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Keanu Reeves has offered blunt, expletive-filled advice for aspiring actors.
With more than 30 years of experience, the 61-year-old Canadian actor knows what it takes to make it in the business.
“Try not to be a f***ing asshole,” the John Wick star recently told E! News. “And go to work and respect who you’re working with until they prove they don’t get your respect.”
Reeves was joined by his Outcome co-stars Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer, who agreed, with the former adding: “Yeah. That’s life.”
Noting that “there’s no handbook or manual on being famous,” Diaz said: “You gotta just make it your own — you don’t know what it’s gonna be. Also, there’s reaching out to other people that you admire, the way that they do it and asking them for some advice.”
Keanu Reeves leads Jonah Hill’s new movie, ‘Outcome,’ alongside Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer (Getty Images)
Directed by and also starring Jonah Hill, Outcome follows beloved Hollywood star Reef (Reeves) as he embarks on a soul-searching journey to make amends with anyone he has wronged after receiving a mysterious video that threatens to shatter his image and career. It also features Susan Lucci, Laverne Cox, David Spade and Kaia Gerber.
“I would say if you’re lucky like Reef, surround yourself with friends and keep your friends who maybe knew you before as well if you can,” Bomer added. “[They] can really ground you and who are gonna be there by your side through the good and the bad and the ups and downs of it all.”
Reeves first gained widespread recognition after starring in the 1989 comedy sci-fi Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He led some of the most enduring films of the 1990s, including The Matrix, Speed and Point Break. However, a string of commercial failures in the 2000s saw his career falter as his line delivery was often the subject of unfair derision, Louis Chilton wrote in December for The Independent.
By 2014, Reeves managed to “claw his way back to the top with a role in the slick 2014 thriller John Wick. Three sequels later, Reeves is now one of the industry’s biggest and most respected onscreen talents,” Chilton argued.
Outcome marks Diaz and Reeves’s first time reuniting since they co-starred in the 1996 romcom Feeling Minnesota.
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Reeves advised aspiring actors to ‘respect’ those they work with ‘until they prove they don’t get your respect’ (Getty Images)
“I’m just so honored to get to work with Keanu as I did 30 years ago. Just to be able to do it again now, I’m really grateful,” Diaz said to E! News. “He’s the same generous, present, such a good human — nothing’s changed in that way.”
Reeves shared similar sentiments, saying that working again with Diaz felt “the same” as it did in the 1990s.
“It was just kinda like, ‘Let’s go to work, let’s play, let’s do whatever we’re doing as best as we can,’” he said. “I felt like, whether it’s your fourth film or not, the artist is there.”
Outcome premieres April 10 on Apple TV+.