My dad, I have no idea what hes doing. I dont talk to him. Im one of those kids without a dad. Sure. Its the classic story. Has it affected him? Yeah, man, Im sure. I mean its something that Ive only started to really think about in the past five years I guess, I mean what does it mean? Im a lot like my father. I have a lot of his physical things the way I laugh I saw him last I guess when I was fifteen, about ten minutes. Yeah, man, of course its heavy. Does he ever see himself improving his relationship with his father? «No, man. It doesnt matter. As long as I understand in my head theres no love there or theres no even curiosity. I feel I understand why its happened, how its happened, blah, blah, blah.6»
Keanu was lucky he found where to send destructive energy. Namely, to realize it through acting.
«Acting is the only thing that keeps me still. If Im not acting, I bounce off wall. My teachers thought it was sugar, but they were wrong».
Keanus introduction to a professional theater, despite the fact that he grew up in a bohemian environment, began with the advent of Paul Aaron in his life. Paul was an actor and theater director, as well as one of Keanus stepfathers, and seems to be the only one who showed any interest in the guy. (Later, he will help Sheila Johnson write a biography for Keanu the book will be released in 1997). «I used to want to become a race car driver, but when I got to be production assistant at one of my stepfathers films, I knew that that was where my future was.»
Paul also often took Keanu with him on various television movie screenings. As a teenager, Reeves spent a lot of time in the repertoire cinema of the University of Toronto, where he watched everything, from comedies such as Ross Meyers «Super-Masters,» to films that made a really strong impression on him, «Clockwork Orange» by Stanley Kubrick and «Solaris» by Andrei Tarkovsky.
«My stepfather, Paul Aaron, was a director he did Broadway, off-Broadway and film and the people in his world seemed incredibly exotic to me. One time when I was in elementary school, people from a nearby high school came to teach a drama class, and I remember looking at them and thinking who are these people? They seemed like Gypsies and had a completely different vibe.7»
Illustration: it shows the imaginary room where the picture on the wall really exists. It was painted by Larissa Tyan. The artist from Kazakhstan. The art technic she used was ancient japanese art technic called «sume e». And young bamboo symbolizes young Mr. Reeves who also had been suppressed by many unfriendly circumstances from the very young age but stayed strong under the pressure as the young bamboo did not give up under the blows of the wind of the destiny
It all started when Keanu was trying to study at a non-government experimental high school in North York this is the northern part of the city of Toronto. (It is interesting that this category includes not only schools with diverse and non-traditional forms of education, but also schools whose goal is to keep children from the bad influence of the street [the so-called storefront school]). There, he also preferred to play squash for the most part than to pore over books until one of his girlfriends, Sharon Switzer, (who later became a sculptor in Toronto), invited him to join her in the classes of the theater school at the Leah Posluns Theater. (Leah Posluns Theater School (4588 Bathurst).
Later, answering the question, where did she get this idea, Sharon will say: «I had a hunch he might be interested in acting. But I had no idea how hed do. What I remember best about him was his magnetic personality. He had tremendous energy, combined with a sort of laid-back manner. Very popular with the girls8».
This school was created in the image of the legendary Graduate School of Performing Arts in New York, on the Upper West Side. (It was in this area of New York that the Keanu family used to live).
Keanu was 15 years old when he came to audition and was very enthusiastic, although he did not look tidy, for the auditions he showed up in an outfit that was clearly picked up in the garbage, because even homeless people disdained ripped jeans, an old dirty jacket and worn sneakers. «That kid came in and just blew us away»: this is how Rose Dubin, the principal of the school, will describe his first impression. «Normally we would not allow students into the school after classes had started, but sometimes a young actor makes you sit up and take notice and we said yes.» Tremendous stage presence, commitment, confidence and talent. You just knew he was going to be a star». Maybe it was, but then 26 students will start studying with him of whom 13 will remain in a year. Keanu will also be expelled from this school with a murderous characterization: «Not enough concentration. Too flighty. Always questioning authority». As you like, but the atmosphere of Komsomol meetings of the USSR of the stagnation era blew me away (It was actually 1980. No, humanity is all the same. Especially in stupidity. Okay.) But, I believe that this characteristic was accurate according to the Keanus mothers stories, the first word he said was «No» and the second «Why» (My mom told me that after «No,» the second thing I spoke was «How come? «So I guess its in my nature. It drove her crazy.)
However, in that single year Keanu accomplished a lot. For example played Mercutio in «Romeo and Juliet» and he was successful in this role «He was a live wire, he couldnt sit still, yet he was not nervous. There was too much life coursing through his body. His was the most fully realized Mercutio that I and all who saw that production have ever seen" Director Lewis Baumander will say so about him (although, perhaps, he would be better in the role of Tybalt «More than prince of cats, I can tell you»). Also from this moment on, Keanu will forever and irrevocably fall in love with the poetry of the great Bard. His acquaintance with Lewis Baumander will have far-reaching consequences in general, all the diverging paths that determine his life and career come from here in Toronto. It is a pity that there was no soothsayer who could predict the future for them, as by the lines on a palm but okay. One way or another, for Keanu «It was a fun year, but I got kicked out and I failed. I was rude and stuff talking too much. Well, that taught me a lesson when they kicked me out!9»
This sign is the working bee of the zodiac. They diligently carry out their tasks. Talent, hard work and discipline make them successful in their careers. With their careful approach, clarity and concentration, they never lose heart, and they will continue to work on their goals. Work is very important for Virgins, and they are the best employees in the world.
(TOP 10 REASONS WHY VIRGO IS THE BEST ZODIAC SIGN; JANUARY 10, 2017 ASTROLOGY & LIFE)
The matter, however, was done the poison had already penetrated the blood. Keanus stepdad Paul Aaron gave him a recommendation at the summer camp at the Hedgerow Theater, in Pennsylvania. Keanu received a free room and boarding, and in exchange for working as a janitor attended as many acting classes as he could. Summer camp workers later recalled him as «this happy, pimply faced teen who went everywhere on his skateboard».
This sign is the working bee of the zodiac. They diligently carry out their tasks. Talent, hard work and discipline make them successful in their careers. With their careful approach, clarity and concentration, they never lose heart, and they will continue to work on their goals. Work is very important for Virgins, and they are the best employees in the world.
(TOP 10 REASONS WHY VIRGO IS THE BEST ZODIAC SIGN; JANUARY 10, 2017 ASTROLOGY & LIFE)
The matter, however, was done the poison had already penetrated the blood. Keanus stepdad Paul Aaron gave him a recommendation at the summer camp at the Hedgerow Theater, in Pennsylvania. Keanu received a free room and boarding, and in exchange for working as a janitor attended as many acting classes as he could. Summer camp workers later recalled him as «this happy, pimply faced teen who went everywhere on his skateboard».
Returning to Toronto, Keanu decided that he would become a professional actor and immediately announced this to his mother. She didnt mind, «Actually, I asked, but if my mother had said no, I think I would have become an actor anyway. But she said, «Do it.»
but set a condition if the son does not study he must work.
Keanu began to work. He sharpened skates at the rink in the mall. He worked in a landscape design bureau, which meant that he climbed trees, wrapped in a safety rope and sawed off dry branches. He worked as a peddler of newspapers. In the end, he got a job as a salesman at the Pastissima restaurant, where he made one hundred pounds of pasta a day, although he was not particularly exemplary. However, he tried. Perhaps he perceived it as an acting game. His friend Alan Powell, now an entrepreneur living in Caledon, north of Toronto, often watched Keanu do this: «Youd think he was some kind of connoisseur, the way hed go on about all these pasta dishes, and what kind of wine they should serve. He was one of those guys who could talk to anyone about anything. He had confidence, charisma». Perhaps, for charisma, he received a raise ironically on the day his eighteenth birthday, when he finally decided to become a professional actor.
All his free (and sometimes working) time, Keanu devoted to the theater and attempts to somehow get into the cinema.
For him, it was, among other things, also an opportunity to somehow coexist with himself. He said so plain tongue: Its about investigating life. I can explore who I am and how I feel. Hopefully, Ill get to continue acting till I die.10
He played mostly someone like himself. (One of the first series on local television, where he got the role, was called «Hangin «In» (Tenacity, went on TV from 1981 1987) was just about the everyday life of the center for free social and medical assistance for working with difficult teenagers and informal youth.)
It is also surprising that, having dropped out of school, he seriously engaged in self-education that is, reading books, and turned into a truly drunken reader. «Im like one of those people who dropped out of high school and has a complex. So Im whats the word? Autodidactic. Yes, Im reading five books that I dont completely understand and I cant speak about, but Ive read them.11» And he really read everything (from Dostoevsky, because generally speaking it is somehow embarrassing not to read it) to physicist Stephen Hawking («one heavy dude»12).
He attended evening theater courses at the theater of improvisations The Second City. (51 Mercer St.) «I kinda had a potpourri. «I went to night classes at a place called the Homemade Theatre. Youd walk up these rickety stairs, youd go into this room and youd lie on the ground. Then youd breathe and start to place the sun on your tongue or the sun on your arm. Then youd sit in a chair and youd have a teacup. Youd feel the cup and youd take a sip out of the hot liquid and youd feel it Fucking seventeen doing shit like that!13» and acted everywhere he got invited. Most often for free or almost free. The first role (if you could call it that) that brought him some money was the role in Coca-Colas television commercials. He also advertised cornflakes, oh yes!
He dreamed of starting to earn enough by acting to give up numerous part time jobs and do only what he loved. It turned out, however, not very, and it is not known how it would all end (perhaps before it had time to start), but here the Canadian government came to the rescue of Keanu.
No, no one discerned a future star in him and did not allocate a grant. Its just that the government somewhere in the late seventies began to provide tax benefits to Hollywood filmmakers, provided that they would be filming in Canada and using local staff in the filming. For media magnates, this did not become a problem in the end, stars like Donald Sutherland and Christopher Plummer were citizens of Canada, and Toronto looked no worse than New York or Chicago.
So the Canadian film business was quite lively, and Keanu got his first real role on television. (The TV show «Hangin In»). It consisted of just one phrase ««Hey, lady! Wheres the shower?14».
Then he went to an audition to participate in another television movie something like a police drama from the life of the Miami police called «Night Scramble» and again got the role! In the credits, he was listed as «Cutthroat Number One,» but only because he was taller than his friend who played Cutthroat Number Two. So the beginning was promising.
In 1984, John Mackenzie filmed his «Act of Retribution» in Toronto.
This television film talks about genuine events that happened in the United States seventeen years ago. It tells about the struggle of union activist Jock Jablonski with the chairman of the UMWA union. (United Union of Miners) by Tony Boyle. The classic plot is that a noble hero fights against a corrupt trade unionist, for which he pays his own life. The plot is a blast at the mine, 80 miners remained under the rubble, and the union leader assures that all the safety requirements of the mine owners were complied with, and what happened was just an accident, a fateful combination of circumstances. Jock Jablonski strongly disagrees with this, moreover, he becomes Boyles rival in the election of the chairman of the union. Boyle doesnt just juggle the election results he physically eliminates Jablonski with the hands of his henchmen. The murder made a lot of noise a federal investigation began. A year before filming began, Tony Boyle died in prison, where he was serving a life sentence and the story was just a story that could be told and analyzed. It is curious that the performer of the role of Jablonski Charles Bronson, began his labor biography in the mine.
To fill the quota, Mackenzie hired some of the young Canadian actors to play episodic roles as street boys in New York. Nineteen-year-old Keanu received one of these roles and here he had a name Buddy Martin. This was no longer a shame to write on the track record (played in the same film with Charles Bronson himself! which Keanu himself was very proud of: I was the second guy (on film) ever to kill Charles Bronson!»15) and an important step on ways to make acting your primary profession.