Team Keanu

I’m calling it Team Keanu because almost everyone in the cast of Jonah Hill’s new film, Outcome, including Jonah himself, plays a member of Keanu Reeves’s team – friends, managers, lawyers, publicists – and then there’s, well, everyone else who isn’t part of the movie because we’re all Team Keanu too.

There are few people in Hollywood, in front of the camera, who are as popular as Keanu. Nobody hates Keanu, he’s the opposite of polarising. Sarah and I were texting back and forth last night about Jack Black while I was catching up on the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live and she was like, every generation loves him! And you could say the same about Keanu. Keanu and Jack should do a movie together.

Back to this movie, Outcome, and his role: the biggest star in Hollywood who’s been a dick throughout his career and has to go on an apology tour because someone has a video of him, only he doesn’t know what’s on it. I’m here for Keanu in a comedy, but I’m not sure anyone watching this film will actually buy Keanu playing a character based on so many celebrity stereotypes: selfish, narcissistic, lacks awareness. Because what makes him an outlier is that even though he’s been famous for so long, and is among the biggest names in the business, describing him as a “celebrity” has never seemed quite right, Keanu has never moved like that. It’ll be interesting to see how convincing he is in the performance – and I would love to know, um, what and who inspired it.

Before the premiere in New York last night, Keanu visited The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The best part of the interview comes towards the end, when Stephen pulls up an old commercial Keanu did at the start of his career, for Corn Flakes. And then Keanu takes himself out with his own joke.

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It’s a brief moment of insight and/or confirmation into what he’s like privately – adorably nerdy, a goof. And overall, throughout the interview, what we’ve always observed about him: his sincerity, no answer is rote or rehearsed, and while what he says may sound simple, it could also be that he doesn’t use words unnecessarily, he says what he means and expresses what he really feels.

Here he is with Alexandra Grant at the premiere and also his castmates and crew including Cameron Diaz, looking like she never left, and Matt Bomer and that impossibly beautiful face. Best hair and outfit: Atsuko Okatsuka, I LOVE her, let’s make her more famous.