Keanu Reeves

About

Keanu Charles Reeves (born September 2nd, 1964) is a Canadian actor known for his performances in several major films including the 1989 comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the 1994 action film Speed, the science fiction trilogy The Matrix and its sequels, and the 2014 neo-noir film John Wick and it's sequels.

Acting Career

In his career, Keanu turns down big roles if he believes the character he would portray is too violent. He took a 90 percent pay cut on The Replacements just so Gene Hackman could be cast. Previously, he had deferred 2 million of his salary so that Al Pacino could be cast on The Devil's Advocate. Even then, he gives most of his earnings to charity and the backstage crew/people who help on the set.

Ode To Happiness

On June 17th, 2011, The A.V. Club^[10] reported that Keanu Reeves was had released a book titled "Ode to Happiness", which is described as "a grown-up's picture book" on the book's official Facebook page.^[11] The A.V. Club also reported that Keanu claims the book has nothing to do with the Sad Keanu Internet meme:

But just to be clear, Reeves also claims that “Keanu Is Sad” has absolutely nothing to do with his project. “Oh, the Internet deal," he says in the interview, taking great pains to pretend like he doesn’t think about it every single day, adding, "It was brought to my attention. Yeah, it was funny. But no, the book predates that by a long time. We finished it in August 2009.”

Reputation

Reeves has a reputation for being thoughtful and considerate with his fans. On March 24th, 2019, YouTuber catharine1967 posted a video that featured clips of Reeves joining his fellow passengers after their flight made an emergency landing. Reeves was filmed meeting with and helping the other passengers, as well as taking pictures with fans (shown below). The video received more than 154,000 views in three months (shown below).

On June 8th, Twitter^[1] user @KemziLinzi posted a series of photographs of Reeves posing for photographs with women. In each of the photos, an arrow points to Reeves' hands, which do not make contact with the woman's skin. The post received more than 400,000 likes and 80,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

Person of the Year Campaign

On June 12th, 2019, an anonymous Change.org ^[2] user known only as "John Doe" launched a campaign to "Make Keanu Reeves 2019 Times Person of the Year." They wrote, "Keanu is the most wholesome person alive, make him the person of the year!" The post received more than 31,000 signatures of its 35,000 signature goal in one week.

Several media outlets covered the campaign, including The Daily Dot,^[3] SF Gate,^[4] IGN,^[5] Comic Book Resources^[6] and more.

Kids React Episode

On June 18th, the FBE YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "Kids React to Keanu Reeves Memes" (shown below). In the video, one child stated that he did not think Reeves looked like a "legend" (shown below).

The video was heavily downvoted on YouTube, reaching 28,000 dislikes to 13,000 likes over the next week. Meanwhile, the @jakemcdermottofficial^[7] Instagram account posted a note addressing the comment, saying "I said he didn't look like a legend because he looked young and legends are usually old" along with the hashtags "#staypositive #imjust #reddit #stopbullying" (shown below). Within five days, the post gained over 1,800 likes.

On June 21st, YouTuber Grandayy tweeted^[8] about the controversy, condemning those who harassed the young boy on social media (shown below, left). Also on June 21st, /r/PewDiePieSubmissions moderator sloth_on_meth stickied a post condemning those who had targeted the young boy. The following day, Twitter user @Chinnerdomain^[9] tweeted that "gamers have been harassing a ten-year-old" (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Sad Keanu

Sad Keanu is a photoshopping trend based on a paparazzi photo of Keanu Reeves sitting on a park bench and (sort of) enjoying a sandwich by himself and was taken sometime in May 2010.

The popularity of the photoshop trend has created a spin-off series using other Keanu Reeves exploitables such as Sad Keanu in a Helmet, Happy Keanu and Tai Chi Keanu. It even caused a similar photoshop trend using the actor Laurence Fishburne (known for his role as Morpheus in The Matrix).

Conspiracy Keanu

Conspiracy Keanu is an Advice Animal image macro series featuring a still photo of Keanu Reeves wearing a frightened expression. The images are typically captioned with paranoid conjectures and shallow philosophical questions.

John Wick

John Wick is a 2014 neo-noir action film starring Keanu Reeves as the titular protagonist assassin, who seeks vengeance against mobsters for killing his dog. The sequel John Wick 2 is scheduled for release on February 10th, 2017.

Keanu Reeves Walking in Slow Motion

Keanu Reeves Walking In Slow Motion refers to a clip from the 2019 romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe in which actor Keanu Reeves, playing an exaggerated version of himself, enters a restaurant, the date of lead actress Ali Wong's character, Sasha. The humorous, slow-motion entrance was remixed on Twitter, as users set the scene to different songs.

Cyberpunk 2077 Keanu Reeves

Cyberpunk 2077 Keanu Reeves refers to character Johnny Silverhand of the 2020 role-playing video game Cyberpunk 2077, played by actor Keanu Reeves. Following the release of the trailer for the game at Microsoft's Xbox E3 2019 gaming conference, as well as the Keanu Reeves' presentation of the game, multiple memes referencing the actor's appearance in the game were posted online.

Personal Life

We all know Keanu Reeves through his acting career: he mostly plays the cool and stoic hero in works such as The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic, Speed, and Constantine. However, behind the cool name (Keanu means, "the coldness" in Hawaiian), cool shades, and the deadpan "Whoa…" lies a man with a very tragic past.

His father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr., abandoned him and his mother when he was 3 and has never reconnected with him. His mother, Patricia Bond, became a costume designer and showgirl who constantly remarried and divorced. This led to a constant moving, a series of different high schools, and a string of 3 stepfathers for Keanu. He had a key interest in hockey and was MVP of his hockey team, earning the nickname "The Wall", but his dream of playing in the Olympics ended after an injury. Afterwards, he dropped out of high school to become an actor, thus starting his career. He never obtained a high school diploma. Keanu has never married and avoids most relationships.

Search Interest

External References