(Credit: Lionsgate)
Fri 12 September 2025 20:15, UK
As preposterous as it may sound to a modern audience, Keanu Reeves’ bona fides as an action star were once questioned by Hollywood.
In 1994, on the eve of the release of Speed, a profile in Entertainment Weekly went to great lengths to point out how unlikely it was that the quiet, sensitive, and gentle star was being positioned as an action hero in Jan de Bont’s bus-bound thriller. Reeves didn’t exactly help his cause, either, because when he was asked if he saw himself as the new Schwarzenegger, Stallone, or Willis, he shrugged, “I don’t have any ambition to do that. I’m not averse to working in the genre again; it was good, clean fun. But my ambition is variety.”
Amusingly, when EW tried a different tactic to see if Reeves had an affinity for the genre, he left the outlet wanting yet again. Asked to name some of his favourite action movies, the shy star sounded like he’d never even watched one in his life. “I like the action scene in Excalibur,” he mused, “the fighting scenes in The Duellists, and, um, The Three Musketeers with Oliver Reed.” Cue EW’s journalist wondering why this guy didn’t even have the wherewithal to say Die Hard or Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Come on, man!
In truth, while none of Excalibur, The Duellists, or The Three Musketeers could truly be considered “action” movies, per se, Reeves was correct in that they contained elements of action. John Boorman’s fantasy epic, which introduced the world to a host of the greatest British and Irish acting talent of the modern era (Liam Neeson, Helen Mirren, Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart), is a visual feast, and the battle scenes are eye-poppingly visceral. Similarly, Ridley Scott’s tale of two rival officers during the Napoleonic war has a couple of beautifully choreographed sword fights, while Reed’s Musketeers is full of old school swashbuckling. Still, they’re certainly not the picks EW’s journalist was fishing for.
Of course, even though Reeves seemed, at best, casually disinterested in the action genre during this interview, it’s entirely possible that he was just shitting his pants about how Speed would be received. Ultimately, it turned out to be one of the greatest action films ever made, and it cemented him as one of Hollywood’s leading stars in the genre.
Over the years, it can’t be argued that Reeves embraced this status, because with The Matrix and John Wick franchises, he just cemented his status as the go-to guy for action flicks whom hordes of fans will immediately embrace. His ability to master complex fight choreography and intricate gunplay is second to none, and he always does as much of his own action as possible, so audiences know it’s him performing the amazing feats on-screen, not a stuntman.
Fittingly, as he grew into the genre and accepted his mantle as both ‘The One’ and the ‘Baba Yaga’, Reeves must have finally remembered that he’s actually seen and loved a bunch of action films in his time. In 2021, he was asked by Esquire to name his list of movies everyone should watch, and he threw in several action classics, including the grandaddy of them all, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, as well as George Miller’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Luc Besson’s Leon: The Professional and La Femme Nikita.
No wonder he can pull off the action archetypes so effortlessly, he’s actually seen them all.
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