Reasons Why Keanu Reeves Is The Nicest Guy In Hollywood

He's just as good at awkwardly giving up his seat on the subway as any New Yorker

Hangs out with homeless people and it's no big deal

Not much is really known about this, but that's sorta the point - Keanu hanging out with a homeless guy is no big deal for him. He REALLY treats everyone as equals, since most REGULAR people usually don't give the homeless the time of day, let alone Hollywood movie stars.

What is known is that in September 1997, Keanu hung out with a homeless guy in West Hollywood and just chilled with him for a while.

Life full of tragedy

While he plays a confident and badass hero in many movies, most people don't know that his personal life is full of tragedy. His father actually abandoned their family, his best friend, River Pheonix, died in 1993, and his sister was diagnosed with leukaemia. He spent years and $5 million on her treatment.

He gave up about $40 million he would have made for the Matrix sequels for the sake of the special effects staff

While there's a popular urban legend that Reeves directly donated about $80 million to the special effects staff of the Matrix sequels, the truth is a little less awesome and a little more complicated than that. What Reeves did was give up a substantial piece of his contract (involving backend profits, which would have ended up being around $38 million) to relieve producers' fears that the special effects budget was far too high and would render the film unprofitable. The reality of this is that his decision to give up that aspect of his contract likely saved scores of jobs from being cut for budgetary reasons, so he's still a pretty cool dude.

He also gave each member of the stunt team a Harley Davidson motorcycle, valued at over 6,000 Euros. Whoa.

Dedication

He's dedicated. He learned over 200 martial arts moves for The Matrix Reloaded

He's responsible for getting John Wick made, and John Wick is fucking awesome.

Seriously. Have you seen John Wick yet? GO SEE JOHN WICK.

A good portion of the praise for the film belongs to Keanu Reeves, who - on top of giving a stellar performance - is basically responsible for getting all of the pieces lined up for the film to be so great. He worked with screenwriter Derek Kolstad to really nail down the story, the characters, and all of the nuanced worldbuilding that made the movie so memorable. Here's what Kolstad had to say:

"We spent as much time developing the other characters as we did his. [Keanu] recognizes that the strength of the storyline lies in even the smallest details."

But the thing that really helped set John Wick apart from the rest of the year's action shoot 'em ups was the super-solid direction by first-time directing team Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who had previously been stunt coordinators with Reeves on the Matrix. Anyone who's seen the film knows how great the action sequences are - no shaky cam nonsense, just fluid, almost balletic scenes of assassins and underworld types tearing each other to shreds.

And he's done all of this in spite of living a much harder life than people realize

Keanu Reeves seems like a genuinely nice, good-hearted person - and part of what's made him so humble and appreciative of others is the struggles he's had to face in his life. His father was arrested for selling heroin and soon abandoned the family; his mother was constantly moving the family around the world, making it tough for Reeves to make friends; he wanted to be a professional hockey player, but an injury shattered that dream early on; he was best buds with actor River Phoenix, and was left completely devastated by Phoenix's death from a drug overdose; his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn daughter, and the grief eventually tore the two apart; Jennifer died a few years later in a car accident; and, again, his sister - who he's said is his best friend in the world - was diagnosed with leukemia and has been battling the disease for over a decade.

He's incredibly honest about himself

"I am a meathead. I can't help it, man. You have got smart people amd you have got dumb people"

although this is likely just Keanu being overly humble and self-deprecating. The dude's actually pretty intelligent, having negotiated a lengthy and profitable multi-decade career as an action hero, taking the time to perform Hamlet to pursue his love of Shakespeare instead of making Heat, and spending much of his time in book stores.

He gives money to a bunch of actual charities too

Keanu's life has been one filled with tragedy and unexpected sadness, so HEY maybe those "Sad Keanu" memes were A LITTLE INSENSITIVE.

Anyways, Reeves' sister Kim contracted leukemia in the early 2000s, and since then he's actively given money to cancer research and other organizations like The Sick Kids Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer. But more than that, he even started his own charitable foundation, which he didn't even attach his name to BECAUSE THAT'S HOW CHARITY IS SUPPOSED TO WORK.

Took massive paycuts for The Devil's Advocate and The Replacements so the productions could afford to hire Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, respectively

"I still get the butterflies in my stomach during 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."

His response to gay rumors is perfect

"For a while people were saying that me and David Geffen had gotten married, that just blew me away. Not because they thought I was gay, but that they thought I could land a guy that hot."

Basically everyone who's come in contact with him has been blown away by what a sweet, kind, down-to-earth guy he is

Redditor kahi:

A family friend builds movie sets, doesn't design, is one of the poor dudes that just builds. Anyways he worked on the set for the Matrix and Keanu heard about family trouble he was having and gave him a $20,000 Christmas bonus to help him out. He also was one of the only people on the set that genuinely wanted to know peoples names, would say hello and mean it, and would talk to people as they were his peers and not below him just because they were practically making nothing to build a set. I've never heard anyone say Keanu is douche, seems like the nicest person in Hollywood from a second hand experience.

Redditor bo2dd2:

Back in the late 90s and fresh out of college I got my first job as an assistant prop designer on the set of Chain Reaction (Keanu was a supporting actor with Morgan Freeman). EVERY DAY for the last few weeks of filming, Keanu treated the stage hands and "grunt workers" (including myself) by taking us out for free breakfast and lunch. He was genuinely a very nice guy to work with.

Since then, I've worked on about 30 different sets and have never met an actor as generous and friendly as him. Most actors I've seen and worked with are total douches who always think they are better than us. Keanu on the other hand, at the very least, was socially approachable and definitely kindhearted.

He was babysat by Alice Cooper and Weezer's first performance was opening for Keanu's band, Dogstar

I mean, this really has nothing to do with Keanu doing anything - he wasn't in charge of who babysat him or who opened for his band, but it's just proof that even things only tangentially related to Keanu are pretty awesome.