The importance of being Keanu

Steve Pratt tries to discover why the star of The Matric Reloaded is so glum.

he figure wearing dark suit, open-necked shirt and stubble, sheltering beneath an umbrella from the torrential rain outside a London cinema, could hardly look more glum. Being in the spotlight doesn't suit Keanu Reeves, not so much a reluctant as a runaway Hollywood star.

After action movie Speed hit the big time and made him a bankable actor, he fled to the wilds of Canada to play Hamlet in a tiny theatre. Now, as the star of one - probably two - of the year's biggest blockbusters, you might expect Reeves to have a smile on his face. He's hot again after years of self-imposed exile from the top ranks of movie stars after a series of critical and commercial failures.

Maybe his grim expression at the premiere of The Matrix Reloaded is a result of trying to work out the plot of this science fiction epic, or maybe he's worried about reaction to the third in the franchise, The Matrix Revolutions, to be released in November.

Whatever the critical reaction, and much has been negative, he can rest assured that both are likely to emerge among the top ten movies of 2003. He has a pay cheque of $15m, maybe even $20m, for each film in his pocket, and revived respect in Hollywood.

And yet, what is he considering doing? He's been voicing thoughts about returning to the theatre. He hasn't done anything on stage since Hamlet, although he adds: "I've been learning sonnets".

He loves the stage. "I really want to just go through the process of doing a play as an actor. It's not short segments of acting, it's the whole experience. It's an actor's medium to a certain extent. It's just fun. The community aspect of it, the live aspect, for me feels like home."

This is just what Hollywood needs - a sonnet-speaking actor. But then Keanu Charles Reeves, born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, has never quite fitted into the typical movie star mould. He has the dark good looks necessary for heart-throb status but a question mark has always hung over his talent.

His non-smiling demeanour is all about the importance of being earnest. Perhaps, like many actors, he's shy when not hiding behind a character. Or simply lacks a sense of humour and takes himself too seriously. He would probably agree with one assessment that paints him as "just a regular guy who rides a motorcycle, plays in a band, and shows up every now and then for a movie shoot".

Others would put it more bluntly and doubt his intelligence. He wouldn't necessarily disagree with that, if the quote attributed to him is accurate: "I'm a meathead man. You've got smart people, and you've got dumb people. I just happen to be dumb". His portrayal of cool dude Ted Logan in Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure and its sequel may not have required much acting.

His public pronouncements do little to remove the mask. Too often they make him sound as if he's off his head. Asked about the meaning of The Matrix movies, his reply was: "It's about matters of the heart, belief, the philosophies of an examined life, about a compassionate society, a compassionate consciousness."

His background may account for his reticence to expose his private life to public scrutiny. His parents split when he was young. His mother re-married several times, and his biological father served time in prison for cocaine possession. Reeves has described himself as "a bourgeois, middle-class white boy with an absent father, a strong-willed mother, and two beautiful younger sisters".

At high school, ice hockey rather than academics was his forte. He dropped out of school at 17 to try his hand at acting, doing different jobs, including sharpening skates at an ice rink, until he found theatre work. He made his professional stage debut in a play called Wolfboy in 1984, followed by his film debut in Dream To Believe in Canada.

A small role in the Canadian-filmed drama Youngblood encouraged him to head for Hollywood, with only a few thousand dollars and an old car to his name, in 1986. For a time he was known as KC Reeves, as his manager considered the name Keanu too exotic.

His dark, moody looks made him ideal to play troubled or misfit teens. The critics first noticed him in River's Edge, although it was Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure that made his name. He spent years trying to shake off the image of goofy Ted with a series of supporting roles in such films as Dangerous Liaisons, My Own Private Idaho, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. This mix of classical, costume and quirky roles established his versatility, only to have the action hit Speed undermine all the good work.

The film, in which Reeves was pitted against mad bomber Dennis Hopper, was a $300m worldwide hit. His salary jumped to seven million dollars a movie, which the actor virtually threw away by appearing in a succession of flop independent and studio pictures. Feeling Minnesota, Johnny Mnemonic, Chain Reaction and The Last Time I Committed Suicide aroused little interest.

When the offer of Speed 2 came along, many thought Reeves was a fool to reject it. But that's exactly what he did, a wise decision considering the poor reviews and public indifference that greeted the sequel. He preferred to tour with his "folk thrash" band Dogstar and return to the stage, playing Hamlet in a small theatre in Winnipeg. He also starred opposite Al Pacino in the thriller Devil's Advocate, which did well at the box office. But The Matrix, released in 1999, did even better to emerge as a surprise blockbuster. Yet, in its wake, Reeves again chose projects that did his reputation little good. The Replacements, The Watcher, The Gift, Hardball and Sweet November all came and went without much comment.

He also suffered personal tragedy when the baby girl he was expecting with his girlfriend Jennnifer Syme was stillborn. The following year Syme, now estranged from Reeves, died in a road accident. He threw himself into his work, spending 13 months in Australia filming the two Matrix sequels.

By the end of the year, he'll have two more blockbusters on his CV. His hesitant interview style, where he looks embarrassed and finds it hard to express his thoughts, hasn't prevented him getting juicy roles and large pay cheques. He doesn't need to explain himself. Maybe behind the grim exterior he's laughing to himself at his good fortune.

* The Matrix Reloaded (15) is now showing in cinemas. The Matrix Revolutions opens in November.