Keanu Reeves, known worldwide for his performances in films like John Wick and The Matrix, also looks like an amazing human being with yet another story of the actor being a good Samaritan. Last weekend (23, 24), Yahoo! reported that Keanu Reeves was on a flight that made an emergency landing in Bakersfield, California. He then helped with the logistics and worked out a way to get him and the other passengers to their final destination, Los Angeles.
They and game developer Amir Blum (below) ended up taking a van to Los Angeles and Reeves told fun facts about Bakersfield, played music, and made the best of a boring situation.
Brian Rea posted videos in Instagram stories, which were compiled by Twitter user @keanusgf, recounted his and other passengers’ journey with Keanu Reeves. Check out:
That time when your flight out from #GDC almost crashes and you have to emergency land in a remote airport but at least Keanu Reeves is having as bad a day as you are. pic.twitter.com/XSPa1wlNuO
— Amir Blum [Unboxed] (@CheesyJedi) March 24, 2019
Honoring this story, which is not the first of its kind presented by Reeves, we decided to highlight four other stories of the actor’s kindness.
Keanu Reeves helped Octavia Spencer to the side of the road
Shortly after actress Octavia Spencer moved from Alabama to Los Angeles in pursuit of a career, her car broke down while she was on her way to one of her first auditions. In an interview with Meredith Vieira, she told how a man on a motorcycle pulled over and helped her — this man was Keanu Reeves.
“Nobody helped me because my car was so dirty — I had parked the car under a tree, so the birds had a party on top of my car and I couldn’t wash it,” Spencer recalls. “It was like that until Keanu Reeves showed up. He was on a motorcycle, wearing a helmet and sunglasses, so I didn’t recognize him until he stopped. And he was like ‘hey, do you need help?'”
Reeves pushed Spencer’s car to the side of the road, and she remembers she was “shocked” that Keanu had to pull over to her dirty car. “I was so shocked. I was like ‘oh no, he’s going to touch my car!’ sweet thing from him. But I’ll never remind him of that moment because when I say I was terrible, I don’t want him to remember that,” he says.
Keanu Reeves, the silent philanthropist
Another example of Reeves’ kindness relates to generous donations to a variety of causes, including buying a house for his mother, and running a private foundation that benefits children’s hospitals and cancer research.
He would also have given up “points” that actors pay after a movie is released to ensure that The Matrix’s costume and special effects departments had everything they needed to make the best movie possible.
And that’s not all. Reeves is known for being paid less for the opportunity to act with other actors such as Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate and Gene Hackman in Turning the Game.
Keanu Reeves and the homeless
In 1997, some paparazzi photographed Reeves spending time with a homeless man in Hollywood. They shared food and drink, and he spent time listening to the man’s stories and enjoying the day.
Not much is known about this particular story, but there is another example of Reeves taking time out to help others.
Keanu in the rain
With fame comes power, but Keanu Reeves has proven he doesn’t need to abuse it, even for the parties themselves. On the night of the party celebrating the end of the Daughter of God recordings, there was a disagreement and instead of Reeves getting at the front of the line, he waited in line for 20 minutes because “he didn’t want to cause trouble”.
The club owner didn’t know this had happened, saying that “I didn’t know he was waiting, and he didn’t tell me anything. He’s very calm.”
At the same party, he went to the microphone to announce that he had found someone’s credit card and that he was looking for the owner to return it.
These are just a few of Keanu Reeves’ stories, and while many of us won’t find him when we need this hero, we know we’ll be able to see him in action when John Wick 3: Parabellum premieres on May 16th.
