Keanu Reeves has been acting for nearly three decades and ET has been with him every step of the way.
In celebration of John Wick, the 50-year-old actor’s latest film out this Friday, we dug into the ET vault to find the first time we interviewed the actor—way back in 1985 on the set of the TV movie Young Again.
“I can feel it, I’m having fun,” a 21-year-old Keanu told ET. The young actor was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed working alongside TV’s Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner, and had dreams of making it big himself one day. “I hope something gets out there that is magic — and if not, I’ll just be sad and cry,” he joked.
It took a few more years, but Keanu would eventually make a name for himself in films such as 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Parenthood, as well as 1991’s Point Break, the cult surfer-heist flick in which he starred alongside Patrick Swayze.
But it was his role as Officer Jack Traven in 1994’s Speed that was a major turning point in Reeves’ career as a big budget action star. The film grossed $350 million worldwide and turned Reeves and co-star Sandra Bullock into bona fide movie stars.
ET was also on the set of Speed that year where a clearly beefed up Keanu told us he was completely unfazed by the amount of stunts he’d have to perform in the film.
“I trust [director Jan DeBont] implicitly so I just try to enjoy it,” the then 30-year-old told ET. “There’s that exhilaration of going out on a limb.
Following a string of smaller films in the five years after the success of Speed, Reeves struck box-office gold again in the Wachowski brothers’ cyber adventure, The Matrix (1999) and the two subsequent sequels The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003).
Fast forward 15 years later and Keanu is still kicking ass. Watch the full video for more from Keanu’s action-packed career.
