The 1996 co-star Keanu Reeves knew was out of his league: “I’m not on that level”
The reputation Keanu Reeves has garnered today is a fascinating one, as there has been a significant reevaluation of his acting abilities, but he once got an acting lesson while working on one of his most underrated films.
John Wick not only ensured that Reeves could be a star once again, but served as the ultimate metaphor for his career, crystallised by the line “Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back!” Up until that point, appreciation for Reeves had been ironic, with many people making fun of his stilted, often cold line deliveries.
The fact that he has been reported to be one of the few genuinely nice people in Hollywood has certainly bolstered his reputation, as has his thoughtful way of speaking whenever he’s been interviewed. There’s also been far more praise for some of the films that Reeves did, as many of them were misunderstood at the time of their release.
Today, Point Break and Speed aren’t laughed off as silly B-movies, but seen as genuine action classics, and even though The Matrix has always been popular, there’s been more respect given to just how great Reeves’ performance as Neo was. The actor is also smart because he seems to understand what his talents are and can generally stick to the right lane.
The few instances in which he was legitimately bad happened early on in his career, as he delivered terrible English accents in Dangerous Liaisons and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but comparatively, he was a much better fit for the science fiction thriller Chain Reaction, in which he plays a machinist who teams up with a physicist, played by Rachel Weisz, after they are framed for murder for discovering a secret research.
Chain Reaction is a much more entertaining film than it had any right to be, which may have to do with its director, Andrew Davis, who also made The Fugitive and Under Siege, and has a knack for taking B-movie premises and turning them into A-level entertainment. Reeves turned in a solid performance in the film, but he even admitted to feeling underqualified whenever he got to share scenes with Morgan Freeman.
“I think of Morgan Freeman as a movie star,” he said, “My perception from the feedback that I get from the street, the feedback that I get from the people I work with, roles offered and all that sort of thing and the attention, it’s just…..you know, I’ve been lucky enough to work in some films that have, you know, been good, and people have gone to see but I don’t think movie star is quite…I’m not on that level.”
Reeves may have been uncomfortable about being named a ‘movie star’ when compared to Freeman, who had already proven to be one of the best living actors and appeared in several all-time classics, but the veteran is an actor who, like Reeves, knows how to give a performance that fits the material and doesn’t mind chewing the scenery for something like Chain Reaction.
The greatest irony is that Reeves and Freeman are now having careers that have begun to mirror one another, just the other way around. The former has begun working with more arthouse directors and garnered warm reviews when he appeared on Broadway, whereas Freeman has begun working more steadily and appearing in a wide number of cheesy genre movies, such as the sequels to Olympus Has Fallen and Now You See Me.
