Londoner’s Diary
Keanu Reeves is best known for playing brooding characters in action movies, so it may come as a surprise that his biggest influence is a British comedy troupe. The John Wicke star was asked at the Southbank Literature Festival what book, TV show or film from his childhood “has been the biggest inspiration” for his work. After initially saying he didn’t know, Reeves then said Monty Python. “It was such a wonderful influence and model of storytelling,” he said, adding that he admired the humour, “which was so physical but also so intellectual and social”.
The actor grew up in Toronto, but his mother was from Essex and introduced him to English comedy sketch shows from the 60s and 70s like The Two Ronnies and Kenny Everett, or “the one who always had the boobs out,” as Reeves put it.
Reeves was speaking at the Southbank Centre to promote The Book of Elsewhere, an epic novel he has written with China Miéville based on his comic book series BRZKR. While he spoke with great excitement about the ancient, alternate universe his character B occupies, Reeves was less voluble about his own career. When host Samira Ahmed asked why he gravitated towards movie characters who go undercover, Reeves responded that “it’s really fun”. How does he feel about the success of the John Wicke films? “It’s really nice”. What drives him to keep exploring new creative avenues? “Death. Death and fun.”
The talk was supposed to be 90 minutes long, which Reeves seemed unaware of. Around the hour mark, he asked if time was nearly up. Ahmed persisted, but the talk still wrapped up slightly early, after Reeves decided not to do a second reading from his book – “It’s late! People want to eat!” – and refused to give any graphic novel recommendations, saying “that’s your own flow!” to applause from the audience. Was his stomach rumbling?
