Keanu Reeves attends the 92nd Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland in February. Photo / Getty Images
Keanu Reeves attends the 92nd Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland in February. Photo / Getty Images
Keanu Reeves cannot help but be a nice dude.
From the time he gave up his seat on the subway to entertaining fellow bus passengers on an unexpected road trip, tales of his generosity to strangers and friends abound.
We already knew he posed for photos and chatted with a local family who left a sign out on their lawn during production of the upcoming Bill & Ted Face the Music movie but now the co-writer of the upcoming sequel, Ed Solomon, has revealed what Reeves did for the cast and crew while they were hunkered down on location.
"We were shut down one day because of a potential hurricane and we were all stuck in a town called Covington and (co-star) Alex (Winter) and Keanu hosted the cast and crew because we couldn't work," Solomon said.
"Keanu hosted this production of John Wick for the cast and crew we all watched and then Alex hosted a lunch afterwards. We just hung out there and I just thought 'this is amazing'."
Bill & Ted Face the Music was filming in Louisiana in June and July 2019, during which time there were hurricane warnings in the area. The third instalment of Reeves' John Wick franchise, Parabellum, had been released only weeks earlier in mid-May.
That little anecdote was shared by Solomon during the Comic-Con At Home virtual panel for Bill & Ted Face the Music which featured original stars Reeves, Winter and William Sadler, along with franchise newcomers Samara Weaving and Brigitte Lundy-Paine, and Solomon, co-writer Chris Matheson and director Dean Parisot, moderated by writer-director Kevin Smith.
Comic-Con shifted to an online format after the coronavirus pandemic necessitated the cancellation of the physical event, which is usually held in San Diego. But it does mean all the panels were accessible for free online for everyone around the world.
During the 45-minute virtual session, Reeves and Winter shared details of their original arduous audition process for 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, during which the two became friends while Weaving admitted it was funny to work with Reeves who had been the on-screen enemy of her uncle Hugo Weaving in The Matrix.
"Hugo and Keanu worked together, so that was a weird connection," she said. "Like, you killed my uncle!"
The sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey had long been mooted but only confirmed in March 2019.
The classic slacker comedy franchise originated with two teenage rocker-wannabes time-travelling through history in order to ace an upcoming high school exam. It became a cultural phenomenon with the characters' distinct style of speaking entering the wider lexicon.
The sequel will feature the now-middle aged Bill and Ted and their daughters when they are challenged to finally write the song that's supposed to save the universe, fulfilling their destiny from the first movies.
Reeves said returning to the character of Ted was a unique experience for him.
"I can't feel or laugh or do anything like the way working on Bill & Ted does, and working with Alex," he said. "To partner up with Alex and work together on the craft and then get to play these characters that Chris and Ed have created, there's no other place I can laugh like this.
"That doesn't exist for me elsewhere, that laughter and connection."
Reeves has had a career renaissance in recent years with the successful John Wick franchise and is set to reprise his iconic role of Neo in The Matrix 4, which recently resumed production in Germany after being shut down by the pandemic in March.
Reeves also reunited with Constantine director Francis Lawrence for a 15th anniversary panel of the movie, which the star has previously identified as the character he would most like to play again.
