Throughout the entire decade of the 1990's, Keanu Reeves' star rose slowly but surely to prominence, with films like Point Break, Speed, and of course The Matrix. At the turn of the century, Reeves was a huge movie star with a lot of clout after his first experiment with the knowledge of kung fu. However, as the ensuing decade went by, a string of flops and modest hits outside of his obvious Matrix success didn't do any favors for his career. Which has left us with a world where Keanu Reeves is sad, because not as many studios want to work with Keanu Reeves.
IndieWire ran a rather revealing interview with Keanu Reeves, who is currently promoting his new movie John Wick. While he's been excited to direct with Man Of Tai Chi, as well as kicking unholy amounts of ass in his latest outing, he's undoubtedly fallen into a patch in his career where the major studios aren't calling as often as they used to. Asked how he feels about that particular situation, Reeves replied,
"No, it sucks - but it's just the way it is. You can have positive and negative experiences, but what I like about studios are the resources and the worlds that they can create. Obviously, a lot of good filmmakers work on studio movies. Even when I was working on studio movies more often, I was always doing independent movies. So for me, that was just not happening."
It seems like Keanu Reeves isn't upset about the indie path he's been treading as of late, it's just that he'd like to work on the big budget, huge scope pictures that used to come his way on a more frequent basis. It's no wonder he recently jumped onto the short list of Doctor Strange contenders, considering his own strange demeanor and his work in action movies not only high in visual effects content, but also in their action and stunt quantities.
Make no mistake: Keanu Reeves isn't one of those leads that got high on his own supply and stopped making big budget pictures in favor of "serious indie pictures". If anything, Reeves has favored himself as a child of both worlds, as he expressed later on in the interview:
"...I want to keep going, making things, and telling stories. I want to be able to do that — to be an actor, a director, to produce, you know? If we're going to do a delineation between studio and independent [films], I was always hoping to do both. "
With a lot of buzz surrounding his performance in John Wick, it might soon be safe to start thinking that Keanu Reeves is back.
John Wick hits conventional and IMAX theaters on Thursday night.
