Keanu Reeves moved by 25 years of Matrix: “It changed my life”

The actor who plays Thomas Anderson/Neo took part in the moving game of a little trip down memory lane.

On sale for a novel, The Book of Elsewherewritten in collaboration with the British author China Mieville, Keanu Reeves took a little tour on the plateau of Late Show of Stephen Colbert. A passage that turned into an emotional excursion into the past.

At the end of the interview, the American presenter asks the actor to engage in a quick question and answer session. The aim of the game is simple: he quotes one of his most iconic films and Reeves must answer with what this title evokes in him as memories or emotions.

Because, as Colbert points out at the beginning of the excerpt (available at the end of this article), 2024 is a big anniversary year for Keanu Reeves' career: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure blows out its thirty-five candles, while Point Break is thirty-three years old and Speedjust thirty. The last two are not the least: Matrix celebrates its quarter century, and John Wickhis ten years, all round.

A series of films that made Keanu Reeves a Hollywood superstar, and which he happily recalls for Stephen Colbert. The actor mentions having “gave the reply to his friend Alex Winter” For Bill and Ted, “the genius of Kathryn Bigelow and the beauty and professionalism of the wonderful Patrick Swayze” For Point BreakAnd “Sandra Bullock And Jan de Bont calling out 'give me that fucking camera' on the set of Speed”.

Why did a new Matrix seem inevitable?

But when it comes to the turn of MatrixKeanu Reeves remains silent for a few seconds, before launching into a monologue that will leave no one unmoved:

“Matrix changed my life and over the years it has changed the lives of many other people in a positive and wonderful way. That's all you hope to accomplish when you're an artist, and you have the opportunity to make a film or tell a story. So when I look back over the years, how many people I've met who have told me they've been touched by Matrix in such a positive way… It's the best feeling in the world.”

Especially when you consider that after a promising start, Keanu Reeves' career was struggling a bit at the end of the 1990s. It was thanks to the trust placed in him by the Wachowski sisterswho preferred it to Will Smith (already taken by Wild Wild West), Brad Pitt or Ewan McGregor (among others), that the Canadian had the opportunity to embark on an adventure that transformed the way of making cinema, with a character that sticks to his skin to the point that he agreed to resurrect him in 2021 in the fourth part of the franchise.

One question remains, however: will Keanu Reeves be willing to take his black coat and glasses out of the closet for Matrix 5recently announced by Warner?

Matrix is ​​to be (re)watched on Première Max