most celebrities lowest moments biggest freakouts or controversies draw the most interest from the general public for Keo Reeves it's the total opposite the more normal down toe and humble he is the bigger the response in this 2011 video that has 16 million views a woman backed her Mercedes SUV into keano Reeves classic 1973 Norton Commando 750 motorcycle while the actor was inside a medical building the Beverly Hills police showed up to document the incident talks with them and the woman just like any normal person would and drives off after a couple of minutes in this
2021 video keano talks to his fans about his motorcycle 8.3 million views with people dissecting it like it's some kind of social experiment I like the distance they keep he does nothing to keep them at Bay but their respect shows in the way they stand back and give him space and meanwhile he's smiling talking reaching out to them he's doing nothing to push them away in this 2015 video Kiana walks through an airport in a hurry while stopping take some photos with fans he is flying commercial and has no bodyguards despite him being worth $350
million 7.7 million views here's what Joe Rogan had to say about keano that guy goes sits on the subway by himself no like freaking awesome there's no obvious outward displays of wealth from him he's insanely wealthy when you see him he's dressed like me he's got like a regular watch on sneakers he's normal as man it's real weird some of you might think it's weird that people praise keano for having basic human decency which goes to show you how Hollywood has lowered our expectations for celebrities immensely but once you learn about keo's rough upbringing as
well as his over-the-top acts of generosity you will understand why he has earned the title of the nicest man in Hollywood make sure you're drinking water keo's father Samuel Reeves struggled with substance abuse was in and out of prison for selling heroin until he ultimately abandoned his family when keano was just 3 years old forcing his mother Patricia left to raise two children on her own working tirelessly as a costume designer Patricia married and divorced four different men during keo's upbringing according to keo's Sister the revolving door of men had a substantial impact on their
childhood how we lived Our Lives depended on the man of the moment despite having numerous father figures growing up the kids were on their own for the most part Kim claims we never had anyone to play with us to watch me riding horses or keano playing hockey we all know that young men who grow up without stable father figures are more likely to grow up aggressive angry depressed and often repeat the cycle of Abandonment keano was set up for failure from the very beginning his teachers noticed a vague sadness that loomed above him like a
dark cloud he spent more than 5 years bouncing from one high school to another including one where he got expelled because he was too rambunctious keano thinks he talked too much and was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school I was just getting in their way I guess keano felt a strong dis disconnect from others they made him feel unwelcome which did not change when he arrived in Hollywood Reeves agents told him that his name was too ethnic now this was the mid 1980s but it still seems like a silly thing to worry
about and although keano was justifiably annoyed about it he actually took what they said into consideration and tried a different name calling himself Casey or Casey Reeves but whenever he had auditions and they called Casey he wouldn't respond most people would not even consider changing their name let alone actually giving it a sh keano proved early on he was open-minded and easy to work with he went back to using his real name and it had zero negative impact on his career what did have an impact on his career were some of the roles he landed
early on the foundation for Hollywood's nice guy was built on him being casted as somewhat of a teen heartthrob young and handsome male actors often acrw fan bases of women who romanticize them as the perfect guy first he started NBC's babes in toy Land Act of Vengeance and Brotherhood of justice as well as making his first Mo picture appearances in the sports drama young blood and the lowbudget romantic drama flying but when he met casting director Carrie frasure everything changed he walked in the door and I went oh my god this is my guy it
was just because of the way he held his body his shoes were untied and what he was wearing looked like a young person growing into being a man I was over the moon about him his youth appeal earned him roles in dramas such as the night before the prince of Pennsylvania and permanent record but his big break came in 198 9 with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure although the film received mixed reviews it was a solid box office success grossing 40 million against a 10 million budget ree's portrayal as Ted Logan significantly boosted keo's Hollywood
profile before getting the part director Steven Herrick screened between 200 and 300 actors for the main roles requesting that each actor try out for both leading roles keano was among the first to audition and herck immediately set on casting him as Ted when keano came in he was one of the first it was really kind of like wow he's Ted and there was sort of a lovable goofiness to him but keano wasn't just acting as a lovable good guy that was really him he proved that in 1991 where his act of kindness changed a man's
career in the Adventure film my own private Idaho keano co-starred along River Phoenix as a street Hustler before filming director Gus Van sand struggled conceptualizing actors for the two lead roles he sent the script out to keano and River's agents expecting them to reject it Reeves agent was open to the project however Phoenix's agents stopped reading the screenplay halfway down the first page adamantly declining Van Sant convinced keano to personally deliver the script to River Phoenix at his home in Florida since they were friends keano did the director a massive favor and over the 1990
Christmas holiday he rode his motorcycle from his family home in Canada to the Phoenix Family Ranch in mopy Florida roughly a 2100 km or 1300 M ride after the long ride River read the script and wanted the role that keano was casted as but they convinced him to take the edgier role of the drug addicted Hustler Mike which he accepted the craziest part is River ended up getting way more praise than keano in this film Phoenix won best actor honors at the Venice Film Festival The National Society of film critics and the independent Spirit Awards
tragically in 1993 following several days of binging on cocaine and heroin 23-year-old River Phoenix passed away outside Hollywood's Viper Room nightclub right in front of his brother sister and girlfriend keano has rarely mentioned his close friendship with River over the years opting to keep that part of his life private but River's death still feels like a fresh wound to keo's Heart even 30 years later but if we're being honest keano driving that motor cycle wasn't much of a sacrifice that man loves to ride however during the filming of the devil's advocate he gave up something
that 99% of other actors wouldn't money The Devil's Advocate is a supernatural Thriller that follows a young lawyer who Dives deep into the Dark World of success and Temptation while casting producers approached Oscar winter alpacino who turned down the role of John Milton three separate times due to the cliche nature of the character Pacino even suggested Robert Redford and sha connory for the role keano reportedly took a substantial pay cut worth millions of dollars so that producers could meet alpacino salary demands and yet again keano sacrifice benefited everyone but him the film grossed over $61
million at the box office and Al Pino's performance was highly praised as one of the few bright spots in the film and it wasn't the last time he gave up some of his salary the actor reportedly took a 90% pay cut 3 years later so that he could star alongside Jean Hackman in The Replacements but it didn't really matter if keano was a great guy or not because many people thought he was a mediocre actor in his most successful film at this point he was considered the worst performer Bram stroker's Dracula was the award-winning Gothic
horror film where Reeves portrayed Jonathan Harker the film was critically and commercially successful grossing $82 million worldwide surpassing Point Break as keo's highest grossing film although the film was a success many critics disagreed with keo's casting and considered his performance weak total film writer Josh winning said that keo's work spoiled the movie he mentioned it in a 2011 list of 50 performances that ruined movies keo's attempt at an English accent has been considered one of the worst Accents in the history of recorded film yes of course sir if I may inquire what in fact happened
to Mr Renfield in Transylvania but it doesn't stop there in 1993 keano had a role in The Shakespearean based romantic comedy much ad do about nothing despite receiving positive reviews Reeves casting once again garnered criticism and he would be nominated for worst supporting actor at the golden raspberry Awards after two more lackluster drama films keo's career was on life support luckily for him something big was right around the corner speed an action classic whose premise revolves around a bus that is rigged by a terrorist to explode if its speed Falls below 50 mph in 1993
Executives were looking for an actor to portray the protagonist officer Jack traven they considered Tom Cruz Tom Hanks Wesley Snipes and Woody harelson but landed on Keanu and again he had to make some major sacrifices for this role the director Jean deant didn't want the character to have long hair so keano shaved his head but then the studio Executives got so upset over his shaved head that they demanded he wear a wig but this was the director's Vision so they trusted him however there were more problems deont didn't think Reeves looked strong enough the thing
with keano is that he looks very boyish I didn't want him to be like a kid and he loves to be like a kid keano was yet again dedicated to completing a director's Vision he spent 2 months filling out his frame and getting in shape for the role he was nervous in the beginning then he got addicted to the adrenaline this was only keano second action film but the hard work paid off big time the summer of 1994 saw the release of speed which grossed $350 million on a $30 million budget becoming the fifth highest
grossing film of 1994 and winning two Academy Awards and if you needed another reason to know how little keano cares about money he turned down a $12 million offer to Star and Speed 2 cruise control despite the original being his most successful project to date at that point in his career it wasn't against any of the artists that were involved in the project but at the time I'm sure we've all had this kind of feeling sometimes when things just don't feel right and that's how I was feeling because of this decision Keo was blacklisted by
20th Century Fox for a decade it was okay when he sacrificed his own money but Hollywood Executives will punish those that get in the way of making the millions unfortunately for them The Black List did not prevent keano from becoming a global Superstar because his next film was about to set him up for Life The Matrix depicts a dystopian f future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source Keo was not the producer's First Choice Will Smith declined
because he thought the film was too ambitious Nicolas Cage refused because he didn't want to film in Australia for that long Brad Pit declined to star in Fight Club good choice Sandra bulock felt that Neo should be a man and that she didn't fit and even Johnny Depp declined leaving them with Keanu who felt lucky to be considered for this movie in preparation for the role keano spent several months enduring intense martial arts training which was intense considering he was fighting a pretty serious injury he had a bulging disc in his spine which led to
him having a two-level Fusion on his spine before training and getting a plate in his neck he never told anyone because he wouldn't have been able to do the film so he trained for the Matrix in a neck brace upon release the Matrix opened to widespread a claim from critics who praised its innovative visual effects action sequences cinematography and entertainment value it was a massive success at the box office grossing over $460 million on a $63 million budget becoming the highest grossing Warner Bros film of 1999 and the fourth highest grossing film of that year
keano reportedly made $14 million for his role before scoring an extra 49 million after the film because of the box office success The Matrix is a classic and although keano was a successful actor before he had officially secured legendary status with this film as if his father's abandonment and losing his best friend wasn't enough pain inflicted on keano he was about to face another tragedy immediately at the highest point in his life keano and his girlfriend Jennifer Sim were expecting the birth of their first child the baby was still born 8 months into Jennifer's pregnancy
which they found out on Christmas Eve in 1999 suffering from postnatal depression and the grief of losing their child the relationship didn't last as keano and Jennifer eventually split they remained good friends and were on the verge of getting back back together until Jennifer died in a tragic car accident in 2001 just one day after she'd met with keano and even with this unfathomable amount of tragedy keano remains strong and uses his grief as motivation to give to others because shortly after this keano started a Cancer Foundation in 2009 Reeves revealed that he has a
private Foundation that's been running for 5 or 6 years and it helps Aid a couple of children's hospitals and cancer research I don't like to attach my name to it I just let the Foundation do what it does where most celebrities try to indulge in their own moral grandstanding and pretentiousness when they do a good deed keano kept it private for as long as possible but his generosity doesn't stop there during production of the sequel The Matrix Reloaded keano filmed a scene where his character Neo was involved in a battle fighting a bunch of clones
of agent Smith the scene involved a dozen stunt men who all acted as different smiths in the scene to thank them for their hard work keano generously gave each member of the film stunt team a brand new harley-dav motorbike and no this wasn't the only time he ever gave gifts to cast members Reeves gave his John Wick chapter 4 stunt team personalized Rolex Submariner watches to thank them for their hard work the watches were worth $10,000 each he also took care of the Matrix Resurrection stunt team booking them an all expenses paid trip to the
premiere as a token of his appreciation Reeves took care of the private jet travel and hotel accommodations premere tickets and even organized a special post- Premiere brunch for invitees among other gifts it was reported by multiple news outlets that keano donated 31.5 million or 70% of his Matrix money to cancer research however the story is not true keano Reeves did not donate 70% of his salary to charity his publicist confirmed the internet immediately ran with this narrative because anytime they can get an excuse to praise keano for his generosity they will take it and after
all it does seem like something he would do ironically the gesture that got him the most praise and attention was by far the most simple and normal and 2011 this video of keano on the New York City subway went viral after noticing a woman carrying a hefty bag he pointed to his seat and asked if she wanted to sit down the woman accepted the offer at which point keano got up to let her take the seat he was occupying the video has more than 42 million views just the idea of him riding the subway instead
of some limousine or having a personalized driver made people relate to the icon let alone giving up his seat many photos of him with women went viral that point out his no touching policy he was being coined a respectful King because he refuses to rest his hand on women while taking photos with them and he rather just floats it a few inches away from their back most celebrities dark side or controversies Drive the most engagement for keano it's the total opposite viral keano news is him giving to homeless people or spending time with them on
the street playing with puppies showing a plush toy around China or dropping genuine wisdom on us what do you think happens when we die Keo Reeves I know that the ones who love us will miss us with all the pain keano has experienced combined with the massive success he's had in Hollywood he chose to remain a kind-hearted humble man rather than a self-righteous narcissist most celebrities sell their souls for Fame and Fortune keano uses his Fame and Fortune to help others and although it may seem like he is over celebrated for the smallest acts of
kindness keano Reeves has proved time and time again that he isn't a great guy by h hwood standards he is just a great human being
