Many thanks to Kjersti Flaa who has shared the video clip of her full interview with Keanu Reeves on Vimeo. You can watch the Vimeo copy on their site
Transcript – not verbatim – but close and the essence is there.
Flaa: Why don’t you age like the rest of the world?
KR: I do.
Flaa: It doesn’t look like it at all.
KR: Really?
Flaa: Your face – like you look exactly like you did 20 years ago.
KR: Really, I don’t know. I’ll thank my ancestors. I’m Chinese, Hawaiian and English they tell me. I’ll have to go and get one of those DNA swabs and get a chart.
Flaa: Do you think aging has made you wiser in any way?
KR: Wiser? SUre, yeah. Let’s go with yes today.
Flaa: And in this movie you also have to take your shirt off.
KR: I did yeah.
Flaa: When you see that in a script is oh god and now I have to go to the gym?
KR: Yeah, absolutely. It’s one of the responsibilities for sure. Yeah in the film there’s some physical elements to it as well as the shirt off scene and you got some fighting to do and ride some horses which is great fun.
Flaa: Does it scare you a little bit doing those things?
KR: Um – no I get really excited. Um I get to do some sword fights, ride some horses, taking off the shirt I don’t know if I’m like Oh yeah – I get to take my shirt off tomorrow. I don’t quite have that one.
Flaa: Do you go on a diet before something like that?
KR: Yeah, absolutely. You have to do fitness and all those things yeah because in life I don’t do that all the time.
Flaa: What kind of diets are you on when you prepare for things like that?
KR: Oh, it really depends on the project in terms of what the silhouette of the character has to look like. You know for Kai, I figured he was doing a lot of hunting, and tracking and I wanted him to look capable in that way. So dealing in the shape of the back and shoulders and arms and stuff so his silhouette would be different that for example the character I played in The Matrix which was more like a slimmer silhouette – he didn’t mneed that kind of back orpresence.
Flaa: I read somewhere that after The Matrix you were in so much pain that you were lying in a bathtub of ice?
KR: Oh yeah sure. After some of those action sequences ice is your friend – yeah because inflammation and all of that sort of stuff.
Flass: How far are you willing to go if you have to lay in a bathtub of ice:
KR: Ice is fun yeah. Well you want the intensity. For me these are opportunities to do these types of acting and physical sequences. Often times for me the action is connected to character development and I also love movie fighting and fake fights because again it’s character and motion and passion.
Flaa: Do you enjoy the pain a little bit?
KR: Yean, absolutely. It’s fun – it’s good. Yeah because you want the struggle and I can’t even call it struggle – it’s really the intensity of that – the intensity of training, the focus of it I really enjoy – the application of it and hopefully you get good enough at it that you get to articulate the story.
Flaa: Do you see yourself as a warrior?
KR: Umm, no I wouldn’t think of me as a warrior.
Flaa: So this is also about people’s inner demons. Do you believe that we all have inner demons that we have to fight?
KR: Inner demons – it’s such a graphic line – inner demon! The darkside and then you get more poetic like shadow self, darkside, the unknown you, the other side. Um, if we open up the conversation – absolutely.
Flaa: Do you fight your inner demos> How do you do that?
KR: Um, god – they usually win. The inner demons win. You just like wake up and like what. You know I guess inner demons and fears you just kind of try to see them and be conscience of them and address the consequences and ask questions. I wouldn’t say that I have..I am certainly curious and in terms of spiritual aspects Um yeah – I don’t follow a particular religion but certainly with 47 Ronin I’m interested in some eastern thought. Yeah, I have been in some places where I’m like this place is haunted – where you feel something. I’ve met some people where like are you a witch?
Flaa: Do you think that people were more romantic like back in the days than we are today?
KR: Um in the past, there are certainly rich traditions of romantic love and a- are we in a romantic time? I don’t know – it’s certainly – um I think romance might go out of fashion but it doesn’t go out of flavor. Uh, yeah – no I think you will always be in love with love but in terms of it’s articulation we don’t have any romantic troubadours anymore but there’s certainly a lot of love songs out there.
Flaa: There are.