Keanu Reeves Improvised Some Of The Best Scenes In Always Be My Maybe

Netflix

And so the Reeves-urgence© continues.

What with John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum already here and smashing it at the box office, Reeves’ role in the upcoming Toy Story 4 getting us all excited, and the news of a third Bill and Ted film, it’s shaping up to be the summer of Keanu.

Reaffirming the actor’s return to top form (though he never really went away, did he?), is his show-stealing turn in Netflix’s new rom-com, called Always Be My Maybe.

Check out the trailer here:

The film has only been out a few days, but already has a 93 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It stars comedian Ali Wong, who wrote the film with co-star Randall Park (Veep, Fresh Off The Boat). Wong plays Sasha Tran, a celebrity chef who moves back to her hometown and reconnects with her childhood sweetheart.

While Randall Park plays the childhood sweetheart, Keanu Reeves makes his mark in the film as Sasha’s ‘douchey’ rebound guy called Keanu Reeves, of course.

Speaking about how they got Reeves to play a heightened, cringe-worthy version of himself, Ali told Rolling Stone:

In my Instagram and my specials, there’s a lot of expression of love and affection toward Asian American men. I knew I wanted to carry that into this movie, for all of my love interests to be Asian. We were like, “Who’s a dude that would be Marcus’ worst nightmare for Sasha to start dating once he realizes he’s been in love with her his entire life? Like, an iconic Asian man. Keanu Reeves.” [Reeves is part Chinese and Hawaiian.]

After tracking down the elusive actor and setting up a meeting at the Chateau Marmont, Reeves turned up fresh from filming some high-intensity stunt scenes for John Wick.

However, as Ali said:

He was hilarious and warm, and I was shocked at how detail-oriented he was about the script. He was like, “I have a question about page 80.” I was like, “I don’t even know what’s on page 80.”

It seems Reeves did more than just read the script though.

Ali added:

He did improvise! At the Chateau Marmont he pitched a couple of things that made it in.

Like wearing glasses that had no lens. And the part in the game night scene where he lists all of these Chinese dignitaries, that was all his idea. And when he says, “I don’t have a problem, Sasha. What’s your problem?” and starts air-fighting. It’s hard to describe just how shockingly funny he is.

Does his own stunts in John Wick, does his own voice in Toy Story 4, and now does his own improv in Always Be My Maybe? The Reeves-urgence continues.

Always Be My Maybe is out now on Netflix.

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Charlie Cocksedge

Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.