REEVES, KEANU: SWEET NOVEMBER

Having amassed an impressive resume, he still finds time to tour with his band, Dogstar, and yet has three films chasing each other in releases around the world; The Gift, co-starring Cate Blanchett and Hilary Swank; Sweet November - in which he plays Nelson Moss, an uptight workaholic who learns what love is about from a dying woman played by Charlize Theron; and the long-awaited two sequels to The Matrix, which bring him back to Australia in mid-late 2001.

Sweet November is an incredibly romantic movie. What is the most romantic thing you have ever done for somebody?
I have not done the serenading thing and I haven’t eloped. I have done the flowers and I have done the visits and the trips, but I guess in terms of big gestures I haven’t really made any. I learned a lot from my character . . . what I have to do.

What exactly did you learn from Nelson in terms of romance?
Well, gentlemen, the Nelson Moss book of romance; sing her a song, don’t send her one box of chocolates, send her fifteen; maybe a dance; take her out. Yeah, those are the things. Something to make her laugh, to make her smile, something for the heart.

How did it feel to shoot the scene where you’re wearing a tuxedo serenading her?
It was fantastic. There was this thing going on with Charlize where I wouldn’t tell her what song I was going to sing. She would try to get me to sing her something but I wouldn’t tell her, so when I got up there she was surprised and it felt great to look at her and sing her a love song.

Did you base this character on anybody you knew?
I didn’t have one person but I did get the chance to meet some advertising people and go to some offices and see presentation materials and what they do when they’re trying to get an account. A couple of them just shared their experiences with me: the pressures, the thrills, the obsession, so that really helped me and informed me. When giving a presentation, my character can be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and not even know it.

Like most of us, I’m sure you’ve had your own experiences dealing with somebody with an illness. What did you learn from that?
I think my experiences are part of why I did this film. I have had almost the same situation in terms of loving someone with an illness. For me being able to show that through the film was great. Sometimes the choices they make are hard to take but you have to give them their space. Something that dynamic, that I have experienced, I wanted to show on film.

In The Gift, you play a villain and you really go the distance creating a character who is an abusive, creepy wife-beater. Did you enjoy that?
To play Danny Barksdale in The Gift was fantastic for me. This was a great character part. It was a great opportunity for (director) Sam Raimi to give me that part and as an artist, it was very challenging and good fun and I got to learn things and experience things as an actor that I had not had before.

You are filming the next two sequels to The Matrix in Australia. What will you bring with you?
One thing I have to bring is just true core commitment to the film itself, to creating it and being what the directors want. I’ll also bring my phone book so I can call my friends, and some pictures, but other than that just some T-shirts and suits and my script. And a motorcycle and a bike.

I read you injured yourself training for the film. Is that true?
I hurt my ankle so I had it in a cast for four days, but it was blown out of proportion in the media. I don’t do stunts; I let the stuntmen do them. I do hope to be able to do as much as I can for myself and the directors.

Can you comment on the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which has similar effects to The Matrix.
Yeah, Wu Ping, who did the action sequences, designed both Crouching Tiger and The Matrix. He has been doing fantastic work for thirty years and I feel like those two films are a continuum of his work, but with different influences. The (Wachowsky) brothers could move the camera in ways that no one else could and Wu Ping took advantage of that. Crouching Tiger was a beautiful and poetic film, and I think perhaps the success of The Matrix helped to popularize those types of sequences, where they are flying and floating.

Sometimes it takes years for a film to take on any historical significance but The Matrix made a huge impact right away. Did you realize it would be so groundbreaking while you were making it?
No, I didn’t. When I saw the storyboards and sketches that Larry and Andrew Wachowsky created, I knew they were doing something that I really enjoyed and something that I found special. I knew what they were trying to do with the cameras when they created bullet time was new and I just liked their ambition in trying to tell this story. During the filming they put together a short seven-minute clip to show the actors what they were doing and I saw that and thought it was great but I had no idea how it would be received.

How do you deal with fans and that aspect of your job?
During the course of the day, if someone comes up and says hello, I really enjoy that. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, if you are at dinner of in mid-conversation or something, but usually, it’s okay.

You seem like a sensitive guy but the movie business can be very tough. Are there times you’ve had to compromise your kindness for the sake of business?
Because I don’t produce my own films, most of the time I have to deal with getting the business. That’s really where I have the power, or influence in the creative environment with my director. I can make my own creative decision, and I can to a certain extent decide what I do and do not want to do.

Published April 26, 2001