“I know that the ones who love us, will miss us.”
This is what Keanu said when Stephen Colbert asked him what happens to us when we die. He understands misery unlike anybody else in Hollywood.
His dad left when he was 3. He struggled with dyslexia, attending 4 different high schools before dropping out. His best friend died of a drug overdose at 23. His girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, had a stillbirth 8 months into pregnancy. She later died in a car accident not too long after.
Even with his hardships, he hasn’t let his success get to his head.
He helped his sister get cured of leukemia, and since then has donated an anonymous amount of money to hospitals that treat the disease through his private charitable foundation.
He’s worth over a couple hundred million dollars, but he still takes the subway. He doesn’t really have many fancy things.
It is rumored that he gave up a considerable portion of his pay for the latter two Matrix films so that the stunt and design and costume teams could help make the movie as amazing as possible.
Many sources claim the amount he cut from his own pay ranged just a touch above $30 million.
When his flight had an emergency landing enroute to Los Angeles in Bakersfield, he not only opted to rent a large vehicle and drive the rest of the way, but he took a good number of people on the flight with him.
He’s known for paying attention to detail—there is a story about him on Twitter where he bought an ice cream just to get the receipt paper so he could autograph it for a fan. He later tossed that ice cream away.
He is one of the few actors who gets to know everybody working on the set of his projects. Several accounts of him genuinely asking people about their day and wellbeing. There is a photo of him taking a break from filming John Wick 2 just to walk a pit bull in New York City:
He treats everybody with the same amount of kindness. This means everyone:
Someone on Reddit recalled a friend who was stranded on the highway outside Los Angeles. Keanu Reeves pulled up, tried to jump the car to no success, and then drove her 50 miles out of the way to get her home. Not only that, he gave her his number to call in case she needed help with anything.
When he found out one of the crew members on the set of John Wick was struggling, he gave him $20,000 as a Christmas bonus.
There is another story of him giving every member of his stunt team for The Matrix a Harley Davidson.
Keanu just loves. He is love incarnate.
There is no additional component to his character. He’s stayed the same human throughout the worst and the best in his life. He’s pure.
And people see that.