are tom cruise and keanu reeves friends

Keanu Reeves Refuses To Star In A Film With Tom Cruise As An Adversary

Keanu Reeves has a certain condition in place pertaining to possibly working alongside Tom Cruise.

Their work ethic is unmatched, while the duo's longevity is also something to behold. All these years later, Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves continue to be monsters at the box office, with their films generating millions, or at times, in the case of Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick , over $1 billion.

The two actors share lots of similarities and in the following, we're going to take a closer look at their careers, and how Keanu has taken inspiration from Cruise.

We'll reveal what part of Cruise's career Keanu admires most, while taking a closer look at how Keanu feels about potentially working alongside Tom. Keanu is open to it, though it has to be in a specific role, as we're going to reveal in his interview with Extra TV.

Finally, we'll conclude by taking a look at what Keanu thinks is the biggest reason for he and Tom Cruise's success in the business after all these years.

Keanu Reeves Admires Tom Cruise And His Dangerous Stunt Work

Usually, we hear all about other actors and their experiences alongside Keanu Reeves, and how great it was. However, in this instance, the humble Keanu took the time to discuss Tom Cruise , and how remarkable the actor's career has been. Keanu compared Tom's career to his own, especially in terms of the dangers involved in Cruise's stunts.

"What Tom Cruise does is extraordinary and special and something that... Again, another legend in another universe. I'm more like on the ground playing in the mud and he's like flying and jumping and outside of buildings and helicopters, fighter jets."

RELATED - Sandra Bullock Revealed What It Is Truly Like To Have An Intimate Conversation With Keanu Reeves

Keanu called Tom's talents 'extraordinary'.

"So what he's doing in terms of the events that he's participating in, I think is extraordinary. And his passion for it, his skill, his talent just shines."

Fans would love to see the two mega stars unite for a project. While promoting J ohn Wick: Chapter 4 , Keanu took the time to discuss the possibility. Keanu was once again full of praise, but he did have an objection towards working alongside Tom...

Keanu Reeves Would Rather Appear In A Film With Tom Cruise As A Duo Instead Of Adversaries

"I don't know if he's an inspiration, he's just amazing," Keanu Reeves said on the red carpet alongside Extra TV.

Keanu was later asked about working alongside Cruise, to which the actor revealed he wouldn't want to work against him, but with him. "I don't know, maybe we can be side by side with a common goal," Keanu said with a smile on his face.

RELATED - How Tom Cruise's First Mission: Impossible Co-Star Emmanuelle Béart Really Felt About Working Alongside The Actor

As expected, the moment created lots of buzz with the fans, who were also completely into the idea of the two working together, as expected.

One fan writes below on the YouTube comments, "The fact that him and Tom Cruise are like the same age- got big in the 90s- known for their action even in their late 50s, but have never been in a movie together is a crime."

Another fan comments, "Tom and Keanu have to be the two last Hollywood Action stars. John Wick and Mission Impossible both franchises just keep getting better and better. I would love to see both in an action film together."

Clearly, the fans would love to see the stars team up in some capacity. However, given their busy schedules and how in-demand both are, it would truly take something special to finally see them together.

Keanu Reeves Revealed His Common Trait With Tom Cruise Is Their Love For Making Films

We have yet to hear from Tom Cruise and his thoughts on Keanu Reeves. However, there is no doubt his feeling for the actor are mutual. We've never heard of another actor speaking ill of Keanu and his abilities.

RELATED - A Movie Theater Employee Was Left Completely Stunned But Their Encounter With Keanu Reeves During The Matrix Premiere

The humble Keanu further discussed his similarities to Tom Cruise. As Keanu pointed out, their mutual longevity and success all stems from how much they love film and what they are doing.

"I think we're just the beneficiaries of his excellence, you know? And he's inspiring. And I think one thing I could say is that I share, as you spoke about, the passion for movies. We're lucky to be there and we're just trying to have fun and hope people like what we did."

Keanu's passion has shined through and brought his career to the next level. However, despite the fame and success, Keanu was told that his own name might be detrimental towards his success...

“They were like, Keanu, it’s too ethnic,” he said with The Star. “But then I had auditions and they’d be like, ‘K.C.,’ and I wouldn’t even look up. So, I went back to my agent and was like, ‘I can’t change my name.’”

Thankfully, Keanu kept things the same and the rest is history.

Celebrity News March 15, 2023

Keanu reeves on a possible tom cruise team-up (exclusive).

On Wednesday, Keanu Reeves suited up for the NYC special screening of “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

“Extra” spoke with Reeves, who dished on the movie and praised fellow action star Tom Cruise!

Cruise is known for performing his own stunts in his action movies. Keanu commented, “He’s just amazing… He’s just incredible, what he does.”

Of the possibility of an onscreen team-up, Keanu said, “I don’t know. Maybe, we could be side-by-side with a common goal.”

While Reeves leaves many of the stunts to the professionals, he tries to do “as much as I can” with the action scenes in the latest “John Wick” film.

As for what makes him keep coming back to his “John Wick” character, Keanu revealed, “I like playing his grief…. I like his humor… I like that he gets knocked down, but he gets back up again.”

Reeves also reacted to the news that a German scientist named fungus-killing bacteria after him, saying, “It’s pretty surreal.”

Keanu also clarified the meaning of the Rolex watches he gifted his stunt team with the inscription “The John Wick Five” — which some thought might allude to a fifth movie.

He said, “It wasn’t about ‘Chapter 5.’ I trained with a group of people who were very special to me.”

“John Wick: Chapter 4” is in theaters March 17.

Keanu Reeves on Crazy ‘John Wick 4’ Car Stunts and Possible 5th Movie (Exclusive)

Keanu Reeves’ Reaction to Matthew Perry’s Memoir Diss (Report)

Matthew Perry Apologizes for Keanu Reeves Comments in Memoir

More in celebrity news.

Morgan Wallen Arrest: New Video Shows Chair Falling from 6-Story Building

JoJo Siwa’s $50K Cosmetic Procedure Confession

Aoki Lee Simmons & Vittorio Assaf Split (Report)

Zendaya Reflects on ‘Complicated Feelings’ About Being a ‘Child Actor’

Why Tori Spelling & Dean McDermott Slept in Separate Beds for Years

Lady Gaga & Michael Polansky Spark Engagement Rumors

Scotty McCreery Praises Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’: ‘She’s Crushing It’

Extra hot galleries.

2024 CMT Music Awards: Red Carpet

Stars arrive at the 2024 CMT Music Awards!

The 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards: Show Photos

See all the pics from inside the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards!

The 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards: Yellow Carpet Pics!

Stars hit the yellow carpet at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards!

Stars Celebrate Easter 2024: Pics!

See how stars and their families are celebrating Easter!

'The Bachelorette': See Jenn Tran's Potential Suitors!

"The Bachelorette" is giving us an early look at the guys who may be on Jenn Tran's season of "The Bachel ...

The 55th Annual NAACP Image Awards: Red-Carpet Pics!

Stars hit the red carpet at the 55th Annual NAACP Image Awards!

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?
• Newsletters

Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise’s ’80s Revivals Are Coming!

By Richard Lawson and K. Austin Collins

If there was ever a time we could use the comfort of past glories, it is now. With Tom Cruise’s Top Gun sequel, Maverick, and Keanu Reeves’s Bill & Ted Face the Music scheduled for 2020, two iconic superstars are returning to roles that shaped their careers. Due to the coronavirus, the movies may have to shift their exact release dates, but we will be ready and waiting when they come in for a landing.

KEANU’S JOURNEY

In 1989, Keanu Reeves did a brilliant double act. His big movie that year was, of course, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a surreal sci-fi history lesson (sort of) about two California burnout teens tumbling through time. Reeves played Ted (not that the distinction matters much), giving him a bobbing, affable airheadedness that could have defined Reeves’s whole movie-star profile had there not been, in the summer of 1989, Ron Howard’s Parenthood, in which Reeves had a supporting part as, well, a lovable dude-dope named Tod.

The roles were similar, but in Parenthood, Reeves was able to show a more thoughtful, even contemplative side, bringing shading to a stock character he seemed destined to play over and over. Smartly, Reeves pried that little bit of wiggle room into something wide enough to slip through. He would do a Bill & Ted sequel a couple of years later, but he also freed himself to take on a variety of projects, from action to drama to Shakespearean comedy.

Reeves had been doing varied work before Bill & Ted, but that role—which he’s reprising this year in Bill & Ted Face the Music, in which the lovable dopes, now fathers, must write a song to save the world—did briefly threaten to pigeonhole him. Reeves is craftier than that, though, more than he gets credit for. What followed Bill & Ted, and Parenthood, has been a fascinating olio of successes and genial failures. Reeves, though not possessed of expansive natural range, has proven a more adaptable movie star than many. Maybe that’s owed to the sly gleam of self-awareness he’s always projected in his work. He’s protected himself from outright embarrassment because he’s claimed that cringe already; he’s worn Ted and Tod proudly on his sleeve over the past three decades.

Reeves in the new Bill & Ted.

Think of his much-mocked performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a hilariously wrong bit of casting that has Reeves playing 19th-century Briton Jonathan Harker, trapped in Dracula’s castle and writing goopy letters home to his beloved (played by Winona Ryder, another emblem of the age). Reeves was lambasted for the performance, which might have turned another actor indignant, keeping him away from other projects outside of his ken. But not Reeves, who gamely showed up the next year in Kenneth Branagh’s delightful box office hit Much Ado About Nothing. Faced with playing a pouting, jealous villain who speaks in Elizabethan English, Reeves leaned more into his innate Keanu-ness than he’d been able to in Coppola’s film, and thus created a perfect, weird hybrid: a classical stage version of the prototypical Keanu Reeves character, albeit a dastardly one.

Reeves’s peripatetic interests didn’t always take him to good places in the 1990s. The most egregious example is certainly Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha, in which Reeves, bronzed and bewigged, plays Siddhartha, founder of Buddhism. That hubristic folly probably should have derailed his career for a while, but then came Jan de Bont’s Speed the next year, a zooming wonderment of action filmmaking held at the center by Reeves’s gentle cowboy bravado. He’s aided immensely, of course, by Sandra Bullock in her star-making turn, the two of them giving daffy performances that somehow still take the material seriously.

By Eve Batey

By Lawrence Grobel

By Julie Miller

That’s a skill that Reeves would bring, five years later, to his arguably most iconic role, Thomas A. Anderson/Neo in the Wachowskis’ seismic, industry-changing The Matrix. Between Speed and The Matrix, Reeves found himself a bit in the weeds. Among a handful of duds and forgettable, if fine, smaller films, the only real pre- Matrix standout is The Devil’s Advocate. A satanic legal thriller featuring Al Pacino at the height of his latter-career shtick, The Devil’s Advocate calls for Reeves to be boggled, and yet forceful, as Kevin Lomax, a hotshot young attorney gradually rising to fight a looming enemy (Pacino plays Satan, of course) that he’s only recently been made aware of. Reeves is quite good at communicating that awe hardening into a hero’s resolve.

Fitting, then, that The Matrix should ask him to do almost exactly that. Thomas Anderson is more of a blank than Kevin Lomax, though, better allowing for the audience to ride with him into a violent cyber awakening. The genius—and yes, I mean genius—of Reeves’s performance in the first Matrix film is that he so smoothly structures the journey from “Whoa” to “I know kung fu” to becoming the One. He adapts to the film as we in the audience do, a careful and crucial bit of stewardship that helps make the film such an immersive success.

The years after The Matrix were uneven for Reeves. It’s tough to follow a global phenomenon, especially when its sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions, disappointed as much as they did. But, as ever, Reeves plugged away. He went after the devil again in 2005’s Constantine, a precursor to the age of the gritty comic book movie. In 2003, he gave a beguilingly sweet turn as a young doctor courting Diane Keaton in Nancy Meyers’s seminal romantic comedy, Something’s Gotta Give. (More of that, please, Keanu!) He did morose sci-fi, cop drama, even a strange time-skipping romance with his old Speed costar Bullock. (For all its goofy flaws, The Lake House remains eminently watchable.) He never really lost his charm, but he did lose some clout, perhaps best evidenced by the 2010-ish “Sad Keanu” meme.

Whether or not he was indeed sad at that moment, it would soon not matter, as John Wick arrived in 2014 to remind audiences what fun Keanu Reeves can be. A contract killer dragged out of retirement, John Wick doesn’t speak much, and he is mourning both a wife and a puppy. It could be a dour role, a sad sack angel of death. But Reeves gives Wick a fizz of wry, self-conscious humor. John Wick works because Keanu Reeves is playing him, a clever movie-star glow—one might call it soul—imbued into a stock character’s body.

That’s what Reeves does best, confronting the challenges of a role with a subtle, humane dexterity. Yes, he’s got the surfer-brah voice and the perpetually confused squint. But Reeves’s mind has always been turning these past 30 years, like he’s been figuring out how best to entertain us, calibrating his star presence here and there while still attending to personal curiosities. It hasn’t always worked, maybe. But he’s at least never been boring. Few actors of Reeves’s stature have been able to attempt so many genres with such consistently likable results. I can’t wait to see him in yet another something new. Even if, with his return to Ted, that means doing something old again. —Richard Lawson

TOM’S CRUISE

There’s a running joke—an enduring piece of pop-psychoanalytic brain fodder for a certain generation of fans and critics—that says: Tom Cruise wants to die.

The theory, both morbid and awestruck, goes something like this: Look at his movies. There’s the Burj Khalifa stunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, performed, like all of the actor’s major stunts, by Cruise himself. There’s also the climactic helicopter chase in Fallout, that franchise’s most recent offering, for which Cruise, one of the most valuable individuals in the industry despite the death knell of the Hollywood star, learned how to fly a plane in six weeks. The process usually takes three months, unless, like Cruise, you train 16 hours a day, with multiple crews, to cut that time in half.

So the death-wish theory is plausible, as every fresh round of Cruise stunt rankings and YouTube compilations attests. But it is also completely wrong—for the simple and unassailable fact that it overlooks one thing: Cruise doesn’t die. He persists. Further, he reinvents himself. His movies have taken to making a joke of it. In Edge of Tomorrow, Cruise died over and over, was just as forcefully reborn over and over—becoming, gradually, a better and more experienced man with each iteration. In Oblivion ’s big twist, what we thought was an apocalyptic earthscape barren of humanity was in fact populated with Tom Cruise clones.

A cool, collected Tom Cruise in 1986’s Top Gun.

Cruise’s most promising rebirth arrives this year in the form of Top Gun: Maverick —a collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer and, in the early stages, the late Tony Scott that has been over 30 years in the making. The 1986 original wasn’t Cruise’s breakout— Risky Business dropped three years prior—but it was the movie that gave us a template for his career. Consider the Maverick of 1986: a rebellious genius of a pilot who’s living in the shadow of a father’s mistake, meaning he has something to prove, and whose only family is his chosen family: his best friend, Goose. Maverick is a man more memorable for his Cruise qualities—the lightbulb-bright smile, the cocksure flirtation with Kelly McGillis—than for anything coming out of his mouth. But one line sticks: “I won’t let you down.”

Top Gun became the highest-grossing movie of the year, with a theatrical run of more than 30 weeks, back when that sort of thing still happened. The movie was such an effective rush of heroic adrenaline, such a keen appeal to Reagan-era patriotism, that another producer later called it an outright “recruitment tool for the Navy.” That became the story: beloved hit, beloved war tool.

The new movie finds Cruise coming full circle. It promises to be a consummation of the indomitable, untamed but disciplined star that was promised by that film, as well as a look at where that guy has been all these years. The first trailer acknowledged as much, as the authoritative voice of Ed Harris intones: “You can’t get a promotion, you won’t retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.”

Refuse to die. There’s that phrase again.

Like every actor, Cruise has had his failures, though startlingly few. Dissed by Paramount in 2006, he concentrated on his production company with long-term professional partner Paula Wagner—a venture that got off the ground, notably, with Mission: Impossible in 1996. The venture had ups and downs. There was a split in the partnership and a failed attempt to revive the storied semi-independent studio United Artists. M:I , however, had announced a long era of Cruise as auteur. Cruise as maker of his own Hollywood destiny. The fact that a couple of would-be franchises ( Jack Reacher and The Mummy ) foundered seems more like a footnote than the true narrative.

With Maverick, Cruise returns to his roots because he wants to, not because he has to, which may be why—beyond pure nostalgia—it’s so hotly anticipated. Likewise, the actor is not on hand mostly to pass the baton to a new generation of stars. Mark Hamill resumed his role in the Star Wars films after a 30-plus year gap; Harrison Ford appeared in two of the latest sequels and the reboot of that other sci-fi standout from earlier in his career, Blade Runner 2049 . Those films represented an unabashed changing of the guard from the Lukes and Leias and Deckards to the Reys from nowhere and the Ryan Goslings. They were acknowledgments that something had changed in the ecosystem of stardom. To bring these properties back, you had to reimagine them for a new generation.

What separates Maverick in 1986 from the Cruise of today? One is announcing his potential, and the other has harnessed it. Funny, though, that failure bit. It is an idea etched into almost every one of Cruise’s action films, most notably the Mission: Impossible movies. The irony, of course, is that Cruise’s characters render the word impossible ironic, if not meaningless. He does not fail, just as he does not die. Cruise knows what we want: persistence, with a healthy side of terrifying scrapes. He may be reborn. He may be rebooted. But he’s still Tom Cruise. This time, likely with a real-life license to fly fighter planes. This time, with nothing to prove except that he still has the hunger to keep proving it. —K. Austin Collins

Richard Lawson

Chief critic.

By Joe Reid

By Katey Rich

By Richard Lawson

By Joy Press

By David Canfield

By Anthony Breznican

By Kara Warner

The Martha Quinn Show

Want to know more about Martha Quinn? Get her official bio, social pages and articles here! Full Bio

Keanu Reeves On A Possible Team-Up With Tom Cruise

Keanu Reeves is praising fellow action star Tom Cruise. 

At a special screening of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” Keanu was asked about Cruise, who is known for performing his own stunts in his action movies.

Reeves said, “He’s just amazing.  He’s just incredible, what he does.”

Reeves was then asked about the possibility of an onscreen pairing with Cruise and said, “I don’t know. Maybe, we could be side-by-side with a common goal.”

Reeves leaves many of his on-screen stunts to the professionals but says he tries to do as much as he can with the action scenes in the latest “John Wick” film.

Photo Credit: Getty

Sponsored Content

103.7 fm 80s+ podcasts.

Talk Talk with Martha Quinn

Martha Quinn On Demand

• Celebrities
• Secret Invasion
• The Marvels
• Disney Plus
• Apple TV Plus
• Dwayne Johnson
• Brie Larson
• Ryan Reynolds
• The Witcher
• About & Advertising
• Privacy Policy

Keanu Reeves’ famous friends and supporters run to his defense after Matthew Perry’s comments

Keanu Reeves  is synonymous with kindness, an innately aware sense of self, and a humble heart ready to give to others. It’s seemingly impossible to have a negative thought about the guy, so when  Matthew Perry  used his being alive as a negative in his upcoming book, people took notice. 

Some of Reeves’ friends are coming to his defense on social media. In fact, even those who might not be closely acquainted with the actor are trying to cover the negative with a positive light instead.

pic.twitter.com/Fi4nKVTFfe — LaToya Morgan (@MorganicInk) October 26, 2022

What exactly did Perry say about Reeves?  Page Six  reports two instances in which he mocks Reeves’ life, almost as if his existence is a downfall or that someone else’s life might have been more profound than his. 

“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”

personally thrilled that keanu reeves walks among us — rachel zegler (she/her/hers) (@rachelzegler) October 26, 2022

Perry’s book also details his struggles with addiction and near-death experiences and chronicles life in the spotlight, including the ups and downs that come with it. 

Of course, fans have taken kindly to Perry’s words, greeting his pain with understanding and applauding his vulnerability; but they’re not on board with him questioning Reeves’ life at the expense of others, especially when Reeves feels a deep pain at the loss of Phoenix.

When you consider how heartbroken Keanu Reeves STILL is over River Phoenix’s death… this is especially evil. https://t.co/tUB9777Egd — Brandy Booo 👻 (@ThisIsBrandyB) October 26, 2022

Fans, journalists, and others in the entertainment realm also chimed in with their thoughts on Perry’s comments about Reeves.

There’s a definite sense of irony in that Perry is having these conversations while starting with less-than-stellar comments about Reeves — and that’s putting it kindly.

Imagine kicking off your goodwill tour with “Keanu Reeves should be dead.” — Evan Dickson (@EvanDickson) October 26, 2022

Fans aren’t sure why Perry is putting someone down at the expense of others; all three actors are talented: Phoneix, Ledger, and Reeves. Why bring negativity into the equation at all?

Keanu Reeves is one of the kindest, most generous people on the planet. Heath Ledger and River Phoenix were incredibly talented. I’m happy you’re sober, Matthew, but you were never in their league. https://t.co/YdErBZRZN0 — Geek Girl Diva (@geekgirldiva) October 26, 2022

“That kind of hatred needs healing,” and we can’t think of a better way to summarize the situation.

I’ve never heard anyone say they don’t like Keanu Reeves, much less wish he weren’t alive. That’s the kind of hatred that needs healing. He doesn’t bother anyone. — Stephanie. (@qsteph) October 26, 2022

We have to admit; we were all a bit confused to hear that Perry thought of Reeves with such resentment.

Matthew Perry has to be the first person I've ever seen publicly come at Keanu Reeves sideways. am I missing something? — Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) October 26, 2022

As several tweets state, it is lovely to see the influx of stories that highlight Reeves’s kindness and positivity and the life he lives. It has been a blessing in disguise, as several are sharing moments of gratitude for experiencing some of the goodness that Reeves gives off.

It’s a nod to the phrase we’ve all been told; you should treat others as you want to be treated, and if you have a moment to be kind — you should take it.

Simon Pegg Reflects On Unique Friendship With Tom Cruise That Lets Him 'Make Fun Of' His Mission: Impossible Co-Star

Tom Cruise may be the biggest movie star in the world, but that doesn't mean his friends don't give him hell sometimes.

Tom Cruise is a massive movie star but his celebrity is such that it even dwarfs that of most other movie stars. People are always going to be interested in what Cruise is doing, who he might be dating, and what is happening to him personally or professionally. From a certain point of view, the whole thing could be seen as quite funny, and that’s apparently how Simon Pegg takes it.

Mission: Impossible Co-star Simon Pegg recently spoke with Deadline about his relationship with Tom Cruise, and while the actor might seem to be on another level of movie stardom, the two apparently have the sort of relationship that allows Pegg to poke fun at the actor/producer over what it means to be Tom Cruise. Pegg said…

We joke about it. I mean, I always make fun of him for it, you know, about the things that he can access… he kind of appreciates the ridiculousness of it sometimes.

It has to be pretty wild to be a movie star that is so famous that other movie stars can make fun of you for your level of access. Simon Pegg certainly gets a certain amount of access that the rest of us don’t have due to his own celebrity, he met the Queen of England once, but what Cruise has is just that much more impressive.

When you have that kind of fame Tom Cruise has, it might be honestly a bit difficult to relate to your co-stars that don’t have that, but from what Pegg says it sounds like Cruise is pretty easy to get to know and be friends with. There is a man underneath all the layers of fame who isn’t necessarily entirely the same as the celebrity that the rest of us see.

For as famous as he is, Tom Cruise keeps a lot of his personal life private . He's been married several times, and to some very famous people, but he doesn't talk about that much. Tom Cruise's religion is something that gets discussed a lot from the outside, though it's the one thing Pegg admits he doesn't poke fun of Cruise over. But the fact that it is such a topic of conversation shows just how famous Tom Cruise is. Most celebrities' religions just don't get talked about in the same way.

And it sounds like Tom Cruise does understand just how outside the norm and insane his particular level of fame is. Having said that, Pegg does say that Cruise absolutely loves being famous. He continued…

My relationship with him is just very simple and amiable. It’s always been a very easy relationship. I think you realize, when you meet the person rather than the thicket of mythology that’s built up around them, it’s a different experience. I mean, he loves [the fame] and he really relishes it, it’s all he knows. It energizes him and spurs him on.

Recently, Cruise was seen in public with pop star Shakira and the internet sort of blew up. While it doesn’t appear there was anything going on between them now, it shows just how famous Tom Cruise is that it became such a news item. It sounds like exactly the sort of thing that Simon Pegg will probably joke about with his friend. 

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

’It Was A Strange Thing’: The Harry Potter Movies Were A Huge Success, But Tom Felton Admits He Had No Idea If They’d Make It To The Deathly Hallows

Best Mike Tyson Appearances In Movies And TV Shows

I Knew WrestleMania 40’s Main Event Would Deliver, But I’m Shocked By The Rest Of The Card

Most Popular

By Nick Venable April 07, 2024

By Carly Levy April 07, 2024

By Megan Behnke April 07, 2024

By Heidi Venable April 07, 2024

By Erik Swann April 07, 2024

By Ryan LaBee April 07, 2024

By Connie Lee April 07, 2024

• 2 The Rock, John Cena, The Undertaker And More Showed Up In The Craziest WrestleMania Main Event Of All-Time
• 3 Goosebumps Season 2: What We Know About The Disney+ Series
• 4 I Thought I Was The Only Jeopardy Fan Cringing Every Time Ken Jennings Says JIT. Then I Looked On Social Media
• 5 ’It Was A Strange Thing’: The Harry Potter Movies Were A Huge Success, But Tom Felton Admits He Had No Idea If They’d Make It To The Deathly Hallows

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Tom Cruise vs. Keanu Reeves: Who will be 2023’s King of Action?

January 1, 2023 by Tom Jolliffe

Tom Jolliffe previews what promises to be a stellar year for action cinema as two titans bring franchise heavy-hitters to the table…

As far as films have gone, 2022 was pretty damn stellar. It’s the first year in a long time where I can honestly say I’ll struggle to put a top ten together. It’s also a rare year where there will be films I’ll still be watching in 5, 10, 15 years and beyond. Really and truly some great cinema. As for action cinema, we have had a very enjoyable, meat and potatoes Scott Adkins release in  Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday with atypically rousing and impressive fight scenes, but perhaps this has been a genre that hasn’t generally hit too many high peaks, outside of one particularly spectacular film.

The Batman was a really good neo-noir, leaning heavier on the Detective Batman angle than big set pieces, but there were several visceral and visually stunning action sequences too. The MCU has been largely poor on the action front, and in truth, all around. Those CGI heavy set pieces have been decidedly mixed though as the overworked CGI artists have been spread too thin over all the movies and shows. Quantity over quality. It’s shown in every facet of those films but indeed the action set pieces particularly. Additionally the unshakable weightlessness of animated sprites bounding through the air with a reckless disregard for physics, with erratic movements of the CGI ‘camera’ make things more eye-aching than eye-catching. 

The one action spectacle with consistently impressive and effective large-scale set pieces is, of course, Top Gun: Maverick . The film is superb. It’s brilliant in its simplicity and thoroughly engaging with its palm-sweating, vertigo-inducing set pieces. The cockpit sequences are ones we can feel. They get the hairs on your neck standing up. There is CGI in the film, as the form is inescapable at big budget level, but it’s used to the absolute bare minimum required and around 95% of what is shown practically for this film, including the cast actually involved in aerial set pieces and pulling some serious G’s,  is stuff that would just be done completely in CG or against a green screen if this were a standard blockbuster.

Audiences responded in kind, whilst the fan responses to much of the recent Marvel phase have been increasingly mixed. Are audiences desensitized to CGI-heavy set pieces? Action sequences we can’t really feel or sense the physicality of? Perhaps. So the great thing about Maverick maintaining physical, in-camera action (which is now the exception rather than the norm), is that the audience has lapped it up.

How did this approach come to pass? Yes, Tom Cruise. He pushed and championed for it, as he persistently does for his action films. I look at a trailer like the upcoming Ant-Man film which looks like it’s almost entirely green/blue screen and the whizzy whizzy whooshy camera moves and rubbery weightless sprites, and wonder if I’d be better off playing a PS2 game. Gimme Tom Cruise corkscrewing a few thousand feet up in the air, in a jet fighter, for realzies, every time!

This brings us nicely to the year ahead. 2023 is going to be a big year for action cinema. In many ways it’s a bit of a delayed reaction, because a number of the films were due out earlier, including the two major picks of the year (which we shall get onto very soon). However, aside from the cream of the action crop due next year, we’ve got a new Fast film due. Can they pull back on the CGI and just bring back the slightest semblance of gravity again? We’ll see. A once very entertaining franchise with some great set pieces has descended into the realms of ludicrous.

The year will also see the long-gestating, and also delayed, fourth instalment in The Expendables franchise. Okay, they’ve never got this one right really, and the novelty had worn thin by the second film, but we still have a collection of action titans like Stallone, Statham, Lundgren and some iconic brawlers from South East Asia like Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais. If they can just stop using the subpar Millennium CGI and VFX plug-ins quite so much, that’d be a good start.  

Even without these also-rans, the year is going to kick all kinds of backside. The first big player is John Wick: Chapter 4 . The franchise had humble beginnings, with a film that had Keanu Reeves in the midst of a box office decline. A modest budget also didn’t even guarantee the film would be a theatrical movie. Of course, it became a hit among action aficionados and Keanu fans (mind you, is anyone NOT a fan?) and spawned two sequels. The world of John Wick , built from Derek Kolstad’s scripts and Chad Stahelski’s direction, was as enjoyably silly as it was fluid and evolving. Every new nuance, tradition, custom that we are introduced to within this world of elite assassins just colours an almost fantastical world all the more. 

Furthermore, the franchise has been blessed with several key elements. One of which is the main man, Keanu Reeves. He’s one of cinema’s great stoic but endearing action heroes. His real-life persona also brings with it an inherent likeability. Though Wick is almost ridiculously indestructible, Reeves has his own distinct puppy dog vulnerability. We’re still rooting for him and wondering how he’ll pull through. Then he is pushed off a 100-foot high building, bouncing off metal railings on the way down and gets himself away no problems. We don’t question it.

Additionally, the franchise has been blessed with great co-stars (like Ian McShane) and opposition fighters (like Mark Dacascos). The world Wick inhabits, mostly shot at night, is scintillatingly atmospheric. It’s all stunning interiors from museums to libraries and hall of mirrors, to exteriors like neon and rain-soaked streets. Dan Laustsen has lensed Chapters 2 through 4 and they are getting increasingly stunning and elaborate in visual scope. There isn’t an action franchise going that looks as dazzling as John Wick . All the while, Chad Stahelski makes the films not only involving for their story and characters but stunning with their action. As the budgets have risen, so too has the scope, taking us into vehicle jousts, chases, and other settings. The ante-upping has been giddying.

The trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4 dropped a little while ago and it looks suitably insane, promising an even more visually dynamic film. It’s like watching Blade Runner melding with early 90s John Woo. It’s hard to impress with trailers these days. Some just look wholly uninspiring. Others maybe, as trailers, just too formulaic, following worn-out trailer tropes. Of course, a trailer can be misleading, but given the three-for-three hit rate of John Wick , the stunning action, spectacle and battles promised, it feels like the fourth instalment will be a sure-fire favourite with action fans.

The mouth-watering promise of Reeves battling Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins in this one also has action lovers on the edge of their seats. If other franchises have often fallen short when it comes to pitting icon vs icon, Stahelski has never let us down when he’s put a fighter against Reeves (for example Dacascos). When it comes to Donnie Yen too, he’s been utterly (criminally) wasted in EVERY Hollywood production he’s appeared in. This is the film that will end that run, and you can take that to the bank (the blood bank, Senator Trent). 

As for the other King Kong, Big Daddy action blockbuster of 2023, that brings us to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One . Crap title aside, this is a franchise which has become synonymous with all the ways its lead star has risked his life on screen. Say what you will about Cruise, from couch jumping to Scientology, to on-set rants, and the rest, but he’s also as committed as anyone to producing spectacular cinema.

Cruise leads by example. Actors don’t go through the exhausting training and then shooting to deliver those Maverick set pieces, if Cruise isn’t leading the line as he does. From the moment he descended on a zip line to an arousing thought away from touching the pressure-sensitive floor of a vault in the first Mission:Impossible , he has made it his cinematic mission to perform death-defying stunts on camera. He’s broken bones doing so (most memorably annihilating his leg on a rooftop jump in Mission: Impossible – Fallout ).

We’re going to see Cruise in space at some juncture, but until he does something jaw-dropping beyond the blue skies, we’ll settle for the latest Mission: Impossible movie. Are they all sort of the same MacGuffin chase? Sure, but the franchise has always been spectacular. It began interestingly erratic in its stylistic shifts (from Brian De Palma, to John Woo, to the comparatively formulaic J.J. Abrams). Since Brad Bird took over on Ghost Protocol and handed the reigns to Christopher McQuarrie in Rogue Nation , the style has remained consistent. It’s a crisp, old-school action blockbuster approach that feels like 80s-era John McTiernan. We can see the action. The style never imposes itself on the picture. They’re very well-lit and impeccably shot (this has almost become irksomely rare in action cinema now). 

What can we expect from Ethan Hunt’s next adventure? Well, plenty of action of course. World ending, MacGuffin chasing, double-crossing, stunt-filled action. We’ll have Hunt arsing about on top of a speeding train, and on top of a biplane a few hundred feet up in the sky when the long-delayed (much due to Covid) film finally arrives. Of course, it comes needing to match a high bar, not only from Fallout (the best in the franchise thus far) but also Cruise’s box office-smashing behemoth, Top Gun: Maverick .

If the latest M:I and John Wick instalments will prove anything, it’s that audiences will revel in seeing eye-catching action films that don’t feel disposable. The physical performance required to perform real physical stunts still cannot be faked, nor can that motion against gravity, the rough and tumble of a mano-a-mano or the way a car really spins through the air. Cruise’s film will inevitably be even more grounded, whilst John Wick helmer Chad Stahelski isn’t averse to green screen embellishment, but in Wick’s favour are the thunderous fight scenes and those gorgeous neon-drenched visuals.

In this ultimate battle of Hunt vs Wick, with two titans swinging with some spectacular trailers, it begs the question: Who will be the ultimate action champion of 2023? Regardless of this answer, the action fans will be the real winners. 

Who do you think will be the King of Action in 2023? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…

Tom Jolliffe is an award winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has a number of films out on DVD/VOD around the world and several releases due out in 2022/2023, including, Renegades (Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Michael Pare, Tiny Lister, Nick Moran, Patsy Kensit, Ian Ogilvy and Billy Murray), Crackdown, When Darkness Falls and War of The Worlds: The Attack (Vincent Regan). Find more info at the best personal site you’ll ever see  here .

About Tom Jolliffe

Tom Jolliffe is an award-winning screenwriter, film journalist and passionate cinephile. He has written a number of feature films including 'Renegades' (Danny Trejo, Lee Majors), 'Cinderella's Revenge' (Natasha Henstridge) and 'War of the Worlds: The Attack' (Vincent Regan). He also wrote and served as an executive producer on the upcoming gothic horror film 'The Baby in the Basket'.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

10 Stunning Performances Outrageously Snubbed by the Oscars

10 Actors Quentin Tarantino Needs In His Final Film

The Craziest Takashi Miike Movies

Maximum Van Dammage: The Definitive Top 10 Jean-Claude Van Damme Movies!

Dust in the Eye: Ten Tear-Jerking Moments in Action Movies

20 Epic Car Chases That Will Drive You Wild

Hilarious 1980s Comedy Movies That Deserve a Sequel

The Most Obscure & Shocking John Waters Movies

Yellowstone: Interesting Fan Theories About How The Taylor Sheridan Show Will End

Zack Snyder’s Watchmen at 15: An ambitious adaptation of a darkly complex comic book classic

• Comic Books
• Video Games
• Toys & Collectibles
• Articles and Opinions
• About Flickering Myth
• Write for Flickering Myth
• Advertise on Flickering Myth
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy

Who Is The Better Action Movie Star: Tom Cruise Or Keanu Reeves?

I have a confession. This post originally started with a different question: who is the greatest current action movie star? The only criteria was that they had to be American, which means Charlize Theron, Scott Adkins, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jason Statham were exempt. But that still left Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Scarlett Johansson, Dave Bautista, Will Smith, and Bruce Willis, among others. Those are some A-list actors, but also an uninspiring group of action movie stars, whether because they’re past their prime (Willis, Schwarzenegger) or too dependent on one franchise (Johnson), or thought of as superheroes rather action stars (Johansson). And I wasn’t ready to give it to Jurassic World ‘s Chris Pratt, either. No offense, Andy Dwyer.

Besides, I eventually realized this is a two-person contest: Keanu Reeves or Tom Cruise . They both [extremely “went to film school” voice] kick ass and have been doing so for decades. In fact, before we begin, let’s go through every movie in both actor’s filmographies that can be considered in the “action” genre.

Reeves : Point Break , Speed , Johnny Mnemonic , Chain Reaction , The Matrix , The Matrix Reloaded , The Matrix Revolutions , Constantine , Street Kings , The Day the Earth Stood Still , Man of Tai Chi , 47 Ronin , John Wick , Keanu (kind of!), John Wick: Chapter 2 , and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Cruise : Top Gun , Days of Thunder , Mission: Impossible , Mission: Impossible 2 , Minority Report , The Last Samurai , Collateral , War of the Worlds , Mission: Impossible III , Tropic Thunder (this is Cruise’s Keanu ), Knight and Day , Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , Jack Reacher , Oblivion , Edge of Tomorrow , Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Jack Reacher: Never Go Back , The Mummy , American Made , and Mission: Impossible – Fallout

These are the only movies I’m considering. No Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for Reeves, no Jerry Maguire for Cruise (Keanu would obviously win). I’m also not taking into account the personal lives for both men (again, it would be Keanu in a landslide). This is just about Tom Cruise: Action Movie Star vs. Keanu Reeves: Action Movie Star as determined through six separate categories, and now I’m suddenly upset that they’ve never appeared in the same film. Reeves in Mission: Impossible 6 makes more sense than Cruise in John Wick 4 , but… I’m stalling because I don’t want to choose; they’re both awesome. But to quote another famous action movie, there can only be one.

Signature franchise

Looking at the list above, Cruise has only turned two films into franchises: Mission: Impossible and Jack Reacher (that list is about to grow with Top Gun: Maverick and Edge of 2morrow , assuming it actually gets made). The latter is way more fun than its given credit for, but Cruise’s signature franchise is obviously Mission: Impossible . Reeves also has two series under consideration: The Matrix and John Wick . I’m tempted to go with John Wick , but I know that’s recency bias talking: The Matrix is one of the most influential movies of all-time . But unfortunately, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions also exist. I can give a half-hearted defense to the inspired messiness of Reloaded , which is genuinely thrilling at times, but not Revolutions . I have my limits, and my limit is this evil laugh . So, if it comes down to Mission: Impossible or The Matrix ( MATRIX: IMPOSSIBLE ), the winner is the Mission: Impossible movies , which continue to improve. Fallout is the sixth film in the franchise, and the best. Imagine how many cake orgasms would have been in the sixth Matrix movie.

Winner: Cruise

Best non-franchise film

Here are a few things I learned while doing research for this post: Cruise’s top-grossing film (domestic) is War of the Worlds ; for Reeves, it’s The Matrix movies (led by Reloaded ), then Something’s Gotta Give and Speed . The highest-rated Metacritic score: Mission: Impossible – Fallout (86) and Minority Report (80) for Cruise and Parenthood (82) and Speed (78) for Reeves. And while Cruise has been nominated for three Oscars, most recently for 1999’s Magnolia , Reeves and his Speed co-star Sandra Bullock won Best On-Screen Duo at the 1995 MTV Movie Awards, beating… Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt for Interview with the Vampire . Who am I to argue with MTV? With all due respect to Minority Report , Collateral , and Edge of Tomorrow , all of which are great and in a three-way tie for second place, it’s Speed , the most perfect over-the-top 1990s action movie. And yes, technically, Speed spawned a sequel, but Reeves doesn’t appear in Speed 2: Cruise Control and, as far as I can tell, Speed 2: Cruise Control is a creation of podcasts about bad movies. It doesn’t actually exist.

Winner: Reeves

Most famous quote

Every classic action movie needs an equally iconic quote. “Get off my plane.” “Yippie-ki-yay, motherf*cker.” “I’ll be back.” These are good lines because I don’t even need to say what movie they’re from; they’re that ingrained in the lexicon. In other words, it has to pass the “guy who still says ‘MY WIFE’ to his co-workers” test. Both Reeves and Cruise are the source of GIF-able quotes that Chad (I assume your co-worker’s name is Chad) might reply to emails with, led by “woah” from The Matrix for Reeves, while Cruise has “I feel the need… the need for speed” from Top Gun . Top Gun is more well known (and it’ll be in the culture again with Top Gun: Maverick coming out next year), but this category goes to Reeves for two reasons: 1) “need for speed” isn’t even Cruise’s most famous quote (“show me the money” is, but Jerry Maguire isn’t eligible), and 2) Reeves also has “yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.” And that line rules.

Most famous set-piece

I could stretch this one out for a few hundred words, complimenting Reeves for boarding the bus that couldn’t slow down in Speed , or any number of fight scenes from The Matrix or its sequels, or the chase from Point Break . But c’mon, it’s gotta be Cruise, specifically Cruise in any number of Mission: Impossible movies. If it’s not the vault heist, it’s flying a helicopter, or going underwater, or scaling the freaking Burj Khalifa, or dangling from an airplane.

Cruise is an insane person. I love him.

Both Cruise and Reeves are famous for still doing their own stunts, despite the fact that they’re world-famous actors in their 50s and should probably be settling down with the Sunday newspaper and a cup of hot tea instead. “Tom always does his own stunts and never has a double,” an insider told the Wrap before Fallout came out, while Reeves recently said , “I do all of the action. I’m 90 percent of what’s happening there [in John Wick 3 ]. I’m maintaining the connection to the audience, and with the story.” Still, I have to give this one to Cruise. He’s done more wacky stunts by himself than Reeves, and for a longer period of time. His lack of a stunt double has become an inside joke , while Reeves’ double is now making movies himself: he’s directed all three John Wick films. But I hope they both keep shooting bad guys on horses and running so fast that their skin might fly off their skeleton until they’re 85 years old.

Who would win in an actual fight

When A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin learned that Tolkien star Lily Collins preferred Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings , he responded , “Gandalf could kick Dumbledore’s ass.” He’s not wrong, although doesn’t GRRM have better things to do than solve playground arguments? Anyway, Martin’s comment inspired this final category: who would win in a fight, Cruise’s three most-lethal action movie characters or Reeves’ three most-lethal action movie characters? In the Cruise corner, we have Ethan Hunt ( Mission: Impossible ), Vincent ( Collateral ), and Jack Reacher ( Jack Reacher ; it hurts to leave off Edge of Tomorrow ‘s William Cage, but it took him too long to become a force to be reckoned with), and for Reeves, Neo ( The Matrix ), John Wick ( John Wick ), and Johnny Utah ( Point Break ), because his name is Johnny Utah.

Let’s go through what everyone brings to the table:

Ethan Hunt: wildcard Vincent: ruthless hitman Jack Reacher: good in hand-to-hand combat Neo: everyman-turned-Chosen One John Wick: skilled with firearms Johnny Utah: is Johnny Utah

Vincent and John Wick offset each other’s skills and Jack Reacher is a lesser Ethan Hunt, so it’s down to Ethan Hunt vs. Neo and Johnny Utah. Ethan is a superhero, but Neo is superhuman. Here’s a description of his “powers and abilities” from Wikipedia: “He can fly at amazing speeds and jump great distances… Neo possesses superhuman strength and agility, and is near-invulnerable to most attacks… His reflexes are great enough to dodge bullets.” Who needs to hold onto a plane ( or skydive ) when you can jump super far?

The final total

Cruise: 3 Reeves: 3

Hm. A part of me is tempted to keep it a tie (they’re both great!), but, well, how lame would it be if John Wick tied with Boban Marjanović? So, we’re doing a quick tiebreaker: who has the better GIF when you search “[actor name] badass” (the go-to word for any action movie star)? This is very scientific.

This contest is over. Keanu Reeves wins.

www.thetalko.com

Follow thetalko.com, something new, 20 pictures of keanu reeves with his surprising hollywood friends.

Keanu Reeves is perhaps the most loved man in all of Hollywood. Go ahead and try to dig up some dirt on him, you can't.

Keanu Reeves is perhaps the most loved man in all of Hollywood. Go ahead and try to dig up some dirt on him, you can't. He is a genuinely good-hearted guy who has never let fame go to his head. Even after being in the business for decades, he remains solidly glued down to earth.

Keanu has endured a lot of loss over the years too. That heartbreak would be enough to bring the strongest person to their knees, but somehow Keanu has continued to steadily power on, showing us that anything is possible. We have to believe the support of his close friends has helped him get through those darker times. Check out these twenty pictures of Reeves with his Hollywood friends.

20 He Still Adores Sandy

Keanu is not all that keen on being out and about Tinsel Town with a ton of high profile pals, but he tends to make an exception for A-lister Sandra Bullock. He and Sandy have a sweet friendship that has stood the test of time. They met while filming the movie Speed , and have stuck by each other's side for twenty-five years.

19 Trinny Woodall Leans On Him For Support

When Woodall's marriage ended, she turned to her pal Keanu for support. Trinny had met the actor through a mutual friend, and they clicked. At the time of Woodall's breakup, Reeves was dating actress Parker Posey, so who knows if these two could have ever been more. For Keanu, having a good friend in her seemed enough.

18 Randall Park Might Have A Man Crush On Keanu

Randall Park had to punch Keanu in the face in the Netflix film, Always Be My Maybe , but none of that would ever go down between these two actors after the cameras stopped rolling. Honestly, who in their right mind would ever punch our sweet, sensitive Keanu? That person would have to be genuinely disturbed.

17 Charlize And Keanu Have Stayed Loyal For Years

Charlize Theron adores Keanu Reeves. These two beautiful people have known one another for over twenty years now, and they have made two films together. Of Keanu, Charlize says that he is indeed, "One of the greatest guys." We wouldn't mind seeing these two take their friendship to another level.

16 Dogstar Thought He Was Cool Enough To Jam With

Keanu Reeves has been a significant player in the Hollywood acting circuit for decades, but acting isn't his only talent. Reeves also used to play in a 90's grunge band called Dogstar. The story goes Reeves met another band member Robert Mailhouse, in a grocery store, and from that point, the band was born.

15 And Robert Mailhouse His His Ultimate Bestie

Reeves and Robert Mailhouse met when they were forming their grunge band, Dogstar. The band broke up after putting two albums out, but Mailhouse and Reeves didn't lose touch. They worked on a couple of other projects together, including forming another band called Becky, and remain friends to this day.

14 Sophia Coppola Threw Him A Thank You Credit

Sophia's father directed Reeves in Dracula , and Sophia and Keanu ended up dating for some time back in the 1990s. Coppola went on to direct Lost in Translation , which earned her an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among other awards. She and Keanu must have remained pretty close friends because she threw him a thank you credit in her film.

13 Claire Forlani And Keanu Dated And Then Formed A Friendship

Claire Forlani And Keanu dated for two years before deciding that they would be far better off as friends. Some couples break up and then have to move on completely, unable to only be pals, but everyone who dates Keanu seems okay with being his friend afterward. It's better to have Keanu in any capacity than not at all.

12 Keanu And Robert Downy Jr. Have Respect For Eachother

A Scanner Darkly was an adult animated film that Keanu worked on and was especially proud of. When Robert Downy Jr. heard that Reeves was going to be a part of the project, he knew he also wanted in on it. These guys might not have poker nights or go to Lakers games together, but they have a respect for each other's craft.

11 He Lays Low With Alexandra Grant

Alexandra Grant's name has been all over the gossip columns as of late, and it is all because of Keanu. The world wants Reeves to settle down and find love because darn it! He deserves it like no one else. When murmurings started swirling about the actor and his artist friend being romantically involved , well, the world went wild.

10 Winona And Him Go Way Back

Keanu and Winona Ryder adore one another, and they have for a long time. The eccentric actors first starred together in 1992’s Dracula.  From that point on, they were destined to be friends forever. They recently lit the silver screen up once more in Destination Wedding , and their chemistry is as strong as ever.

9 Alex Winter Is Still His Bro

Keanu and his former costar Alex Winter were once known only as Bill and Ted, and they went on an Excellent Adventure many years ago. That adventure is about to happen again, in 2020, because the fellas are reprising their roles for the iconic film. We can't believe we are being treated to such a thing. So glad these two still like each other enough to keep making movies.

8 He And Halle Are Costars And Compadres

Beautiful Halle Berry considers herself pretty lucky to count Keanu as one of her friends. The two talented actors have starred in the John Wick movies together, and the third one was recently released. Keanu seems to feel most comfortable with the Hollywood stars he has previously worked with.

7 He And Eric Dane Are Chummy

Reeves and Eric Dane haven't worked on a major project together, but the two guys seem to be perfectly friendly with each other. They crossed paths when Reeves was out with pals , riding their motorcycles, and grabbing a bite to eat. Dane, too, was stopping in Malibu for a midday snack.

6 He Popped Into His Director Friend Carl Rinsch's Wedding

Reeves traveled all the way Uruguay to attend his friend,  Carl Rinsch's,  wedding. Reeves became friends with the direction/groom when he signed on to star in Rinsch's film 47 Ronin . Again, some of Keanu's closest friends started off as work colleagues. These two must be tight for Keanu to travel that far down south.

5 Keanu And Jada Get On Pretty Nicely Too

He clearly finds Jada Pinkett Smith engaging and delightful. Just look at the smile on his face! Pinkett-Smith and Reeves worked together on the Matrix movies, and according to sources, both are gearing up to star in the fourth addition to the franchise.  Keanu must think himself pretty lucky to always be working with friends.

4 Keanu And Lawrence Fishburn Both Have That Cool Vibe

Another working relationship turned genuine bromance here! Keanu and Lawrence Fishburne worked together on the second John Wick project. Fishburne joked around that he only agreed to do the movie because "all of his friends were doing it." The actors previously starred in the Matrix movies together.

3 Video Game Designer Hideo Kojima Digs Keanu Too

Keanu is a creative guy, and he and famous video game creator, Hideo Kojima, have that in common. Reeves traveled all the way to Kojima Productions in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan, to see the maker of the  Metal Gear Solid series. Maybe they were discussing possible collaborations in the future, or perhaps they were just hanging out.

2 Ali Wong Thinks The World Of Him Too

Reeves starred in Ali Wong's Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe,  where he played himself. In the film, he romances the comedienne, but in real life, these two are platonic. Post-production, he continued to support his co-star and friend in her stand up career and took a show in at Wiltern in Los Angeles. He is such a supportive friend.

1 Peter Stormare Gets To Consider Themself A Friend Of The Great Keanu

Stormare and Reeves have been friends for a long time too. They both tend to fly under the radar and embrace their introverted ways. They also both like picking up an independent or slightly offbeat project. The fellows have quite a bit in common, which keeps their friendship sustainable.

• Entertainment

Read Next in movies

10 outfits depending on your summer plans, 10 ways to make adulting easier, 10 best tom hardy movies to watch while waiting for capone, at what point does your hard work ethic become a toxic hustle mentality, 10 ways to eat more plant-based this summer, 10 barbiecore essentials, 10 gifts to shop for your best friends birthday, how to plan a post-wedding brunch & who is invited.

Laurence Fishburne On His Special Relationship With Keanu Reeves - Exclusive

Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne are two of the screen's most striking, magnetic personalities, so it's a gift to moviegoers everywhere that we've had the chance to see them collaborate six times in the past 25 years. Their first team-up came in the groundbreaking 1999 sci-fi epic "The Matrix," with Fishburne as Morpheus to Reeves' Neo, followed by two rather divisive but still noteworthy sequels, "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions."

Unfortunately, Fishburne didn't return for 2021's legacy sequel, "The Matrix Resurrections," but that's okay: He and Reeves had already found another franchise to play in. The sleeper success of 2014's "John Wick" brought Reeves' own career out of a lull as he played an unstoppable assassin out to avenge his dog. With the filmmakers realizing they potentially had a surreal new world to build around John, Fishburne joined the nascent "John Wick" universe in 2017's "John Wick: Chapter 2" as the Bowery King, an underground intelligence operative and crime lord who has a history with the titular anti-hero.

Both actors are very different from each other; Reeves' trademark is the enigmatic, chilled-out energy he brings to almost every role he plays, while Fishburne delivers earthiness, gravitas, and a coiled intensity that comes not just from decades of screen experience but work on the stage as well. The combination makes the pair riveting to watch. "We have a very, very special kind of chemistry ... You can't explain it and you can't bottle it," Fishburne told Looper in our exclusive interview.

Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves share a common goal

In the production notes for "John Wick: Chapter 4," Keanu Reeves says about Laurence Fishburne, "He's been a mentor to me since we worked together on 'The Matrix.'" Fishburne told Looper that the feeling is mutual: "We love each other and we respect each other. The same is true of Keanu and Chad [Stahelski, "John Wick" director], and Chad and his team."

Fishburne added that all that shared camaraderie and affection that can be found among the cast and crew of the "John Wick" movies started for him and Reeves all those years ago on their first collaboration. "We made something together that has had lasting impact with the first three 'Matrix' movies," he said. "This is really a continuation of that impulse, of that desire to create things for an audience that the audience loves."

It's not clear where the "John Wick" saga goes from here, and "Chapter 4" may well represent the last time we see John and the Bowery King together on screen. But even if there isn't a "John Wick: Chapter 5" in the offing, there are upcoming spin-offs such as "Ballerina" and "The Continental" in which it would be easy to see the Bowery King make another appearance. "That's a rich world," agreed Fishburne.

Meanwhile, film history will eventually determine whether Reeves and Fishburne will join the list of other great acting teams, from legendary duos like Robert Redford and Paul Newman or Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder to more recent pair-ups such as Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. But whatever happens next, Fishburne has one word for the professional and personal experiences he's shared with his co-star: "It's beautiful."

"John Wick: Chapter 4" arrives in theaters this Friday, March 24.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Entertainment

Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant Are 'Both Homebodies' and 'Very Much a Normal Couple' (Exclusive Source)

"They both work hard and then enjoy life together," a source tells PEOPLE

Charlotte Phillipp is a Weekend Writer-Reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2024, and was previously an entertainment reporter at The Messenger.

Michael Kovac/Getty

Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant like to keep their romance low-key.

"They both work hard and then enjoy life together," a source tells PEOPLE. "They're very much a normal couple."

Though the pair, who took their relationship public in 2019, are frequently invited to parties and events together, they're selective about where they spend their time, the source says.

"They're often invited to events but only attend ones that truly matter to them," the source says. "They're both homebodies. They'd much rather entertain at home. They often have friends over for dinner. It's always the best."

At 59, the Matrix actor is still passionate about his long-time hobby too: "Keanu still has his custom motorcycle company, ARCH. Motorcycles are a huge part of his life," says the source, adding, "Alex never minded. She has a very calm personality and just wants him to be happy."

Last week, a source told PEOPLE that Reeves and Grant, 54, are both happy together. "This is the most fun and positive relationship that Keanu has ever been in," the source told PEOPLE, adding that Grant, who is an artist, is a "rare gem."

"She is adorable, sweet, caring and funny. She has her own life and career but is also very supportive of Keanu's," added the source. "When he films on location, she travels with him. When he films locally, she often visits the set."

"Everyone just loves her. They live together and often have friends over for dinner. Keanu is very happy," the source said.

Reeves and Grant went public with their romance in November 2019, making their  red carpet debut  at the LACMA Art + Film Gala presented by Gucci in Los Angeles at the time.

Rachel Luna/WireImage

In September 2023, Grant told PEOPLE at the Los Angeles Beverly Arts Icon Awards that she feels "interdependent and independent in the best ways."

She explained, "The good news about falling in love as an adult is that I had built my own career by the time that my relationship had begun. I feel very confident in the relationship on the red carpet. I feel confident on it alone.”

At the time, Grant also  said that the actor is "such an inspiration to me ," adding that he is "so creative, he's so kind. He works so hard."

Before they began dating, the couple were long-time friends, and even collaborated on a few creatives projects too. In 2016, they published  Shadows, an art book featuring a series of 54 images, photographed by Grant, based on the movements of Reeves.

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

"No one can move the way he can. He's a really extreme performer," Grant said of Reeves at a Los Angeles gallery viewing at the time, per the  Los Angeles Times . "That's a huge piece of why those images are so interesting. I knew that if I moved the camera as we danced together, as photographer and subject, we could create these wonderful optical illusions."

Related Articles

CinemaBlend

John Wick: Chapter 4' Interviews with Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane

Posted: April 6, 2024 | Last updated: April 6, 2024

"John Wick: Chapter 4" stars Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Laurence Fishburne (Bowery King), Lance Reddick (Charon), Ian McShane (Winston), Hiroyuki Sanada (Shimazu), Shamier Anderson (Tracker) and director Chad Stahelski discuss the latest "John Wick" film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Asst. Managing Editor Eric Eisenberg. Topics include the most intense "John Wick 4" stunts, Ana De Armas in the upcoming "John Wick" spinoff “Ballerina,” and even how Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt would stand up against John Wick. Plus, we tried to get something about "Constantine 2" out of Keanu Reeves.

More for You

Dune: Part Two Comes Home Next Week

Common over-the-counter medicine linked to increased dementia risk

25 Incredible 1980s Films You Forgot

The Exact Time to Quit Your Job, According to Chief HR Officer

17 Phrases Confident People Use to Stand Up For Themselves

These Are The World’s Best Nude Beaches

'FBI' Renewed for 3 More Seasons at CBS

A Major U.S. Airline Is Furloughing 260 Pilots Amid Cost Concerns, Aircraft Delays

Doctor shares what happens to our bodies moments before we die

A $1,400 SUV payment? A $1,600 truck payment? Sounds ‘absurd,’ but it’s becoming more common.

'Have a paper trail': This employment lawyer says these are the 3 things he would never do at work — and explains how they could permanently damage your career

Ukraine Eyes Unexpected F-16 Boost from European Ally

I moved from the US to Ireland. Here are 11 things that surprised me most.

Horror Movies Where the Monster Isn’t the Scariest Thing

The health condition many women are getting diagnosed with after COVID

19 Easy Ways to Fall Back Asleep After Waking Up in the Middle of the Night

21st-century TV shows canceled too soon

5 people explain what it actually feels like to die

Delta Airlines flight makes trip along path of totality during solar eclipse

During NATO exercises, Swedish and Norwegian military personnel rented Russian cottages

Sandra Oh Joins Seth Rogen, Keanu Reeves, and Keke Palmer in 'Good Fortune'

The comedy will be Aziz Ansari's directorial debut.

The Big Picture

• Sandra Oh joins the star-studded cast for Ansari's Good Fortune , but her role remains a mystery.
• Oh's impressive resume includes Grey's Anatomy , Killing Eve , Turning Red , and more.
• Ansari leads as director, writer, and producer for Good Fortune , which is currently in production.

Aziz Ansari 's star-studded debut feature has just added another big name to its cast. Sandra Oh will join Seth Rogen , Keanu Reeves , Keke Palmer , and Ansari himself in the cast of Good Fortune . Deadline reports that Oh's role in the upcoming comedy is currently under wraps — as are all other plot and character details from the film. Says Ansari, in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek statement:

"It’s always so exciting when I get the opportunity to write a quote for a PR announcement. However, I’m pretty sure no one reads past the headline and gets to my quote except someone vetting this at Lionsgate PR. If you are genuinely reading up to this point, I’m a bit concerned. Have you read Crime and Punishment ? The novellas of Stefan Zweig ? I’ve also heard Lonesome Dove is wonderful. Anyway, Sandra Oh is wonderful and I’m so excited she is a part of our film. I must return to the edit now. Best wishes to all readers."

Good Fortune is the Parks and Recreation and Master of None star's second crack at a debut feature. His dramedy, Being Mortal , had production suspended in 2022 following misconduct allegations against star Bill Murray .

What Have We Seen Sandra Oh In?

Oh broke out in 1994 with her lead role in the Canadian indie drama Double Happiness . Her roles ramped up steadily from there, including The Princess Diaries , Full Frontal , and Sideways , and a supporting role in the HBO series Arliss . In 2005, she landed her highest-profile gig yet — the role of Cristina Yang in the medical drama Grey's Anatomy . Initially a midseason replacement, the show became a huge hit, and Oh's performance was well-received; she left the series after its tenth season. She subsequently starred in the smash hit thriller series Killing Eve , which she also produced. She recently lent her voice to Turning Red , starred in the films Quiz Lady and Umma , and voices the main character's mother in Amazon's Invincible . She is next set to star in HBO's upcoming black comedy series The Sympathizer .

In addition to directing and starring in Good Fortune , Ansari also wrote the film's script and will produce it alongside Anthony Katagas and Alan Yang . Aniz Adam Ansari and Jonathan McCoy will executive produce. The film is being overseen by Lionsgate's Brady Fujikawa and Jon Humphrey .

Good Fortune is currently in production . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch Collider's interview with Oh and Awkwafina for Quiz Lady below.

A gameshow-obsessed woman and her estranged sister work together to help cover their mother's gambling debts.

Watch on Hulu