Keanu Reeves has played a number of iconic roles in his career, but before he was John Wick or Neo he was Johnny Utah. While maybe not his greatest movie, Point Break is something of a cult classic that has a lot of fans. Reeves appeared alongside the late Patrick Swayze in that one, and during a recent AMA Reeves called out Swayze saying that working with him was the highlight of the film.
A fan on Reddit recently asked Keanu Reeves what his favorite part of making Point Break was. Rather than pointing out a particularly memorable scene or revealing a hilarious outtake, Reeves said that what he remembers most about the film was working with Swayze and the example that he apparently set. The actor stated…
Working with Patrick Swayze. He was a gentleman and a total pro, a movie star, an inspiration.
In 1991 when Point Break was released, Patrick Swayze was the undeniable star of the film. While Keanu Reeves certainly wasn’t new to the industry by any means, he was years away from the massive popularity he would eventually achieve. Swayze was at the height of his popularity, having just come off Ghost with Demi Moore prior to the release of Point Break.
When Keanu Reeves calls Patrick Swayze an inspiration, he may not be speaking simply in a generally positive sense. There are a lot of people who probably use the words “gentleman,” “pro,” and “movie star” to describe Keanu Reeves today, he seems to be one of the more generally well-regarded actors in Hollywood today, not simply a good actor but a pretty good guy as well. It’s possible that Reeves learned a thing or two from Swayze during this production.
Patrick Swayze passed away in 2009 from pancreatic cancer. His death was certainly a shock to a lot of fans and friends. At 57 years of age Swayze certainly had potentially decades more of work in front of him and plenty of fans who wanted to see that. While we’ll never see Patrick Swayze again, we are seeing an example of just how much of an impact his work had on Hollywood. Jake Gyllenhaal is currently at work on a remake of Road House and a sequel to Dirty Dancing is also in development. There has also been talk of a remake of Ghost in recent days.
Whether either of these films will make reference to Swayze or his characters remains to be seen, though that seems all but assured for the Dirty Dancing sequel, part of what will draw fans to these new movies is the memory of what came before. It sounds like Keanu Reeves himself will probably be checking them out. He was as big a fan of Patrick Swayze as anybody.
