"Keanu Reeves"
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Hey, guys, it's really rainy out there today. Who's getting wet? Who's getting drippy and droopy in their drawers? Who's getting real chilly under the collar? And who's getting ready to be heated up because of all that mess? Let's get hot on Smart List! ♪♪

Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Oh, boy. Guys, it is cold here in Los Angeles. You know what I could have used last night? What's that, Jason? It's an extra blanket. Maybe even a Sherpa blanket. You know where you could get one? Where? Where? What?

If you go to, and I don't know if my coordinates are correct here, but if you go to www.wonderyshop.com slash smartless...

What's that? That's our Merch Madness store. Can I get sweats there? Do they sell Sherpa blankets in there? Yeah, of course. Can I get t-shirts? Yeah, of course. What about warm socks? Yeah, of course. That'd be great for the cold weather. Do you like joggers? Do you like phone cases? Sure. What does he look like, the jogger? Do you like pop sockets? I don't even know what those are. I'm going to buy three t-shirts and a Sherpa blanket right now at www.wondryshop.com.

dot com slash smartless? You did it again. You only did two W's. W-W-W. It's going to be three W's. So hard for me. And this is the World Wide Web? This is it. Yes. Dot Wondery Shop dot com slash smartless. Go. We got all this new smartless merchandise. It's so good. The hats are amazing. Listen, for storytellers like us who are creating content...

No, but just hear me out as a content creating story. Yeah, it's we get it. We get you can come and we got it You know, yeah, we're gonna loads Wait really quick. I just want to talk about this because it's been in the news for several weeks and I'm so obsessed the UFOs that they're shooting down and Today I was watching the news and it's funny how they cut they're kind of skirting around it like

Like, it has to be alien stuff, right? Probably not, Sean. Probably not. But it can't just be weather balloons. Tell Scott he can stop painting his face. There's not going to be a big painting of his face. Take the tinfoil out of the windows. Yeah. I think it's just a different kind of balloon they're flying, a different kind of surveillance device. No? I think so. They said it's not surveillance or anything. No? Somebody pointed out that if aliens...

sent these craft over here from wherever the hell, they wouldn't be easily downed by our dumb weapons. You never know. Missiles. You never know. Right. They might be dumb too. They might be dumb too. But anyway, you know who isn't dumb?

Our guest today has quite the stellar and sparkly reputation. Oh, I thought this was Willie's. Yes. This is yours? This is mine, yeah. Sean's, there it is, right there on the calendar. You guys are going to crap yourself. This is so fun. Really? Yeah, I can't believe we get to talk to this fella. I might get a little starstruck, not just because he's celebrated here in the United States, guys, but he's very much celebrated internationally, too.

Really? By the way, he's not even American. Many fans may not realize he was once cast as a James Dean type and a Rebel Without a Cause type adaptation, which I'm obsessed with. It's the first thing I'm going to talk to him about. And word on the street is there's no one nicer in Hollywood. His first name in Hawaiian means cool breeze over the mountains. Guys, it's the legendary Keanu Reeves. No. Cool breeze over the mountains? I didn't know that. This just picked my mood up.

Where are you? Are you in a hotel room right now? I am. I'm at the Four Seasons in West Hollywood. We're not paying for that. We're not paying for that. No. No, I'm doing some John Wick Chapter 4 press for...

- A film that I've seen. - I can't wait to talk about it. You put this into your junket schedule, that is a very nice thing to do, 'cause that's a haul, doing that stuff. - It's you fellas, come on. - No, but you're tired and you've been doing lots of press and then you gotta talk to us idiots. - No. - This is so cool. Okay, we're gonna up our game. We're gonna up our game because you got a couple round tables after this or you got-- - No, I'm good, man, I'm good. - Yeah, all right. - I'm good.

Dude, great to meet you, man. Yeah. Cheers. Been such a huge fan for so long. I can't... It's so nice to meet you. Yeah, this is so cool for us. So, Keanu, let me ask you something. Because we, as a Canadian, we always claim you as a Canadian. Is it...

What's your Canadian status? But wait, let me just jump in with that. Beirut, born in Beirut, Canada, Chinese, Hawaiian, European. Do you want him to answer it? I mean, you can tell me. I mean, I can just look up his Wikipedia. He's trying to show off that he did research. Yeah, the story of my past is obviously the story of my mother. And so she ran away from home when she was like 15, and she ended up going to Beirut, Lebanon,

And as you do. She was born in England. And she met a guy and they had a kid and that's me. Yeah. And then it's a long story, but my... Sounds romantic. It does. There's a bit of adventure in their journey. And then my...

had a stepfather who was Canadian, and then there's a bunch of stuff that happened. But long story short, me and my sister and my mom ended up moving into a house in Canada. And so that's how I became Canadian when I was like seven years old. So did you go to... You went to school, a lot of school in Canada, in Toronto? Well, I was raised in Toronto, and...

I went to Jesse Ketchum. Did you really? Yeah, do you know it? Fuck yeah, I do, man. Please, he will. Of course. Look how excited. Now he's up. I graduated from Leeside High School. Leeside? Yeah. Yeah, the two high schools that were, our grade school fed, what the fuck were they called? Northern and... Northern, yeah. North Toronto.

I went to NT. I went to North Toronto for one year. You did? Yeah, I went to North Toronto for one year. And I'm trying to remember the other school. Jarvis. And Jarvis. So my sisters went to Jarvis, and my nephew is graduating from North Toronto this year. Well, congratulations. Thank you, and congratulations to you. Is that right, eh? Yeah. So are you a Maple Leafs fan as well? I was. I was. I played a lot of ice hockey as a kid. Yeah. And...

So, yeah, I played a lot of hockey. I played a lot of hockey. No more? You don't play in one of these Hollywood leagues or teams? No, I never got into the Hollywood leagues. I played a lot when I got here. I mean, I played in some leagues in Los Angeles, and I discovered that you could play pickup hockey basically every day. Really? And so I played a lot of that, and I'm a goalie.

So is Will. Oh, my God, Will. Take it easy. I played goal at North Toronto at the rink there at North Toronto, right? Nice rink. Yeah. Great rink. By the way, you should be noted, I got an email today from somebody I know here in L.A. saying, hey, do you want to go and play pickup? They call it pickup hockey. Of course, we call it shinny. But do you want to go and play some pickup hockey in this league? And I said, man, I just wrote back like two hours ago. I was like, I'm too old, man. I can't do that.

No, but what if they're old too and everyone takes it easy in the corners? Yeah, but you know, and then you end up, you fall or you take a bad hit and then you're like, what the hell am I doing? What am I doing out here? What am I doing out here? I went to four different high schools in Toronto. So I went to North Toronto for two years and then I went to a performing arts high school. Got kicked out of that. Sure. Really? Then I went to De La Salle on Avenue Road. Dude, dude.

De La Salle is on Farnham, and I grew up on Farnham. What? I grew up 100 yards from De La Salle. What? You guys probably walked by each other a million times. You're both the same age. How old are you? I'm 52. I'm 58. So, okay. You were probably walking along the street there when I was like a punk kid, you know? That's amazing. Yeah. And then there's a Hawaii in there? No.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, my father was Hawaiian. So he grew up in Hawaii and then he got into some trouble. And so he ended up going to Lebanon too. And that's where he and my mom met. Where did your mom go before Beirut? Where was she? She was born in England and she went to Paris. She was interested in

fashion and design. And so I think she worked at a fashion house atelier. So you guys just moved around constantly. Yeah, yeah. Even in Toronto. There's a lot of, I got a lot of gypsy in my story. Yeah, you got a lot of good stuff cursing through you. Yeah. Now, is your sister in the arts? She's in the equestrian arts. Okay. Whoa. Or she was in the arts. Yeah, so she was into horses, training horses, riding, could do anything, everything on a horse. Yeah.

That was her deal. And so my husband, Scotty, he is an army brat. He moved 17 times before he was like 20 or something like that. Wow. But moving around made him want to desire to be stable in one place and never move again. Are you like that or did that upbringing make you feel like are you drawn to like different experiences all the time?

I think both. Oh, okay. If you can be both. I mean, I think... You can. I mean, I love traveling. I love new experiences. I mean, I think, you know, with the arts that we're in, you know, if it works out, you get a chance to travel around and, you know, meet folks. And so I love that experience. But it's also important. I mean, I love a good couch, a little home. Yeah, who doesn't? Yeah. Good God. And then, of course, then the itch starts. Yeah. Yeah.

And then it's a fever and then you're distracted. How long are you good on the couch without any work or without any work that you know is coming up? You just want to measure it. You just want to measure it. It's like if you know work's coming up, like you have a start date on something, I can sit on my couch for six months. But if I don't know anything's coming, I'm about two weeks. Oh, yeah, you're unemployed. I call it the working on working.

Yeah. You know, it really depends on what the journey you had before you're unemployed. Right, right. You know, like if you have like – if you've been working and it's been really intense for five or six months, you know, you come out of that. You know, you might not be thinking about being unemployed and working on working for a day or two, but –

Between months. Yeah. You don't do... You do jobs that they shoot a lot of nights. There's a lot of action. Yeah. There's weapons. Yes. But I mean, like, you don't have, like, easy days on your movies. No rom-coms for you. No, I like a good rom-com. I got to work with Ali Wong. I did a couple of days on an Ali Wong show. She's funny. I've done... She's amazing. And... But no, I've had the fortune to do some pretty...

some pretty epic shooting. Like, I mean, working on Matrix 2 and 3 was 22 months. Oh, my God. And all the John Wicks are like, that ain't no phone-in. No.

No, there's no phones. I remember seeing that first John Wick-- Well, first of all, I mean, forgive-- Now that you've opened-- You opened up the Matrix. Yeah, I had a bunch before that. So, well, okay. Well, I remember everybody's got a bunch. I mean, Jesus, why are you arguing with me? I want to talk to John Wick. He's tired. He's not gonna deal with that one. I'm really tired. And so, I remember being in New York, 1998, when Matrix came out, I want to say.

And-- - You know that? That's crazy. - I know, 'cause I have that weird thing with dates. And was-- I couldn't have been more blown away. I had no preconceived notion, 'cause we weren't inundated at that time all the time with the phones and stuff of leading up to stuff. So you could kind of go into a movie clean and just for what it was. Fuck, man. That was such a game changer for me, that movie. - Did you know while you were filming it with the effects and all of the stuff that it was a game changer?

I mean, you never know while you're making something. But I knew with the Wachowskis, the directors, I knew their vision was extraordinary. I knew the script was extraordinary and the cast. And then once it got all put together, I mean, I think of that film as a perfect film. Yeah, it's amazing. And it is like for me to watching that film because I hadn't seen him with the visual effects and all of that. Just like.

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I remember, Keanu, my oldest son is 14, and I remember just within the last couple years, the moment of like when I was like, we're going to watch The Matrix, man. And he's like, we're just going to watch it because I wanted him to have the experience.

that I had. But you know, you, you, but you've always been a re in the greatest sense of the word. And I don't have a better word than this, but a, a real director snob, like in the way that like you, you don't work in Keanu Reeves vehicles. You work in director vehicles. It seems like to me, like you really appreciate,

someone who's got a real plan, a real vision, and you kind of work to service that as opposed to, yeah, I want to be the star and let's just find any director that'll do. Um, is that, is that, yeah, I mean, I, I, that's kind of you to say, I, I have, um, obviously as you guys know, I mean, you want a director with a vision and I've, I've had the chance to work with some directors who have been able to realize their vision in such extraordinary ways. And, uh,

So to be on those sets, to be working with those artists is the best, man. You know, Kenra, it seems to me that you have...

The choices that you have seemed to make all the way through a very long career, you have done so much different stuff. You know, certain people, you can see them, they get sort of into a theme thematically throughout their career. You can see this sort of through line. You've done stuff. You have just zigged and zagged and consistently done different stuff. And maybe that's, I don't know, maybe now I'm going to draw the line back to like your upbringing, sort of moving around a lot. Like you like...

new experience, new stuff. You've done period stuff. You've done the action stuff. I'm thinking of Speed with Sandy and, or, you know, and, and, and then... They can't pigeonhole you. Yeah, it's actually an adventure. Yeah, Bill and Ted's like... My own private Idaho. Dude, dude, it's fucking... It's crazy. First of all, Bill and Ted's. Yeah. Excellent adventure. It's crazy.

I mean, that was a game changer for you. One of the most quotable movies. I mean, I was a teenager. I was 18 or something when it came out. We were fucking dying. We watched it a million times. But, yeah, so you start and you do all these different things. And it seems like you have like a thirst for that. It kind of goes into like taking jobs for the right reasons, right? Like is that something that are you constantly being like, yeah, I want to do something that I haven't thought of or that's scary or that's...

Yeah, for sure. I mean, growing up is, you know, I always wanted to do as many different things as I could. You know, that's the hope, right? And I find that, you know, oftentimes lead roles have certain expectations on them and whether in any genre, right?

And there's also times we're working in independent or being in supporting roles. You get to kind of do some interesting kind of nooks and crannies and have different voices, different tones and tell stories in different ways. So that if you have the fortune, if you have the opportunity to do a studio film and then an independent film or something like that, then yeah.

It's the cinema, you know, getting a chance to play and, again, just tell different stories and play different roles and try and do that. By the way, I don't know if anybody ever brings this up, but Dracula is one of my favorite movies of all time. I think Dracula. I mean, I got kicked in the teeth, and maybe deservedly so for my English accent, but they made... Anyway. No, one of my favorites. One of my favorites. I love it. But I think...

my English accent aside, I think that's a wonderful film. And I think Francis Ford Coppola made a work of art that was maybe a little ahead of its time. Yeah, it was amazing. I mean, the performance, Gary Oldman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amazing. So good. Do you remind your team constantly to sort of find really interesting things as opposed to...

super lucrative things or star vehicles or things like that? Or can you take responsibility for that? Because it just seems like everything you do is always interesting and it's never down the middle. That's very kind of you to say. It's true. And I'll bet you get a lot of offers to do things that would be a lot easier, a lot more predictable, a lot safer, a lot more lucrative perhaps. Yeah.

And so has it been the same team forever and they just kind of know what makes you tick? Yeah, the representation story has been pretty consistent with the people I've worked with over the years, but that's changed over the years as well. But I think, at least for me personally, it's always been like,

Kind of what I was talking about, like how can we have a variety? What's the filmmaker? Where's it being made? And again, what's the script? What's the story? What's the role? Right. We'll be right back. And now, back to the show.

First of all, where'd you get the bug to do it? Because when you were in-- Why are we artists? The un-licked cubs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Because when you're in Toronto-- Un-licked cubs. When people like you that just transcend, you know, whatever, we just said it a million times how incredible your career is. Do you-- Is it something that finds you or you find it and why?

Um, I kind of grew up in a showbiz background. My mother was a costume designer. I had a stepfather who was, you know, at the time was, you know, I just finished directing some plays on Broadway, um, when I was a little bean. And, uh, and then growing up, um,

Yeah, my mother says that I came to her when I was 15 and asked if it was okay if I'm an actor. At 15? At 15, and she said, yes, of course, son, whatever you want to do. And then I started, so I was pretty self-motivated and enrolled in a theater arts program.

which you might even know, it was up by North Toronto, Leah Poslin's theater group. I don't know if you ever came across that. - I don't know, but yeah. - There was a wonderful person there named Rose Dubin.

So I was super self-motivated. You know, I auditioned for the Performing Arts High School and I was at the library. I was reading. I was just, you know, taking acting classes. Uta Hagen, respect for acting. I'm 17. You know, doing the Stanislavski. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The voice work. You know, I ended up getting an agent at the Leopold's because I was playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliette.

um and so i guess that was my first big break oh that's cool and you're like this this tastes pretty great yeah i got an agent i started doing some commercials did sold some corn flakes and some coca-cola and you drove all and you drove all the way out here by yourself from toronto and you're still not an american citizen which i think is kind of cool wow i get it it's cool and not cool yes you know i got in my first car when i was 20 and i drove to to hollywood and uh

Of course, when I got here, they wanted to change my name. Really? Yeah, they were like, Keanu, it's too ethnic. Oh, Lord. I mean, literally, like, the day I arrived. I mean, I remember I had driven across the country, and I remember they told me, and I was, like, stomping up and down along the beach in Santa Monica going, what the fuck? Yeah, yeah. You know, and then I was like, okay, well, what's my name going to be? And I was like, Templeton.

Did they pitch you any names or did they ask you to go think up some? Yeah, so eventually I came up with my first and middle initial. So I was Casey Reeves.

No way. No way. For a couple of... That would work? Yeah, Casey Reeves. That would be good. Oh, my God, please. He'd be a great Casey. No, man. But then I had, like, auditions, and they'd be like, Casey? And I wouldn't even look up. And eventually I went back to my agents, and I was like, I can't change my name. Like, one of the first plays I ever did was playing John Proctor, and...

one of the lines is just like, you know, because it is my name, because I can have no other. And I was the crucible. That's the signal. I was in the crucible. And I just thought that was just running through my head. And so with Ted, was Bill and Ted's the one thing that really like, how did that come to you? And that kind of put you on the map for us to know who you were, right? Yeah. I think for me, probably, you know,

The biggest, another big break that we all need is, I was in a film called River's Edge. Oh my God, dude. Right, right, right, right, right, of course. With Crispin Glover. With the amazing, beautiful Crispin Glover. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude, that movie is... What I do for my fucking friends. And to watch that artist work, you know, talk about being and seeing an artist kind of deal with

what the expectation of a role could be or how you could even act, how you could even be in a scene, you know, for me was a revelation. So he was doing it completely differently than what you thought it was going to be just reading the script, yeah? I think everybody's standing there in the room. I mean, it was just...

But he had the essence of what the role was. And he had his unique voice on it, which I think we all do, right? We all have our own voice. But the way that he was performing and understanding the form of acting too, the way that he understood the camera, the way he understood choreography,

and where he would go with his voice, the choices that he would make, was something to me that was revelatory. - I do love that part of what we do. The audience doesn't read the script before they see the movie, so they have no pre-conceived notions. - They don't know what they don't know. - So they get what they get, and they don't get upset unless somebody sucks.

And, you know, like usually people don't suck, you know, people that are taking these big swings and you just, but I bet if these, if, if the audience would think for one second, like if you read all these lines on a page, would you imagine this kind of performance? And nine times out of 10, the answer would be no. That's what everybody on the set is dealing with. So, um,

the instinct is to criticize it and say, oh, no, you can't play the character like that. You know, a director will come up and say, hey, easy with that, and let's go over here and take the character this direction, you know. But the audience is never going to do that. So if it...

an actor just needs to push back just a little bit and say, well, hang on, I'm still going to get us there, but it might be a little wiggly through here. Like, just let me do that. Let me play it like this. And with that, you get, you know, so many artists, but you get like...

Christopher Walken. Yeah, exactly. You can't write that. That's performance and you can't give it a false negative because it sounds and looks different than what you imagined. Do you remember Crispin Glover in Wild at Heart? He's got all those flashback scenes. He's the guy who's got...

He's got cockroaches in his underwear and they-- and he's cutting bread. He's cutting bread. I just-- I love Wild at Heart. It's one of my favorite movies. You just hear-- I forget his character's name. He's like, "What are you doing?" And then he's cutting and he goes, "I'm making my lunch!"

And he's just in this underwear stuffed with-- And you're like, "What a wild choice." And you just know that David Lynch gave him a ton of room. But Keanu, not that there isn't art and challenges in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and the sequel and Speed and all of these things,

They are, you know, what people call, you know, popcorn movies, but they're just as difficult of roles and movies to make. Were you, did you have any kind of trepidation from going to being so trained to going into these kinds of things and worrying about the perception of them? At the time, no.

No, man, I was trying to work. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I, you know, and I loved like for the script of, of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the audition process for that film is almost legendary. I mean, I think everybody read for that and it was. Oh, really? But I got to meet Alex Winter at that time. And, uh,

We just had one of those things where you're both in the waiting room to go audition and you're like, "Hey, hey." And then we started talking and he's like, "Yeah, I ride bike 'cause I have my helmet. I go like, "I ride." And he's like, "Yeah, what else?" And then he's like, "I went to NYU film school." And he started talking about movies and then we were working on the, we started auditioning

With those roles, he and I both independently came to the idea of commedia dell'arte and the physicality of these kind of classical commedia characters. And so there was Bill and there was Ted. And so how would you, what was the physicalness? How did they play off of each other in a kind of Punch and Judy kind of way? And so we had an instant kind of vernacular and a way to approach these roles.

that was really exciting and hilarious. Yeah, it was great. It was just so much fun to play those. And that was something that you guys, first of all, written by the great Ed Solomon, too, right? Ed Solomon. Great writer. Chris Matheson. Yeah. And was that, once you guys kind of keyed into that, what was it like?

You know, like you said, there were so many people auditioning for it. Was it just like you hit it? And George Carlin. And then you have George Carlin. Oh, George Carlin. I forgot that Carlin was in that too. What was that like, man? Man, he was so nice. He's super low key. He and Alex would go talk politics and do all of those things. Yeah. One of my... I mean, he was so lovely. I remember he...

He's one of the few people I've asked for an autograph and I was like, "Sir, can I have an autograph?" And he was like, "Sure." And he wrote, "Kiani, fuck you." And then I was like, "Oh my God, George just said that to me." I was like, "Cool."

And I took it so personally and then I found out down the years that he would actually write that to other people. It wasn't special. But it's special that you did that, man. Is there somebody that you got over your years other than George or these people that you were just completely blown away, starstruck by? Gosh, so many. So many. So many. I mean, I...

I asked for an autograph from Lou Reed for a friend. For a friend. He was just like, shoo. And then he kind of scribbled it. He carved it into your hand. Some pathetic piece of paper. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Dude, what do you think about...

It seems like, man, again, I just love... You've just had such an interesting, like, really, really unique trajectory in longevity. And then it seems like the last couple of years...

I feel like every five years, people re-appreciate you. Like a new group of people are like, oh my God, Keanu Reeves. And the last couple of years, it's true. And people go like, and then you've just become this thing in the last couple of years. Like everybody has recognized, and it's obviously because of a lifetime of being a good guy. People are starting to really recognize that about you. And you've kind of crossed over, and I don't mean to embarrass you, into this kind of weird...

Look, man, whether you like it or not, and you can avert your eyes so you don't have to look at me when I say this, you've been a sex symbol for a long time. None of us have that weight. Welcome to the club. Yeah, and then you've kind of gone, so you're like an actor and a sex symbol, and then you've now gone into this kind of like iconic status. Old guy. Culturally. No, I mean, by the way, you're 58. I know, you look exactly the same. I'm not coming on to you. You look great for 58. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He is actually a great match for you though, Will. I mean, think about his passions. We would be great. Where he came from. If either of us were gay, we'd be perfect for each other. But it must be kind of a bit of a trip because you're like, I'm still me.

And you haven't done anything different. You get up every morning and have your coffee the same way, and then all of a sudden you're... Right? Has it been kind of trippy in a way? Yeah, I mean, I think all of us have kind of had the experience of the before and the now with communication. Yeah. And so I think, you know, certainly now, in the now, you know, to your point, Will, I mean, I think...

Right now, nice is nice and can be super nice, and I'm really grateful for it. I do know that that is fickle. Yeah. But, you know, I think memes and stuff like that, I remember the first time someone showed me sad Keanu.

And I was like, what is this? Yeah, yeah. You know, I was used to paparazzi photos, but I wasn't used to a paparazzi, you know, I could see how like, you know, I was used to tabloid communication, right? Right. Yeah, right. And so this became, that was the before. And now the now is something else. And...

And for me, I was like, I was just eating a sandwich and I was like in editing and I was like kind of like down and like, and then I came up with, in order to kind of self-preservation, it was like, you can see a picture that can tell a thousand words, but that's always not gonna be all the story you tell. But in a meme, that kind of lensing or focusing

And then the way it gets shared or transmitted. Anyway, long story short, that was pretty fucking funny. And weird. It was funny and weird, right? It's fucking weird. It's weird. And like, here you are on a candle and you're carrying a lamb. Yeah.

You know. Do you ever think about the kids today who are coming up who are, you know, think about like when you were coming up and you were doing Bill and Ted's and all these great movies and you shot out of a cannon. Can you imagine having to have the scrutiny that there is now?

Yeah, no. I mean, scrutiny and responsibilities, right? Right. I mean, I think... And you're a kid, so you don't know anybody. You're kind of dumb. We're all dumb when we were kids. Yeah. Yeah, I unfortunately kept that going. But, yeah, the... Yeah, I mean, I do. I mean, I've heard of just a lot of...

artists having the pressure to be on social media in order to get a job. Right. Right. Like to even get in the room. How many followers do they have? Yeah. The following kind of aspect to the kind of capitalistic idea of it. But yeah, I mean, I bet it's tough. I bet it's tough, but also I'm sure it's pleasurable for some people too. Right. So I, you know, and there's artistry to it and involvement and creativity. But I think, I think,

the now is definitely more intense pressure on your private life than the before. Yeah. I mean, the before had a lot of pressure too, but I think the now is even more. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. Well, I mean, when you said you were 58, it's like Keanu Reeves is going to be 60 in two years. You've gotten a lot of shit done. Yeah. You've been busy, motherfucker. Yeah. I know, but I haven't hit the 100. I haven't hit the 100. I want to be 100 too. No, no, 100 years old, but also 100 films. 100 films. How many you got? Yeah, I don't know. I think I'm in the 70s.

Yeah. Wow. Well, you've got time. You've got time. I've got plenty of time. Just don't get stuck directing a bunch of them, you know? I know, right? You'll lose a bunch of time. It takes so long. Yeah. Wait, speaking of, though, okay, so I want to get into John Wick because I have a bunch of questions. Okay. So, first of all, let me just start. We do have a connection because, and I'm kind of stating the obvious here, we have the same personal trainer. Yeah. So, Patrick Murphy is fantastic. The best. The best. I love him. He's the greatest. Yeah.

And he's trained you quite a bit, as I understand. And he's nothing but incredible kind words to say about you. And like me, he's always blown away. A lot of people are blown away by the fact that you do all your own stunts. I don't do stunts. But you had to in the first John Wick. No, I do action. You're falling on your back. I do action. He doesn't call them stunts. Oh, sorry. You do action. First of all, you guys have the same trainer. I mean...

I mean, is he so exhausted after working with Keanu that by the time he gets to you, he just... He's deep into fuck it? There's a real fucking... I mean, this is...

Okay, this is, let's... Stand up and make a bagel, Sean. Stand up and make a bagel. Here we go. Yeah. So anyway, but, okay, so you do your own action, is that right? No, it's a big difference, right? Because if I'm there, if John Wick gets hit by a car,

Yeah. I'm not doing that. That's a stunt. If John Wick is in a fight scene, I can do the fighting. And if I can do a judo throw or if I'm going to fall on the ground. But let me say something. But not jump off a building. I'm sorry. No, no. But let me just say something. Because you fall. Because I've seen them. And so I'm looking at them and it's your face falling on the ground.

Yeah. That's falling action. No, but that's the lens, right? So maybe I'll do the double action. I'll do the... All right. All right. I mean, listen, I get to ride some horses. I get to drive some cars. I get to like...

you know, run and jump and do a lot of, you know, interactive fight sequences. But Patrick praises you like no end because he just says you have such a high threshold for pain. You're like the second if you hurt yourself, you're back in the game right away. Like I heard or I read somewhere that you...

like the first day or the first week you were shooting John Wick 2 that you injured yourself and you just got up and just kept going. Like it's like a football player. Yeah, yeah, there is. But I mean, but that's kind of the joy of it too, isn't it? Like it's not easy. I don't know about that. It's like not easy, man. Once you get past 45, it's not super enjoyable. I mean, at 58, you can't. I know, but if you can do it, right? If you can try. If you can try. If you can climb. If you can climb the mountains.

But doing it, it's got to be a lot harder now. But who gives a, who cares, man? Hard, smart, whatever. No, but shoot, come on, man. It's cold, it's raining. It's hot, it's whatever. It's like you're not comfortable, whatever, man. Get out of here. Keanu, tell Bateman, you fucking let's go, Bateman. What the fuck, dude? Fuck it!

All right, listen. But wait, then I heard this too from Patrick told me this, that people stop you on the street and give you feedback or ideas about the John Wick series. Oh, yeah. You should do this. You should do that. Is that true? Yeah, once in a while. And there's some good ideas and stuff, but... Really? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's what's really... I'd be like, I think I got it. No, I really appreciate with John Wick how the world has opened up, right? With the idea of a high table. There's so much mystery in films, but in a weird way, somehow it all makes sense and you authentically feel that everyone has a past.

Yes, I love that. Because the first one is like, you fucking kill my dog, I fucking kill you. And you're off to the races, right? And that's what the thing is. And then it just kind of grew and grew and grew. I'm kidding. It's deeper than that. But it grew and grew from there. But not really. But it's so cool. It's really, really cool. Revenge and freedom. Is there anything you heard over the years in that feedback from your fans?

Like, what is the main people? What is the main thing people say? Like, I think people try to like connect why all is happening and they try to get like, maybe my wife is really, is she really dead? Is she part of the high table? Is the character Winston? Is he really pulling all of the strings? What's the Bowery King? Is,

Is it a fever dream? Is John Wick? Is this just, you know, so we have people trying to kind of connect dots and try and kind of get a big overview of the story and get to it. It's really cool. Yeah, it's kind of fun. And we will be right back. All right, back to the show.

When you do a film like the John Wick films, do you, what is your, because they are so physical, what's your, when you wrap, what is your sort of recovery? What do you, are you like, I need four weeks on a beach or four weeks at home with the door shut or I need to like go to parrot? Like, what do you do to like recover from those really grueling movies? After, when I get home after I finish filming them? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it starts with collapse. And then but it's an interesting thing. I don't know if you guys have found this, but like, I don't know, coming off the road or coming off the series or, you know, the work that you're doing, you can be really tired, but then there's also a restlessness.

I don't know if you've experienced that. Like, you know, I'm just going to stay home. Well, I'm just going to get up and go get something from the fridge. But there can also be the periods where like, don't talk to me. No, I don't want to work. But then you're like, but there is a restlessness. And then once I get through the restlessness from it,

Then it's like I go into a world that I don't quite understand in the sense of like, how do I rest or who am I? What is the meaning of life? What am I doing? You're trying to reconnect with people, you know, because making films of that kind of time scale, you're in a time machine. You know, you know, everyone around you. Then you go away.

And you go down the river on your kind of independent journey. They're going down a river and then you have to meet up at the other side of that distance of travel. So much of their lives have gone on. Yes, you can have contact, but you're not involved, you know. So it's kind of in a weird way syncing up.

to those around you and sinking back up to your life, you know, at the same time that you're totally exhausted, restless, questioning everything. And then of course you have the fear and desperation of being unemployed. Yeah.

Yeah. And then you want to, you know, then you're back into it. Is it as much of a draw for you as it was when you were just trying to make something of your career and something of yourself and carve something out? Because it seems like you're very respectful and...

of life itself, like the real stuff, as opposed to career stuff and making fake life. And having done so much, do you start, and I'm just, I'm sort of projecting myself, right? I mean, I'm 54 and you start thinking about, well, we're closer to death than we are to birth. Oh, sorry, no way, 54? Well, I'm just, you know, like at what point do you, like, what's the right ratio, you know? Yeah.

Do you think about, well, there are certainly, I'd like to play a role like this and a role like that or direct this or go do a play or whatever it is. Like, do you have certain things you still want to check off before you take a bigger vital life? Before you kick it? Before I kick it, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, to answer your question, I mean, I guess part of it is I still love acting and I still love the creativity of it. Yeah. I still have ambition and hope. Yeah. And I still...

want to do good work and work with people. And so I still want to do that. I love the goal of 100. Yeah, when I want to be 100, that would be fun. Any big thing pulling you in life? Like, do you have certain places you'd like to travel to? Do you have a sport you'd like to master? Well, I'm hoping to do a play on Broadway. I mean, I haven't done that. Yeah.

Yeah. That sounds good. Like Sean. Sean's got his show. Sean's playing at the Tabasco Theater. It's going to be hot. Tabasco. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that the Belasco? Oh, nice. How do you know that? How do you know that? The Tabasco. Hey, guys. Check me out at the Tabasco. Everything's hot. It's a hot night at the Tabasco. It's a hot theater. Yeah.

You come in cool, you leave hot. Listen, I feel like this would be a generic question for anyone else other than you, but what's your favorite action movie? Oh, shit. One of your favorite action movies. One of them, yeah. It's easier to answer. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. And was there one... You'd think I'd have that ready up my sleeve, right? Like, oh, well, here's the list of the favorite action movies. Come on. I don't think I do. I don't have one. Um...

Okay, well, what do we mean by an action movie? Like, you know, there's action. I mean, because it could be like a, it could be Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. Or it could be Raiders of the Lost Ark. It could be Raiders of the, it could be Rollerball. Mm-hmm.

Oh, you said rollerball. Is that an action movie or is that a science fiction? No, no, no, that was good. No, but you almost said Raiders of the Lost Ark. Could it be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? I mean, I don't know. Yeah, that car gets hairy. I mean, I don't know. Sean, define. I mean, I grew up, I mean, like, what is it? Like, The Towering Inferno. I mean, what about all of the chariot movies, right? What about the westerns? Gumball Rally. What action movies are we talking about? What about, oh, I mean, I guess formative. I mean...

I don't mean just people like moving in a scene. I just meant like people fighting. I know. I know. I know. Fighting and blowing stuff. I'm kidding. Good for you, Keanu. Fucking, yeah, Sean, define it. I mean. Listen, Keanu, John Wick 4, right? 4. There's 4. There's 4. It's already, it was released in March and it's, how great is, I can't wait to see it.

That's kind. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm a big, big fan of you and those movies and all your movies. We've taken up a lot of your time. Thank you for being here. We love you. You're the man. You're absolutely the man. You're very cool. Fellas, thank you very much. Nice to meet y'all. I'm jealous that Sean had you as his guest. You've been on my wish list for like two and a half years, so I'm so happy you're here. I can support that. Yeah. Stop ducking me out there. You know, I'd like to spend more than just 57 minutes with you. Nice.

Cheers. Come have dinner with us one night, all right? All right. That'd be so fun. That'd be great. Cool. Thank you. Do you live in Los Angeles, Keanu? I do. Okay, just text me the address. All right, so we love you. Thank you for being here, pal. Thanks for doing this, Keanu. Thanks, man. Cheers, guys. Thank you so much. See you, pal. Bye.

Hey guys, it's Keanu Reeves. That was Keanu Reeves. Did you recognize him? I did recognize him. He has not changed. He's not changed a bit. 58 years old. He looks exactly the same. He's 32. He looks 32. Jason, you look like his older brother. You son of a bitch. You know what I mean? But wait, he kind of skated over the fact that, I know he didn't, well, I call him stunts, but action sequences, whatever.

He has too much respect for the people who do stunts. He's so unassuming. He's so unassuming. And it's all real. But I'm not dissing them. I'm just saying, you know, take after take after take, movie after movie after movie, your body just, I don't understand. Can you say, maybe, can you guys relate to this? When you were younger, did you have like, I didn't have an older brother. So, but I had, I had guys who were,

Like my dad, my godfather's son, Ward Brown, was my idol. And he was a couple years, he was like three years older than me. And everything he did, I wanted to do. He played everything because I like looked up to him. I was like, blah, blah, blah. Keanu, I could see, is one of those guys that I've always, he's like a few years older and like, I just want to do it.

What's he doing? Totally. He's totally, right? And he lives in that same space for me. I feel the same way about Pitt. I'm like, and everything, oh, hey, man. How's it going? What are you doing? Yeah, we're just, no way. I won't do that. It's like a cool factor I'll never achieve. Yeah, yeah. Well, you started out nice. You shared the same body instructor. What's his name? Body instructor. Body instructor.

What's it called? Shreve. Shreve.

Yes, my brain's broken today. A trainer? Like a personal trainer? Like a body trainer, right? Oh, you should have a body instructor. Listen. But, you know, he also seems he's so humble and unassuming. Yeah, I love him. And it's all so real. Doesn't need any attention. He's almost shy, yet he's in a public role. Yeah. I find that admirable and interesting. I didn't even get to the thing that I said in his interview.

intro, which was he, I wanted to ask him, the whole point of my intro was to ask him about, he starred in Paula Abdul's music video, Rush Rush, in the 90s,

And I was like, why is Keanu Reeves in this video? It was so wild. I remember it was like a big deal because I was obsessed with that video. Maybe he was dating her at the time. That's what I wanted to ask. Well, he's way too discreet. He never would have said it. Call him back, Sean. This is the first time we ever want to get a guest back. We didn't get to a lot of stuff because there's so much to talk to him about. I know. I wanted to talk more about the Matrix stuff, but anyway.

I mean, you did a terrible job asking questions, if I'm being honest. Yeah, you're going to lose your nomination next year. You are. Oh, you've already lost. You're never getting back to host of the year. Well, I can probably see that award go. You're just using a bye for bye, huh? That's right. Okay. Smart. Worse. Smart. Worse.

Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armjarv, Bennett Barbico, and Michael Granteri. Smartless. Hi. Hi. Hi. So, listener, hi. Before we go, we wanted to introduce the audience to someone very special today. Please meet someone special. Smartless Media is doing our very first podcast

Yeah. Called Bad Dates with the amazing, incredible Jamila Jamil. Hi. Welcome, Jamila. Do I clap myself? Yes. Clap yourself in. Enthusiastically. Clap yourself in. Thank you. You can give yourself the clap. Yeah, yeah. Now, speaking of giving yourself the clap, this is called Bad Dates, right? So...

Unbelievable segue. Yeah. The show's called Bad Dates, yeah. Yeah, and are you... Well, tell the listener basically what it's about beyond what the title says. It is relatively self-explanatory. It's just me and some of my favorite...

and people coming on to disclose the sordid details of the silliest and weirdest and grossest dates they've ever had. And the reason I love this subject is because it's very bonding. It never fails to ignite a conversation wherever you are. It brings barriers down. But also, there's just a democracy to it because it just doesn't matter how hot you are, how smart, how rich, how famous. No one is exempt from a shitty fucking date. But I would guess that you...

you have never had a bad day because you seem to know how to communicate in any way possible to make it all work. Like you can answer the questions or you can ask the questions. Like some people just don't only know how to do one.

It comes to a standstill when I am, I'm not going to say aroused, but when I'm interested, all of my skills fly out the window. And really, I have no way of receiving a sort of social cue. So really, you have to be inside of me for me to understand that you're interested. Obviously, given the current climate, that's not.

But you're saying if you like the other person, you start to lock up a little bit? I lock up and I shut down. Yeah, it's a problem. Will's got that with Charlize Theron. He can't, he just, everything seizes up. You don't need to go wide with that. No, she knows. Don't worry.

She's aware. It's fine. Well, we all have that with Charlize Theron. Have you had a favorite guest yet on Bad Dates at all? I mean, anybody comes to mind? Who could you be hinting at? I don't know. Sean, you've been a wonderful guest on the show. Oh, no.

Sean, give us a taste, Sean. What was your worst date? I don't want to ruin it, but it starts out with me meeting a guy in a bar with workout pants in a bar, and we're both super drunk. We go back to his place, and before we get to the goods part of the story, he asks, do you mind if I microwave a burrito really quick before we go at it? I swear to God. Not a euphemism. He wasn't asking you. I would have loved if he said, you cool if I shower real quick before we keep talking? No.

Yeah, it was a real dream. It was on with Conan O'Brien. We've had Tig Notaro. We've had Nikki Glaser, Margot Cho, Paul Feig. Wait, wait, wait. Conan's been on a date?

I know. Just the one. Yeah. And it was a disaster, thankfully. So he came on the show to talk about it. But it is just like, it is quite astonishing how much I've learned about a lot of very famous people. And also just how many people have shit their pants on a date. I don't know if that's something that any of you have literally shit their pants. No way. It's actually like, it is the great equalizer. The asshole is the great equalizer of humanity. And I think it's been overlooked ballistically. But yeah.

but we've uncovered it on the show. Yeah. Fascinating. I want to hear all about that. I am tuning in. Oh, by the way, you just got Jason's attention. The dates and the hooking up, fine. No, it's fine. But once you get into the... Short reference. The anus. That is... The bowels of the story. That is a fucking wheelhouse. Sean, am I right? Yeah. Oh, for sure. Could you call the show Shit Show? Shit Show?

I basically should. But I mean, there are varieties on what we're learning on the show. But it is just, I just want people out there to know that you are not alone if you think you are. Like the stories are so wild and so funny and so absurd. And we're not shitting on single life because God knows married life is fucking its own nightmare. But we're just trying to have an intimate, funny conversation about something that I think is deeply relatable. My story amazingly didn't involve any shit.

But I've had my own extraordinary disaster. Sean, I've told you this story before. Yes. I can share it with you if you want an idea. Please do. Give us a taste. Of how much disaster is out there. I tried to have my first ever one-night stand because I've only kissed six people, right, in my life. Come on. But it is sadly true. I started very late and then I was slow on the uptake. And so I...

I thought, you know what? In my 30s, I'm going to have my ho era that I've always dreamed of. It's going to happen. And I got the sense that I was about to have my first ever booty call. A man that I'd been sort of casually going on a few dates with, just hanging out with. We hadn't done anything yet. He texted me and said, like, shall I come over? And I was like, oh, 11 p.m. I'm definitely going to get my first...

You can even hear what's happening to my voice just talking about it. I suddenly become a bit more like Mary Poppins about the whole thing. But I was like, oh my God, I'm going to get a casual shag. It's so exciting. So he turns up at my house, 11pm on the dot, walks into my apartment.

I've only been living in America for a week at this point, right? So I don't know anyone or anything. And he takes three steps in and collapses face first on the ground. And all of his front teeth, we're talking at least 12 here, shoot out of his mouth across my entire living room. So now there is blood and teeth all over my room and he's having a seizure. So I've never seen someone have a seizure in real life before. And I panic. I think he's going to die. I call 911, which is also...

slightly exciting because I'm English and they call that in the movies so I feel very Hollywood right now. I call 911. They send in the fucking police to turn up the fire brigade, the paramedics. Everyone comes rolling into my house. I now have about 25 men in my apartment which is not how I'd expect

And you're just in lingerie, right? You were ready to go. No, not quite, but close. And this man is covered in blood. He's split his chin all the way open and they're trying to resuscitate him. They managed to bring him to and they're like, excuse me, sir, have you taken anything? Do you have epilepsy? And he was like, oh, I might have had some cocaine. But he was like, but I always have cocaine. And I was like, oh, it's a small red flag. It's not huge. It's a little, it was,

just I think the word always at his age felt slightly disturbing wasn't going to be a short date no exactly and then they were like have you taken anything else and he was going no and he's hanging in the street like this because he's got no teeth now and so they start putting the blanket over him to take him out and as they go past his cock he gets a raging erection

which feels inappropriate at the moment. And they're like, sir, have you taken anything else? Right. And he turns around and he looks directly at me and makes full eye contact and just goes, I might have had some Viagra. Which is, I might have had some Viagra for those who don't speak toothless. So that's a combination you don't want. So then you hook up.

So you quickly sucked him off and sent him on his way. Yeah, he got carried out on a stretcher in the middle of West Hollywood, a quite famous actor. So we had to put a blanket over his cock, but also one over his face.

And he's just there, just like pitching a tent through West Hollywood as he gets taken to the hospital. So that was my first and last attempt at a booty call and have been in a long-term relationship since a week from that day. I can't wait to get you drunk one day and find out who that guy was. I know. I can't believe Thoreau has never told us this story. Right. He's usually pretty open about his mistakes. Normally you'd think that he would. Yeah.

Wow. So that is what can happen. I know. See, I live for those kinds of stories. And you can see how everybody has one or two or five or ten of these horrible stories. Ask her if she's ever forgotten a line on stage. You know? Yeah. Got any weird theater stories. Hey, give me a really horrible theater story. They're just a dynamic. You'll have to tune in to Smart List for that one. But for all bad date stories, tune in to Bad Dates. When do we get to start airing these things?

So March 20th, it'll be on Wondery Plus and Amazon Music. And then March 27th, it'll be on all services. And you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the truly horrible tales of some people's dating experiences. It's just amazing what we'll go through to get a shag, isn't it? Yeah. That's true. Boy, that's a quote.

Well, we're lucky, Jamila, that we have you taking us through this. This is going to be so great. We're really excited. And you're our first one. You're our virgin podcast. Yeah, you're our first one. Thank you. No pressure at all. Thank you for signing up. No pressure, yeah. Yeah, thanks. I'm a massive fan of all of you, so I'm going to try my best not to let you down. But I don't know if I can because this podcast is so weird and gross that I think it's going to fly.

Well, thank you. We're big fans. Thank you for doing this and we can't wait to listen. Likewise. Thank you. Thank you, hon. Bye. Bye, Jamila. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

If you like SmartList, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.