There’s a lot of love out there for Keanu Reeves. For years, stories about his ‘tragic life‘ have gone viral again and again. He’s had a prolific career as an actor, most recently starring in the John Wick series, reprising his role as Ted in Bill And Ted Face The Music, and even making an appearance in the newly released videogame Cyberpunk 2077, where the player can slowly become Keanu Reeves. Sounds like a dream come true for some of his fans!
Reeves has done well for himself in life, with a net worth of around $360 million. While many who have experienced his level of success have become disconnected from average people, Reeves has created kindness and a truly better world in his wake.
Some philanthropists use their vast wealth and connections to create good PR spin for themselves, raise their profiles, and make even more money. But Keanu Reeves has a different strategy. Instead of taking credit and plastering his name on every good deed, Reeves runs a private foundation that has aided, in his words, “a couple of children’s hospitals and cancer research.”
“I don’t like to attach my name to it; I just let the foundation do what it does,” he says.
Reeves has also taken time out of his life to help with other charity events, going as far as to personally man a phone line during the 2008 Stand Up to Cancer telethon and acting as a goalkeeper during a charity ice hockey match for Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation.
Others who have even briefly entered his life have picked up on his good deeds as well. One user took to Reddit to express an experience working with him.
Back in the late 90’s 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. That was one example (that involved me directly), but (on the same set), I remember him going out of his way to give my friend a ride to the repair shop to pick up his car.
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 [expletive] who always think they are better than us. Keanu on the other hand, at the very least, was socially approachable and definitely kindhearted.
It is indeed undisputable that Reeves’ life has been marred by tragedy, from his daughter, Ava being stillborn and the subsequent death of his girlfriend Jennifer Syme in a car accident to the loss of his sister to cancer and good friend River Phoenix to a drug overdose. But Reeves doesn’t look to the past to find happiness.