Interview of the week: Keanu Reeves

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Keanu Reeves is aware that his fans and critics may have a few misconceptions about him, but the star of the hit baseball movie "Hardball" and eagerly anticipated sequels to "The Matrix" insists that he has no plans to dedicate a Web site to setting the record straight.

In fact, he doesn't much care what naysayers think.

Often described as one of Hollywood's most underrated actors, the 37-year-old Reeves told reporters in New York recently that he has no intention of eschewing his movie career to be a rock star (he performs with the rock band Dogstar when he's not filming), that he takes parts because he loves the story, not because it will earn him a big paycheck, and he doesn't feel it is the movie industry's responsibility to teach children morality. Plus, he admitted that even he thinks his 1996 film "Chain Reaction" was a stinker, all that while promoting several of his new flicks.

Reeves, who starred in the blockbuster action films "The Matrix" and "Speed," as well as last year's superb supernatural thriller "The Gift" and the sentimental romantic drama "Sweet November," said that overall he tries not to think about how people feel about him or his performances and he swore that he never pays attention to scuttlebutt about him on the Internet.

"I've never logged on," Reeves confessed, although he did say the weirdest thing he ever heard about himself was that someone claimed to be selling his spleen on the Internet.

The actor assured journalists that the organ touted on the Internet is not his since his is still "in me." He also made clear that he doesn't read the scandal sheets and only hears what is being said about him when he is being interviewed by the press.

Despite his popularity, Reeves said he doesn't think he is at any real risk for losing his privacy since interest in him "rises when a film comes out and leaves when you're not working."

He added, however, that it is "surreal that strangers ask me personal questions."

Asked if he felt cheated by those who would call him a pretty-boy, lightweight actor, the bright and articulate Reeves replied humbly, "That's not the feeling I get from my peers."

And Reeves' peers include some of the most well-respected, successful actors in the business. Among them are Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino and Gene Hackman.

So, after nearly two decades in the movie business, does Reeves still get star-struck?

"Yeah, sure, of course. It's not so much star-struck," he explained. "Certainly in the beginning when I was starting out, much more so. But then as I've had more experiences.... I still get the butterflies in my stomach (at) the first rehearsal with Al Pacino... I remember that experience as being quite exciting. I'm surely not jaded to that. The effect that films can have, I'm still a part of. I respect these people so much."

The actor said that when choosing a role, he concentrates on whether he likes the plot and the character, not whether the movie will pack audiences in theaters or make him more rich or famous.

"It's the story and how I feel about the character," he explained. "I felt like that for 'Chain Reaction,' but when I got there it was a different movie. Originally, I was married. I had this kid and I did this research and I didn't know that what I was researching had this effect. And someone got killed and I had these regrets and I'm trying to stop what I'm doing, but they can't let me so they're chasing me. And then all of a sudden I turn into this 24-year-old machinist and I turned to (director) Andrew Davis and I said, 'What happened to the movie I said yes to? What happened to that script? Where did that go?' And he said, 'No, I got something better,' and so I just had to go with it."

Reeves added that working with Morgan Freeman on that film, however, made the experience a worthwhile one.

While Reeves clearly excels in leading-man-type roles like the quarterback or hero cop, the actor said he is just as happy to take on character parts (like the ones in "My Own Private Idaho," "Much Ado About Nothing" and "The Gift").

"I really want to be able to do both," he said, pointing out that in the year before he returns to the screen in two hotly anticipated "Matrix" sequels, he played a wife beater and a sleazy ticket scalper turned inspirational little league coach in "The Gift" and "Hardball," respectively.

Although Reeves was thrilled to be given the chance to play so many different kinds of characters in the past year or so, he said he is really excited about reprising the role of Neo, a Messiah-like figure, in "The Matrix Reloaded," due out in 2003 and "The Matrix 3," due out in 2004 -- two movies that are being filmed back-to-back, a process that will take approximately nine more months to complete.

"In speaking with Larry (Fishburne) and the directors and writers, I'm really excited by their ambition and by their scope and by their storytelling and their ambition for the ideas that they want to communicate, and for the cinema that they want to create," he said.

"There's lots of questions and lots of conflicts. I get some great scenes and some great dialogue, but I don't want to have, and I've said this to actors and directors, that even though we've had this experience before, we haven't had the one we're about to have and you have to come in with a new mind. Don't disregard and delete and not listen to your past experiences, but also be open, too. Don't try to prejudice what you feel like you might know. Ask again. Ask in the present," he said of revisiting the characters and story.

Asked if he was shocked by the tremendous response the original sci-fi adventure received, Reeves replied: "I wasn't taken aback. I had no expectation so I don't really have anything to react to. I really was glad that people enjoyed it as much as I did. I think it's a really good film."

Many fans of the first movie named the film's ground-breaking special effects and fight scenes as two of the things they liked best, which means the cast and filmmakers of the sequels had to work extra hard to try and top the latter in the second and third installments.

In addition to working out for hundreds of hours, Reeves also spent weeks learning the fight scenes and wire work.

Which brought up a topic that has been popular with politicians, pundits and movie industry types all over America in recent years: Do filmmakers have a responsibility to restrict sex and violence in movies?

Speaking in interviews held before the Sept. 11 terror on New York and Washington, Reeves said:

"What is there to nurture if there's no conflict? 'Everyone was happy, and the birds sang.' I don't know, I mean, I know what you're saying in terms of like gratuitous violence ... but I think the soap opera is as violent as some kinds of action picture.

"In terms of a corruption or a distortion of existence... I feel like I'm a fairly moral person in my films. ... I don't want to go out and do a porno, but I want to go through and show life. Maybe it will be important to show a film that doesn't have morality so that we can speak about morality ... I don't know the answer and I don't know if there is one way."

When Reeves isn't filming a movie, which is an infrequent occurrence, he enjoys playing and recording with his rock band. Fans of his movies shouldn't worry that he'll give up his day job, however.

"I'm an actor and so (if I had to choose between having the No. 1 movie and the No. 1 album) I would pick the film. I love them both, but I am an actor, so I'll make that distinction, but I love to play music," he said.