Keanu Reeves at 60: the greatest-ever example of a bad actor made good

Posted On September 2, 2024September 2, 2024

Everybody knows the best actors aren’t always the ones who become the biggest stars, and as a result, Hollywood history is littered with limited performers who became A-listers. However, none can hold a candle to Keanu Reeves, who weaponised his perceived disadvantages like nobody else.

For the last four decades, Reeves has been criticised for his dramatic range or lack thereof. There’s an almost hilarious irony to the fact he turned down Val Kilmer’s role in Michael Mann’s classic crime thriller Heat because he wanted to try his hand at the works of William Shakespeare instead, when Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula was evidence enough that classic works of literature were not the best use of his talents.

On the other side of the coin, for the entirety of those four decades that he’s been batting away well-founded accusations that he’s not very good at his chosen profession, he’s been a star. Some actors thrive on pushing themselves to the limits, digging deep into characters that require total immersion, and playing against type to try and deliberately subvert expectations, but Reeves has never been that guy.

Almost every single one of his contemporaries with at least 30 years under their belt as an A-lister and box office draw – think Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Harrison Ford, and Brad Pitt, to name a few – has at least one Academy Award nomination and in many cases a win under their belt for a transformative turn that places their established persona squarely in the rear-view mirror.

Has Reeves ever given a performance that could justifiably and inarguably be called a great one by acting’s established barometers? Probably not, but for anyone who wants to make the well-founded argument of throwing My Own Private Idaho into the mix, don’t forget the aching drama was released in 1991, which was also the year of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and Point Break.

In no way is that intended to be a character assassination because Reeves is among the best at what he does. The best use of him is when he plays stoic, straight-laced, and innately charismatic figures who tend to let their actions do the talking, which is what helped make him one of cinema’s greatest-ever action heroes through the aforementioned Point Break, Speed, and The Matrix and John Wick franchises.

He’s never going to be gunning for Academy Awards, but he doesn’t need to. Is he a bad actor? Well, he’s not Daniel Day-Lewis, that’s for sure. And yet, he doesn’t have to be. Reeves has been a household name for 35 years and counting, laughing openly in the face of any suggestions that not being a particularly dynamic or three-dimensional thespian is a drawback in any way, shape, or form.

It also helps that he’s one of the nicest guys in the industry, with the legion of tales surrounding his selflessness, good deeds, and charitable donations only enhancing his legend. Cinema is a cutthroat business where people will happily step over their peers to reach the top, but Reeves has always been a beacon of wholesome light who’d step aside if anyone asked should he think it was the right thing to do.

Not many actors exist as universally beloved presences, and Reeves is comfortably among that infinitesimally small list. Stardom can often be fleeting, especially for those who simply don’t have it in them to diversify and tackle a cavalcade of disparate characters covering the entire genre spectrum, but it hasn’t done a thing to prevent him from enduring through multiple generations as one of the most popular, bankable, and effortlessly likeable names in the business.

Plenty of bad actors have made it to the mountaintop, but how many of them have stayed there for as long as Reeves? How many have been working consistently since the mid-1980s and have never had a bad word said about them by anybody? How many of the highest-grossing stars in cinema history have earned that distinction and continually put butts in seats over an extended period of time without signing on for a comic book adaptation or three?

How many have spent that entire time being called a bad actor to the extent it’s become the most pointless barb that can be thrown in their direction? How many have never felt compelled to try and prove otherwise, turning the stick used repeatedly to beat them over the head into one of their strongest assets? A few, maybe, but none to anywhere near the same level as our Keanu.

Unless something drastic changes, Reeves is never going to be taking the stage at the Oscars to collect his prize. Not that he needs to, when his status as the best-ever example of a bad actor made good is a different, more difficult, and even more notably unique victory in itself.

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