The scene Keanu Reeves took three weeks to master: “He doesn’t take shortcuts”
While there are many 1990s action movies that are relatively hit and miss, there is one actor who dominated the genre that I refuse to see slandered. I’ve watched nearly every movie he has starred in during that decade, under the premise of satisfying my not-so-guilty pleasure, because, as every performance of his shows, there is something beautiful in the trashy. That actor is, of course, Keanu Reeves.
It all started with Speed. The high-octane action thriller that saw him trying to save a bus from exploding, by keeping it driving over 50mph at all times. Everything about it was beautifully nonsensical, the premise, the continued aversion of danger on Reeves’ part and the fact that the bus managed to successfully jump over a 50ft gap in the Los Angeles highway.
It continued on with Point Break, where the charming absurdity continued. Jumping out of an aeroplane with no parachute, learning how to big-wave surf in literal weeks and spending every minute of the day with Gary Busey. It was so far from reality, yet so enthralling because of that. As Keanu Reeves spewed out his lines with a continuously furrowed brow, I wondered, was there anything this man couldn’t do? Or more crucially, was there anything this man couldn’t do, that I wouldn’t watch?
But then, the century turned, and I slowly began to have my questions answered. As the millennium brought with it an appetite for cinematic realism – which for the most part, I welcomed – Reeves’ place in my pantheon of cinema greats came swiftly under threat.
A string of forgetful romcoms and family actions came out with Reeves as the lead, and suddenly, my guilt-ridden pleasure gave way to disillusion. It couldn’t even be salvaged by his rampant killing sprees in the protection of his dog in the John Wick franchise. That was as good a confirmation as any that the times had certainly changed.
But then, in 2018, Reeves starred in Siberia. A film that follows Reeves as a black market diamond dealer who travels to the Siberian tundra looking for his missing partner, but ends up fighting for his life and getting tangled up in a love affair. Finally, we had it, an action-packed film that hit all of the Reeves notes. But rather than jumping across 50ft bridges or jumping out of aeroplanes, it was one scene that the director Matthew Ross rightly pointed out, as the pièce de résistance.
“There’s a scene where he has to pick up a diamond with a set of tweezers,” Ross said. “He holds it up to his eye and looks at it. Now, I would challenge anyone to do that properly after a month. It’s one of these deceptively, unbelievably difficult things to do. Keanu spent weeks practising.”
“He just wanted to get it right,” Ross added. “I wanted somebody who works in the diamond business to see him pick up the diamond and feel it’s right. Keanu was like, ‘Yeah, 100%.’ I didn’t even have to tell him that. People spend years perfecting that craft. Keanu had to figure it out in three weeks, but he doesn’t take shortcuts.”
So there we have it. Once again, I am left wondering, was there anything this man couldn’t do? Or more crucially, was there anything this man couldn’t do, that I wouldn’t watch? The answer is simply no.
