Keanu breaks free from the matrix

In this instance actor and director were one and the same. Man of Tai Chi,releasing November,represents a key point in Reevess transition from leading man to behind-the-scenes player. The film,his directorial debut,stars Reevess friend and the former Matrix trilogy stuntman Tiger Hu Chen as a Chinese deliveryman and student of traditional combat styles seduced into entering the high-tech world of illegal prizefighting by the darkly mysterious master Donaka Mark.

Shot in Hong Kong and Beijing,with dialogue in English,Mandarin and Cantonese,the film represented a rare opportunity for Reeves,who has been more hands-on with his projects of late,co-producing and co-starring in a small romantic comedy,Henrys Crime (2011),and co-producing and conducting on-camera interviews for Side by Side (2012).

I was never the kind of actor who was only interested in my own performance and thats it, said Reeves. Ive always enjoyed being on sets and seeing where the camera was going and looking at the shooting schedule and understanding how the production is put together and how I fit into the story as a whole.

Reeves spent years seeking financing for this allegory about the pressures and seductions of the modern world, themes not terribly dissimilar from those of Side by Side. When the opportunity to make Man of Tai Chi arose thanks largely to a deal with the state-run China Film Group he was ready. A lifelong fan of martial arts movies,Reeves has fond memories of seeing Five Fingers of Death and Enter the Dragon in Times Square theatres with his stepfather.

This shift from actor fully capable of throwing a bullet-time punch or two as Neo in the Matrix movies to filmmaker made sense to Carl Rinsch,who directed Reeves in the coming 3-D samurai spectacle 47 Ronin,due December.

For Chen,who had little acting experience,Reeves passion for that process was pulse quickening: Keanu wanted me to go over the top with my energy every take. If I went 100 per cent,it wasnt enough. I had to go 120 per cent. After scenes Id feel like I was having a heart attack.

Its hard to think of another major star for which the question of whether theyre actually any good at their job remains open to debate. In 2011,the critics A O Scott and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times entertained the question,Is Keanu Reeves a good bad actor or a bad good actor?

Maybe its because I did Bill and Ted so early in my career and that stuck with people, Reeves said wryly. Maybe my performance was too good.

The director Alex Winter,who played Bill in the aforementioned 1989 buddy comedy Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure and the 1991 follow-up,Bill and Teds Bogus Journey,said that the popular notion of his longtime friend as some sort of beautiful cipher is misguided. Hes one of the brightest and most engaged actors I know, Winter said. The idea of him being either Bill or Neo or just a pretty face is wildly inaccurate. Just because he doesnt talk publicly about his internal life and interests doesnt mean they dont exist.

David Marchese