Keanu Reeves was trending again this weekend. Keanu is on a run – it’s been several weekends in a row, starting with John Wick 3 and then Always Be My Maybe, which more and more people are watching after everyone freaked out about his performance last week. And now, he’s in a video game. Cyberpunk 2077 comes out next year – but Keanu showed up at E3 yesterday to promote his involvement. Here’s the trailer for the game, he comes in at the end. Virtual Keanu is as hot as real Keanu. This is going to be a problem for me. 

 

So now the gamers are all over him. Not that they weren’t before – not that anyone isn’t and wasn’t. In movies they talk about “four quadrant” films: movies that appeal to every demographic, men and women, young and mature. Can we say that Keanu Reeves is a “four quadrant” Movie Star? Keanu isn’t polarising. And he’s never been more popular. I mean, if we’re talking about quadrants, look at what he’s done in just a month. 

He won the box office with John Wick 3, an action movie franchise. 

He won streaming with Always Be My Maybe, a rom-com, by playing a douchebag version of himself. 

He won E3, so basically the video game industry – and not just because he’s in the game but because of this: 

 

And we’re not done. You know what else he’s about to win? Toy Story 4, family entertainment. Toy Story 4 comes out June 21 and early screenings have been happening over the last week or so. Guess who “steals the show”? Keanu Reeves…again. 

Here’s some footage of Keanu recording his parts:

Chris Evans is obsessed – Cap, we are ALL OBSESSED! 

It is now, officially, the Summer of Keanu Reeves. It should not be just a summer. It should be a Forever of Keanu Reeves. Right now, though, as they say, everything seems to be converging. Somehow, so much of Keanu’s work is hitting all at once, at the same time. Which is why he’d be perfect for Show Your Work and I want to pitch him to Duana but… Duana being Duana, she is just so annoyingly sensible, here’s what she would probably come back with:

What’s there to say, really? Like, what is there to unpack? 

And it’s true. Keanu, obviously, is complicated – but his approach to work has never been complicated: he’s having fun. John Wick is fun for him. Always Be My Maybe was fun for him. Cyberpunk was fun, Toy Story is fun. That’s not to say that none of his work isn’t considered, that he’s not thoughtful, that he doesn’t care about his characters and puts in the work to make them what they are. But over and above it all, he’s simply just having a great time. Sometimes you have a great time and the public results aren’t there. He has a LOT of projects on his resumé where the results aren’t there. Sometimes you have a great time and all of it lands, all of it is a smash hit. But his attitude about his work, whether it lands or not, doesn’t depend on whether it lands or not. Which, I think, is one of the many reasons he’s endeared himself to so many people. Keanu is constant: failure doesn’t change him and success doesn’t change him either. And you can’t say that about too many people. 

So that’s going to be my challenge where Duana is concerned as we approach the recording of our final episode of Show Your Work for this season (to be posted next week). But you know, you can always help me out. If you want us to talk about the work of Keanu on Show Your Work to cap off the season, email her at [email protected] or tweet her @duanaelise – because there IS so much to say about his career, about how he’s the one we believe in, over and above his cohort, and what we can learn from his example.