How a run of tragedies almost ruined Keanu Reeves’ career: “I don’t think you ever work through it”
These days, Keanu Reeves has crystallized in the minds of moviegoers as the sweetest, kindest man in Hollywood. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the business with a bad word to say about him, and he’s one of the most purely beloved stars to audiences all over the world.
Now, while Wick may be cinema’s favourite unstoppable super-assassin, and viewers love nothing more than marvelling at Reeves doing his own stunts, the character is actually connected to the star on a much deeper level than you may think. Having become so preoccupied with laying waste to his enemies, it’s easy to forget that Wick is a man forged by tragedy and grief, and so is Reeves.
When the first John Wick film begins, the ‘Baba Yaga’ has retired from the world of contract killing. He actually found his happy ending – the love of a good woman – and left his violent past behind. However, he struggles to move forward when his beloved wife Helen dies of cancer and then rains down hell upon the Russian mob when they kill the puppy she arranged to be delivered in the wake of her death. That puppy was meant to help the title hero cope with her loss – but it is taken away from him.
Reeves spoke to The Guardian about the third John Wick, and he was asked if any of his real-life experiences with loss informed how he played the character. He replied, “Oh yeah, I thought it was one of the foundations of the role for John Wick. I love his grief.” When pushed on what specifically fascinated him about such a weighty topic, he answered, “Well, for the character and in life, it’s about the love of the person you’re grieving for and any time you can keep company with that fire, it is warm.”
It was obvious who Reeves was talking about when he said he could relate to Wick’s loss. In 1999, not long after his classic turn as Neo in The Matrix was released, Reeves’ long-term girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, suffered a stillbirth with their daughter Ava. The loss was so devastating that it caused the couple to break up, and when they got back together in 2001, further tragedy was just around the corner. One night, when returning from a party at the home of shock rocker Marilyn Manson, Syme died in a car wreck.
At the time, it would have been easy for Reeves to let such a devastating personal loss totally derail his career, but he fought through and eventually found a character who may have been the perfect vessel for his pain. “I absolutely relate to that, and I don’t think you ever work through it,” he admitted. “Grief and loss, those are things that don’t ever go away. They stay with you.”
In the decades following Syme’s untimely death, though, Reeves has never married or had any other children. He finally found love again in 2018 when he entered into a relationship with artist Alexandra Grant, and his army of supporters couldn’t have been more thrilled that the star had found personal happiness at long last.
It would seem that while Syme’s death left an indelible mark on Reeves’ life, it has managed to fertilise the emotional grounds from which some of his most enigmatic performances have grown. While this will bear little comfort for the actor, it is a vital lesson on how fate may have a plan for us all.
