Interview: Keanu Reeves
Space Man
Keanu Reeves puts his aloof demeanour and detached stare to work playing the alien Klaatu in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still
By Bob Strauss
The Day the Earth Stood Still stars Keanu Reeves as an alien who takes humanoid form.
The joke practically writes itself, doesn’t it? All together now: Is this typecasting or what?
After acting in films for half of his 44 years, Reeves remains enigmatic and otherworldly in many people’s minds. Equal parts goofball, naif and sphinx, Reeves projects a not-of-this-Earth quality that makes you wonder why he hasn’t played spacemen more often.
But in truth, the Canadian actor isn’t so far out. His background
may be more exotic than some, and it’s hard, if not impossible, to keep
track of the depth and nature of his romantic involvements. Yet there’s
something about his Beirut-born, Toronto-raised,
English-Hawaiian-Chinese makeup that lends him a universal quality mass
audiences have obviously responded to in hits ranging from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure to Speed to The Matrix.
And when we say universal, we don’t mean as in some far-flung part
of the galaxy. Although, when we asked Reeves about his latest sci-fi
spectacle, he initially responded a bit like somebody from another
planet.
A scene from The Day The Earth Stood Still |
“It’s a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and I play
Klaatu,” he explains somewhat robotically during an interview in Los
Angeles. “It’s got Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith, John
Cleese. And it’s kind of a reinvention/extension of the original.”
That’s data we could access ourselves. One of the first serious
science-fiction movies, Robert Wise’s 1951 classic starred Englishman
Michael Rennie as the herald of an outer space race who, with the help
of his super-android Gort, shuts down our world’s power systems so that
Earthlings might listen, undistracted, to his dire message.
The new version, directed by Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose),
keeps the big ’bot and the basic storyline, but puts a new spin on
Klaatu’s concerns and, with Reeves in the role, plays up the
character’s otherness. As he describes what goes on, the man who
mastered the Matrix warms up and becomes more idiosyncratically human.
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“Originally, Klaatu came down and he was kind of saying, ‘No more violence,’” Reeves explains. “It was a film born out of the Cold War, post-Second World War nuclear standoff. But this film is kind of oriented more about the Earth. It’s not environmental, but it’s kind of about the issue of the Earth. So, where the first was probably man against man, this is more man and nature, concerned with the way that we are being as humans now.”
There was, however, an accessible, reassuring side to Rennie’s alien that may not be as evident in Keanu/Klaatu. Can we trust that this 2.0 version has humanity’s best interests at heart?
“One of the lines is, ‘If the Earth dies you die, but if you die, the Earth survives,’” he tells us. “I’m a friend to the Earth, and I’m a threat to the humans if they don’t change their ways.”
And in case we don’t, Klaatu’s robo-sidekick is badder than ever. Not that Reeves ever got to play with his zap ray-spewing co-star during the film’s principal production in British Columbia.
“We never really met; Gort’s computer-generated,” explains Reeves . “We wanted him to look similar to the original, but with a more organic feel.”
All of which leads to an obvious question: Has Reeves jumped on the green bandwagon like many stars of his stature? His answer does little to dispel the enigma charge.
“I’m pretty under the radar with charities and causes,” he explains. “It’s just not my way to be publicly involved with those kinds of things. I have a foundation and there are things going on there. But I tend to keep in the background.”
Perhaps that has something to do with the personal nature of some of his causes. His sister Kim was diagnosed with leukemia in the 1990s, and Keanu has surely contributed to the fight against that disease.
There has been worse tragedy in his life, too; a former girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, was killed in an auto accident a little more than a year after the couple’s daughter was stillborn.
Understandably, Reeves doesn’t care to dwell on such things with the media. But he was genuinely surprised to hear that some think he’s opaque.
“I don’t know. Really?” he says. “I don’t feel like I’m inaccessible. I feel pretty open, at least with the people I work with. But maybe because, in interviews and stuff, I’m not big on speaking about [my] personal life. I talk about how I feel about work and things like that, so maybe that creates the illusion of being…underrepresenting.”
Reeves laughs. He evidently enjoys company and joking around. But the actor has obviously known what it means to be an outsider from an early age. After his American father abandoned the family, Reeves’ mom took them to Australia and New York before settling in Ontario, where young Keanu went through three stepfathers and four high schools.
But that unsettled childhood also exposed him to many different types of people and lifestyles. So much so that, when he encountered prejudice for the first time, he didn’t know what to make of it.
“I remember when I went to one high school, there were these racial and class issues and I was like, ‘What? What is that?’” he recalls. “So I really am glad to have the kind of perspective, especially coming from my youth and growing up with it, that didn’t include that. Racism is weird.”
Sounds a little naive; but then, can there be a better attitude for any human being to have? All added up, Keanu Reeves is just like any other citizen of the world.
And still a Canadian citizen, if you were wondering. Reeves has made a point of hanging onto his citizenship even though he hasn’t lived here in years. Besides, more important to his Canuck status than residency is the fact that he’s still into hockey.
“I play net,” says the artist formerly known as The Wall for his teenage goalie skills. “I haven’t been in a league since the mid-’90s. But I play pickup and I’ll play some charity games once in awhile. So not much has changed.”
Bob Strauss lives in L.A. where he writes about movies and filmmakers.
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KLAATU LIVES
Even if you haven’t seen the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, the name of Keanu Reeves’ character in the film, Klaatu, may sound familiar. And that’s because in the half-century since the first film came out, the name Klaatu has been woven into the fabric of pop culture.
1. The alien creature Klaatu makes his first appearance in issue #136 (1971) of Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk II comic book.
2. Ringo Starr dresses as Klaatu for the cover of his 1974 album, Goodnight Vienna.
3. In 1976, four mysterious Canadian musicians named their psychedelic pop band Klaatu. They scored a few minor hits, and because they didn’t reveal their identities, a rumour spread that they were actually The Beatles re-united. They weren’t. |
4.
Barack Obama supporters get into the act when they take a famous line
from the film, “Klaatu barada nikto,” and adapt it for a campaign
button that reads “Klaatu Barak Obama.”
5. Klaatu is the name of Jabba the Hutt’s servant, who appears in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
—Ingrid Randoja