But now here I am, sitting opposite Reeves, now 54, the beard more grizzled than in my posters and the forehead suspiciously smooth, but still most definitely Keanu. Should one ever meet one’s teenage crush? Until this week I had assumed I was long past the point of being starstruck – I’m a 40-year-old woman, for God’s sake. And I know this all too well because, from 1991 to 1999, I had at least five posters of him on my bedroom walls modelling said look. I know this all too well as, from 1991 to 1999, I had at least five posters of him on my bedroom walls modelling said lookĭespite being recently announced as the new face of the high-fashion label Saint Laurent, Reeves has long been the patron saint of normcore, decades before it became a fashion statement. Reeves has long been the patron saint of normcore, decades before it became a fashion statement. At 186cm, or 6ft 1in, he is taller than I expected – also unusual for an actor – and dressed in a very Keanu outfit of dark shirt and trousers with sturdy boots. This okay?” he says, taking a chair and offering me the sofa in the London hotel room where we meet. Hard to imagine Leonardo DiCaprio doing that. After all, the most famous paparazzi photo ever taken of Reeves was of him sitting alone on a bench, eating a sandwich out of a plastic bag.
He is regularly described by his costars as kind (Winona Ryder) and humble (Laurence Fishburne), and it is easier to imagine him walking on the moon than knocking back champagne with other celebrities on a yacht in St Barts. Despite being so famous his surname has long been superfluous, Keanu Reeves has always given the impression of being utterly unaffected by his celebrity. “Hey, I’m Keanu,” he says to introduce himself – unnecessarily, of course, yet very Keanuishly.