Keanu Reeves at the Royal Festival Hall

Keanu Reeves in Conversation   

Royal Festival Hall, 22 October 2024

I went to yet another book event this time as part of the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre, with Keanu Reeves chatting about his new book he has collaborated on with author China Mieville, Book Of Elsewhere.

I must admit, I didn't buy a ticket for this, my brother kindly thought I would enjoy it but I have not read the book it was promoting and, even though as part of the ticket everyone in the audience got a copy of the book, I'm still not sure I actually will. 

It was definitely interesting to see Keanu Reeves in the flesh, albeit (as you can see from the photos) at a distance, although in my old job I got to go to a lot of press conferences and even interview some big movie stars, so that initial strange feeling of seeing a hugely famous face in real life has worn off for me, but he did look pretty amazing (I was shocked when he said he was 60 now). 

When I turned up to the Royal Festival Hall, outside the back entrance there was a crowd being held back by barriers, First I wondered what was going on before realising that they were there waiting to hopefully meet Reeves. That level of fame must be incredibly strange, but Reeves is certainly at iconic level these days, so I guess it makes sense. Years ago I met his Bill & Ted co-star, Alex Winter, at an L7 afterparty I had managed to get invited to by a Sub Pop employee, and was equally thrilled to see him and chat to him about my love of that movie, but I imagine Winter can on the whole walk down the street fairly undisturbed. Here, Reeves can fill the Royal Festival Hall with a bunch of us who, like me, probably haven't even read the book he's promoting.

Hosted by broadcaster Samira Ahmed, Reeves was sadly not joined by his co-author Mieville but instead his publisher Keith Clayton, which seemed like a massive missed opportunity. Reeves did his best to describe the motivation behind the novel, which was inspired by the comic book series BRZRKR, that he also co-created, and he talked a lot about the plot and the philosophy behind it all, and even gave a reading of a scene where the immortal anti-hero was quizzed by Freud.

While Reeves obviously has a lot of love and passion for his creation (which came from a dream or vision he had of a character who was just tearing off people's arms!), it's also clear that his participation in the actual writing of the book was merely a bunch of conversations with Mieville. Apparently he went to the publishers with the idea for the novel and a list of authors who he hoped to collaborate with and Mieville was top of that list, and he was completely surprised with he said said and they met up in Berlin to discuss Reeves' ideas for the project.

It's completely wild to me that once you get famous that you can have an idea for a novel or a comic book and just get someone else, often in the top of their fields, to just create it for you and your name will be the selling point and down as the co-author. Ahmed brought up plot elements and even characters (a lot was said about one who was a deerpig) and Reeves couldn't explain or offer anything more than, "that was all Mieville's genius" or "you need to ask China" about that. So aside from some conversations and some emails, I really don't think Reeves' involvement in the creation probably merits his billing on the cover, but I guess that's how celebrity works.

He did say that when he worked with the artist, Ron Garney, who did the comic books, he asked for the character to look like himself, and often when he spoke about the story he referred to the character in first person. Not surprisingly, it's in development to be a movie but Reeves did admit, he might be too old to play the character now, although judging at how he looks I imagine he could still pull it off.

Ahmed, did get Reeves to talk a little about his movies and some of the older actors he's worked with that have inspired him, like Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocat and Jason Robarbs in Parenthood, but he seemed less prepared to answer these questions and maybe, a little less enthused, but it was still fun to hear him mention some of his most famous roles.

It was also amusing to hear him talk about growing up watching British TV shows such as Doctor Who ("I grew up watching the guy with the curly hair and the long scarf?" I'll forgive him for not knowing Tom Baker's name!) and The Two Ronnies, of all things!

He also talked about his forthcoming Broadway run in Waiting For Godot with his Bill & Ted co-star Alex Winter. Again, Reeves got the idea from a dream, woke up and texted Winter "we should do Waiting For Godot!" and Winter messaged him back "hell yeah!" and basically suggested a director and made it happen. Again, when you are an icon like Reeves you can say, I want to star on Broadway in a Samuel Beckett play or I want to write a novel with an award-winning science fiction author! And next thing you are on a book tour talking about how you'll be on stage next year.

Reeves came across as youthful and likeable as ever, exactly how you imagine he'd be, and I'd still say he's my favourite movie star (probably not my favourite actor though). It was an interesting experience, as I've never gone to any London Literature Festival events before, although one with a movie star might well be slightly different. I'm not sure I got more from it than I would if I had watched it all online though: even the audience questions were sent in prior to the even and read out by Ahmed, rather that the people who asked them, and she didn't even get to many of them. I definitely got more out of seeing Willy Vlautin's book tour (I mean he sang songs at the end) and the Redd Kross conversation (I got my book signed!) but maybe it's just because they were smaller more low-key events.

It's clear that Reeves it having a great time right now though: he's just finished a tour with his old band Dogstar, now he has a book out inspired by the comic book he co-created and a play in the works, and it is certainly nice to see him living his best life. He certainly has a lot of admirers willing to happily follow him on that journey, if the sold out crowd was anything to go by, anyway.