyway.

"I saw this incredible festival, from that angle, growing up here. I remember, from that time, just waiting for that film festival guide, and every year, you'd go, 'Oh my God, there are so many incredible movies here!'

"And then to be here and have a film here is just exciting, no other way to put it. I remember the first time I came here as an actor, it was for 'Prince of Pennsylvania' (1988). I'd always wanted to act 'in pitchas.' To finally get to do that, and to come back to the hometown for a movie, was a really good day."

Future good days? There's another comic adaptation ("The Night Watchman"), and a challenging role as movie star Lana Turner's mobster lover, Johnny Stompanato, in the works, co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

"Johnny wants to self-realize," Reeves says of that role. "But there's all these boxes that he's put in. And I think he's trying to get out of them.

"He wants to be in love with this woman. He wants to create. He wants to be a producer. He doesn't want to just be where he's come from. He wants to be more than that.

"I always think of him as kind of a beauty and the beast. He wants to be more than the brute."

Kind of like "the dude" who wants to be more than the dude?

"Hey," he grins, readying his stock answer for every "Why choose that role?" question. "I was just looking for work."

Family Matters

with Thumbsucker,director Mike Milles has crafted a moving film...abaout a boy and his thumb

By Peter Davis phorographs by Mark Bothwick Styling by April Napier/Magnet NY・NY Shot at Smashbox studios

Actors often describe film sets as being like weird, dysfunctional families. That perfectly describes the impressive, eclectic cast of Thumbsucker: By the end of filming director Mike Mills's feature debut, the actors had become as tight-knit as any loving but sometimes screwy clan. The indie film focuses on the emotional bonds and breakdowns of the Cobbs, a suburban family of four living in the Pacific Northwest. Mills, who earned hipster cred for his work as a clothing designer, video director and graphic artist -- he created album art for French synth-pop duo Air and music videos for Moby and Cibo Matto -- is obsessed with family dynamics. "Everything in your whole life somehow ricochets from your family," he says, sipping lemonade at a cafe near his house in Silver Lake. "That's a lot of what the film is about."

Mills adapted the movie (which took years of financial wrangling to reach the screen) from Walter Kirn's moody novel of the same name. The Cobb clan consists of Audrey (Tilda Swinton), the mother; Mike (Vincent D'Onofrio), the father; and Joel (Chase Offerle), the precocious youngest son. Firstborn Justin, however, played by relative newcomer Lou Pucci, is at the film's emotional core. Wise beyond his 17 years, Justin grows convinced that his mother is having an affair with a troubled TV star (Benjamin Bratt), whom she is treating at a nearby drug-rehab clinic. The boy's compulsive thumb sucking emblematizes the anxiety he feels over his family's dissolution. "Justin thinks that his mom is too good for the family, that she is going to leave," Mills explains. "I can completely relate to that. When I read that in the novel, I started crying." Rounding out the cast is Kelli Garner as Rebecca, Justin's first girlfriend; Keanu Reeves as Perry, a New Age orthodontist who mentors Justin; and Vince Vaughn, who plays Justin's rambunctious but cripplingly insecure debate coach.

Mills made the film at a time when his personal life was being turned upside down. Shortly before producer Bob Stephenson gave him Kirn's novel in 1999, Mills's mother died. "I was with her a lot. It was one of those big life shifts. When I came out of that, I had to do something important." At the time Mills was toiling on an original script about a family but found it to be too "heavy and self-involved." But after he finished reading Thumbsucker, he was determined to secure the rights to adapt it into a film. "I realized that the family was my family, especially Justin. I didn't suck my thumb or anything, but I so relate to his relationship with his mom. It became a cathartic movie to me in more ways than one." By the time he had finished the film, Mills's father had passed away, too.

Art-house queen Tilda Swinton, the ethereal star of Orlando, The Deep End and Young Adam, was the first actor to sign on. Swinton was so smitten with the project that she became an executive producer. "As with anything worth doing, there were lots of people who said we were insane," she recalls, her green eyes narrowing. "It took a while to get funding." Mills was often convinced the plug would be pulled on the project. Swinton rallied to keep his hopes alive. "We met for the first time with this film, but I feel like we've known each other forever," she says. Mills shares the sentiment: "If I have a problem, I call Tilda. She was my biggest confidante. Making this film, I was told no and that I'm not good enough more than I ever have before in my whole life. Tilda was always there, giving me encouragement to be myself and do the things I wasn't sure I could."

The director's previous, longer-form narrative projects include a documentary called Deformer (about skate legend and artist Ed Templeton) and a tour diary for Air. Thumbsucker has a similar cinema verite feel. The scenes in the Cobb house are played as though the camera were hidden in its walls, capturing the family in their rawest moments. A lengthy rehearsal process and lots of improvisation helped create a natural environment. "By the time we started shooting, we already knew each other so well and had built the characters so much," Pucci says. "The improv was scary as hell. You're putting yourself out there. It's one of the weirdest things to come up with ideas that aren't exactly yours but are from your character." At one point Scarlett Johansson was set to play Rebecca (Kelli Garner's role) and Elijah Wood was cast as Justin, but by the time the money had been raised, Wood was 21, too old to portray Justin. It's hard to imagine anyone but Pucci in the part. Mills admits that the producers were eager to cast a bigger name, but Swinton credits Mills's knack for casting as one of the reasons why the family members feel so familiar and real. "We were all very compatible. We got used to each other very quickly."

Also evident is Mills's obsessive attention to detail. To prepare Pucci for filming, he instructed the novice to wrap his thumb in duct tape for two weeks. "I couldn't tell anyone what the duct tape was for," Pucci recalls, flipping a sheaf of his pin-straight hair off his forehead. "If anyone asked, I had to make up a new reason every time. Having that tape on your thumb makes you feel embarrassed." Justin eventually winds up with a Ritalin habit and does a stint as a stoner. Pucci claims that he never dabbled in drugs at school, so to ensure he projected the physical and mental appearance of being high, Mills had Pucci wear weights on his legs during rehearsal. Even with the cameos, like Bratt's send-up of a TV star with an inflated ego and a nasty dope problem, Mills was meticulous. "I was knocked out by the level of attention that Mike paid to finding the lives of these characters," Bratt says. "I worked for only three days of shooting. Before I arrived on the set, Mike had given me a four-page bio on my character. A director has never done that for me before. Usually that is the job of the actor."

In another small role, Keanu Reeves manages to transmit deep emotions in a few short scenes. Crowned with a shaggy wig, Reeves's hippie-dippy, soul-searching orthodonist is both comic and poignant. "I really liked the script," Reeves says, sucking deeply on a cigarette. "I asked Mike if I could play Perry. Perry is a mentor, but he is an adult going through what Lou's character is going through. He's searching. It's a beautiful and emotionally smart film. It was nice to go from the formalism I felt in The Matrix to the naturalism in this film." The showiest of the small roles is Vince Vaughn's Mr. Geary. "Vince is so funny and improvisational," Mills reports. "You just have to let him go and do what he's so good at."

Born in Berkeley and raised with two sisters in Santa Barbara, Mills says that television shows like The Brady Bunch, Emergency and The Six Million Dollar Man had a huge impact on his life. "The storytelling of TV has affected my understanding of the world. I grew up in a house where there wasn't a ton of talking or explaining the world. TV was talking to me more than my parents were. So making movies about life seems like the most important thing to do, because I'm fighting back at those devils that taunted me through childhood." At 18, Mills moved to Manhattan to study at Cooper Union. One of his professors, a political conceptual artist named Hans Haacke, was a big influence. "He taught me that everything could be art. That's what my career has kind of been. I've done graphics, film stuff. The most important thing is your idea."

Mills's concepts have led to collaborations with Andy Spade (including Paperboys), director Sofia Coppola, Marc Jacobs and Beck. Corporations like Nike, Levi's, MasterCard and Volkswagen have tapped his subversive take on pop culture for print and TV commercials. In 1996 Mills and director Roman Coppola founded an agency, The Directors Bureau, which represents directors Sofia Coppola, Geoff McFetridge and Shynola, and from which Mills only recently amicably resigned. Mills plans to retire from making ads. "For the last six years, it's become the way I make money. From now on I'm just doing what I want to do. Doing ads was my film school. But that period is over. I like the idea of starting over. I like the idea of losing everything and what that does for you. It gives you a million opportunities. It's an important part of the creative process." Although he's a prolific artist, Mills has always opted to show his work outside the gallery world. In a Warholian manner, he uses T-shirts, bags, stickers and posters as his canvases. He has a store in Tokyo called Humans, for which he designs clothing and fabric. One of his creations for the collection is a ribbon on which the words "Children live out their parents' unconscious" are printed. A green T-shirt has the word "Child" across the front in bold, white lettering. It's completely Millsian. "The gallery world is too exclusive and rarefied. I like art on the Coke can or on your shirt or some part of your life."

Mills is currently penning an original script. Again the subject is family. "It's going to be weirder, funnier and rawer. With Thumbsucker, I feel like I just dipped my toe in, and now I want to jump in as much as I can. Family and love are themes that I am drawn to. I want to go back to that source. The action is around the kitchen table. That's where people get hurt and they win or they [end up jumping] off buildings and live." Like the directors he admires -- John Cassavetes, Hal Ashby and Bob Rafelson -- Mills will have no problems attracting talented actors to work with. "Mike loves real people and real moments," gushes Kelli Garner, who made her screen debut in Mills's short 1999 film The Architecture of Reassurance. "He's brilliant that way. I love Mike. I've had a little-girl crush on him. I would do any project with him." A workaholic, Mills laments that he has sacrificed a personal life for his career. Moving to L.A. six years ago has helped him enjoy friendships and the simplicity of life. "I was getting nostalgic for the place I grew up in, for the plants, the trees, the air, all that. In a really good way, I'm less ambitious." Making Thumbsucker transformed him. "It was intensive therapy for me. It gave me permission to be messy and complicated and more me. It changed my brain. It changed me."

At 39, Mills has mellowed slightly. But he still has a driving urge to tell stories, whether on the screen or on a T-shirt. Before he gets up from lunch to hop back into his car and drive home along the palm tree?lined streets of East L.A., he poses a question with the authority of a declaration carved in stone: "Why not go where your creative road wants to take you?" Sounds like a maxim that would read great on a T-shirt.

* Tilda wears a blouse by 3.1 Phillip Lim. Hair by Clyde Haygood/Fred Segal Beauty using L'Oreal Professionnel. Makeup by Troy Jensen.

* Benjamin wears a shirt by Wrangler47, sweater by Paul Smith. Grooming by Cemal/www.studio-13.us using Murad.

* Kelli wears a hoodie from Squaresville, jeans by Habitual. Hair by Clyde Haygood/Fred Segal Beauty using L'Oreal Professionnel. Makeup by Troy Jensen.

* Lou wears vintage Levi's from Wasteland. Grooming by Manuella/www.artistsbytimothypriano.com using Clinique.

* Grooming for Keanu by Natalia Bruschi. Makeup by Geri Oppenheim.

Keanu, Leo in much-anticipated remakes

[Snipped for Keanu]

First posted 05:38pm (Mla time) Sept 30, 2005
By Rito P. Asilo
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on Page A3-1 of the October 1, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

FROM GERRY ALBOS: “Is it true that Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock will reunite in a romantic drama?”

Yes, Gerry, the stars of “Speed,” team up anew in a remake of the bittersweet Korean romantic drama, Hyun-seung Lee’s “Il Mare.” Bullock and Reeves will play a couple who exchanges love letters -- in different years: She’s in 1997, he’s in 1999!

The incredible Zen of Keanu

Reeves takes on the role of a New Age orthodontist in 'Thumbsucker.'

Keanu's new character (WARREN TODA/EFE)
Oct 1, 2005

TORONTO -- Inscrutable.

That's what Keanu Reeves is.

That's the public face he puts on for journalists, the folks who long ago tagged him perma-dude, the actor with the cool name and surfer-dim vocabulary.

"Vacant-looking," critic Leonard Maltin labeled him.

You don't get much out of him in interviews. Sometimes that's because he doesn't have much to say. But sometimes, it's because the press, even in small group settings such as this one, can't resist riffing on the first fragment of whatever he wants to say. He never gets to finish a thought.

Then again, there's a reason the small studio releasing the indie Thumbsucker, which opens Friday, has paired him with his director, Mike Mills, for interviews. And it's not just "that the movie isn't about Keanu," as the publicist says. Mills, a first-time filmmaker from the world of graphic design (think album covers), is here to fill in the blanks that Reeves leaves between thoughts.

But really, the guy is perfectly capable of expressing himself. And if people are saying that his odd, New Age guru/orthodontist in Thumbsucker is the role he was born to play, he'll run with it. A little.

"I liked his richness of feeling," says Reeves, 41. "I don't know how else to describe it. No matter what he was doing, he felt it. He just seemed so open."

Low-key star

If the ortho-doc seems like an adult, self-mocking version of the "Whoa, dude" Reeves we've all grown to expect, well, that's not his fault.

"I didn't think I was doing that in this role," he says, scratching his scruffy 20-day-plus beard. "But maybe I'm naive."

That gets a laugh, as does his take on the stardom that seems to have sat in his lap for the past 15 years.

"It's all drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll, every day," he growls. "24-7, 3-6-5."

He kids.

As does his co-star, Tilda Swinton, who shepherded this project about a functionally dysfunctional family (she plays the mom) dealing with a potentially brilliant 17-year-old who still sucks his thumb (Lou Pucci).

"I kept a poster of Keanu in The Matrix on my wall throughout the whole preproduction of this film," she says. "I knew if he stayed with the project we might actually get it made. He was my 'power animal.' "

Reeves had the good taste to see, in the script from Walter Kirn's novel, a good movie. He wouldn't be the star. He wouldn't rack up a Matrix or Constantine payday ($15 million plus), or the perks.

But his name would get it made. And it did.

"The humanity of the piece, the humor and insightfulness, and intelligence, they were what I read, and what I experienced when I got to see what was on the screen," Reeves says. "I'm really happy with the film. In terms of my hopes and expectations, they were realized. It's a great role, and I had a great time performing it."

Mills says that Reeves, who has for years earned several times more than the entire budget of indie films such as this one, doesn't do "the star thing." Especially on the set.

"He never, with words or anything else, said 'I'm special or different' and never asked for anything special," says Mills. "Working with Keanu is like working with one of my electricians or the grip or anybody. The worst thing you could do was pay too much attention to him."

"I'm just there to try and tell the story," Reeves says. "I can't deal with other people's idea of who I am supposed to be. I'm just there to work."

Challenging role ahead

It's a dream project for Mills, who came to see it as his own story. It's a breakout piece for young actor Pucci.

And for Reeves? He picks up some of his best reviews. And he returns to the city where he grew up (Toronto), in triumph.

"I remember I saw Blood Simple here, which was the first time I ever experienced the Toronto Film Festival," Reeves says. "What was that, in like 1983 or something? 1984? Far back. Years ago, anyway.

"I saw this incredible festival, from that angle, growing up here. I remember, from that time, just waiting for that film festival guide, and every year, you'd go, 'Oh my God, there are so many incredible movies here!'

"And then to be here and have a film here is just exciting, no other way to put it. I remember the first time I came here as an actor, it was for Prince of Pennsylvania [1988]. I'd always wanted to act 'in pitchas.' To finally get to do that, and to come back to the hometown for a movie, was a really good day."

Future good days? There's another comic adaptation (The Night Watchman), and a challenging role as movie star Lana Turner's mobster lover, Johnny Stompanato, in the works, co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

"Johnny wants to self-realize," Reeves says of that role. "But there's all these boxes that he's put in. And I think he's trying to get out of them.

"He wants to be in love with this woman. He wants to create. He wants to be a producer. He doesn't want to just be where he's come from. He wants to be more than that.

"I always think of him as kind of a beauty and the beast. He wants to be more than the brute."

Kind of like "the dude" who wants to be more than the dude?

"Hey," he grins, readying his stock answer for every "Why choose that role?" question. "I was just looking for work."

Roger Moore can be reached at RMoore@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5369.

COMING FRIDAYCheck out Roger Moore's 4-star review of Thumbsucker Oct. 7 in Calendar or at orlandosentinel.com/movies.