Keanu: childhood, youth and the moments of glory. Book #1

Keanu: childhood, youth and the moments of glory. Book #1
Yevgeniya Sikhimbayeva

Arkadiy Novikov

“But this is a movie. In life, nothing similar happened. To the newcomer – what Keanu was like in this situation – there was no chance. You will have to watch this masterpiece very carefully so…” – this is just a piece of the book.Read it all… It is very interested.The authors tried their best to wrote the real biography of Mr. Keanu Charles Reeves as it was possible to describe according to the information taken from the most reliable official “data bases”, such as interviews, articles, etc.

Keanu: childhood, youth and the moments of glory. Book #1

Yevgeniya Sikhimbayeva

Arkadiy Novikov

© Yevgeniya Sikhimbayeva, 2021

© Arkadiy Novikov, 2021

ISBN 978-5-0053-1098-9 (т. 1)

ISBN 978-5-0053-1099-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Childhood and youth

«I don’t really know what my raw essence is. I guess one thing is I’m not really good with authority. When people in school kept trying to tell me where I could go and what I could do, it infuriated me. I know that when I don’t feel free and can’t go where I want, I react. I just go against it»

    Keanu Reeves
    «Keanu Reeves – one weird dude?!» by Jeff Hayward; Smash Hits (Aus.), April 1, 1992

Let us take as an indisputable fact that Keanu Charles Reeves was born (at least in this reincarnation of his own) in the city of Beirut, which is located in Lebanon. (Lebanon is a state in the Middle East, located in a mountainous area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Syria in the east and north, and Israel in the south. The country’s symbol, the Lebanese cedar – is depicted both on the flag and on the state emblem… Do not worry, I also had to devote some time searching on the map – where is it?)

Actually, Keanu almost didn’t live in Beirut at all – his parents simply met there – Patricia Taylor and Samuel Reeves.

Keanu himself, especially in early interviews, spoke: («Guess my parents had been doing their thing in the Middle East»[1 - «Off Camera»; Playboy (US), September, 1988])

According to some sources, Keanu’s father worked here as a geologist, and his mother danced in a nightclub (or vice versa). According to another version, Keanu’s mother studied at a local university (there is one, and not just one), and his father burned his life and indulged in all sorts of substances that expand consciousness (or vice versa). Anyway, they were very creative people. If you believe the recollections of eyewitnesses, Keanu’s father, having received an inheritance after the death of his stepfather, got one of the first Jaguar XKE cars.

In violet color. His mother, an Englishwoman, had already at the time a strong personality (there was a reason that she was more often called the male name Patrick than the female – Patricia), and at that time she preferred cowboy boots, blue jeans and mink coats. True, such creativity was not very welcomed by the locals, and even a few times the couple were thrown stones at. However, Beirut was never a particularly safe place to live, but it was a very convenient transit point for all kinds of playboys and hippies moving to the East in search of enlightenment. Although this however does not matter.

The important thing is that the sixties were really some special time. Perhaps the Earth passed through some special energy stream. Just take a look – how many talented songs, poems, other works of art – and people were born in these years! Here are just the stars of Hollywood and its environs: Crispin Glover (1964); Johnny Depp (1963); River Phoenix (1970); Tom Cruise (1962); Brad Pitt (1963); Robert Downey Jr. (1965); Sean Penn (1960); Rob Lowe (1964); Hugh Jackman (1968); Alex Winter (1965)…

Oh, and Keanu Reeves of course.

He was born in September, when, according to one of the modern classics, «the time of the wind and ripe grapes» sets in. Therefore, he was named respectively – his name is the Hawaiian word used to describe the first cool breezes that descend from the mountains. (It s Hawaiian. It was my great, great uncle’s name. It means ’cool breeze over the mountains’ … I’ve got a cousin who has the same name.[2 - «Reeves’ Edge» by John Griffiths; t&b (US), January 1, 1989]) From his biological father, who was the first of his mother’s four husbands, Keanu received in addition to his first name a surname – and an exotic appearance.

By the way – according to the horoscope he is Virgo. Believing in horoscopes is a separate issue. But still:

They are known as the «perfectionists» of the zodiac. They have strong mental energy and ability to communicate. They tend to have a gentle female personality; soft and caring.

(TOP 10 REASONS WHY VIRGO IS THE BEST ZODIAC SIGN; JANUARY 10, 2017 ASTROLOGY & LIFE)

Does it match? – Perhaps yes.

Keanu was only six months old when the family moved to Australia, where his sister Kim was born, then they went to New York, to Manhattan – Upper West Side. They also did not live there for long, and when Keanu was five years old (or six, or maybe even seven), his mother finally broke up with his father and settled with two children in Toronto, Canada, deciding that this is a good place to to raise children. And indeed, Toronto was then a quiet, almost provincial city, where children could safely play on the street at least until midnight. In addition, her relatives lived here in Canada. The family was not poor – Keanu granny’s second husband, Canadian Colman Abrahams, became rich by producing encyclopedias for children development and investing in real estate. But the main concern for the well-being of the children was on the mother’s shoulders.

Patricia made her living by designing costumes for rock stars, such as Emmila Harris and Dolly Parton. Because of the mother’s profession, Halloween has always been an exceptional holiday because children have always had the coolest costumes: I’d always get a cool costume. One year, I was Dracula, another year, I was Batman and my sister was Robin. Once, my mother made me a Cousin It costume from The Addams Family. I wore a giant wig. It rained and I got wet. I looked just like a big bowl of pasta![3 - «Keanu – in his own words» by Janis Hawkridge; Dolly (Aus.), November 1995].

Alice Cooper was also among Patricia’s clients, and when the singer recorded the album «Welcome to My Nightmare» in Toronto, he stayed in the house where the family lived, and even babysat Keanu. Well, more like, the musicians rehearsed, and the future star of the rock band Dogstar listened reverently, hanging around somewhere nearby. There was something for both to remember.. «Alice Cooper stayed at our house. I remember he brought fake vomit and fake dog poo to terrorise the housekeeper.[4 - «Keanu – in his own words» by Janis Hawkridge; Dolly (Aus.), November 1995]» Life turned out differently, at some times there were a nanny for children and an au pair in the house, and at other times I had to buy discounted food. It was a bourgeois existence with pretensions to more, but with less, if you know what I mean.[5 - «Whoa, Dude!» by Karen Moline; Elle (UK), October 1991]»

So Keanu did not have any serene and happy childhood, which can be remembered sentimentally.

He, politically correct, «grew up in a troubled family.» «I’m one of those kids without a dad. Sure. It’s the classic story». However, Keanu was still lucky – his mother turned out to be a strong and lively woman, although she did not lose hope of somehow arranging her own personal life. So Keanu had three stepfathers. One of them will play a very significant role in his life – but more to follow.

In the meantime, I will utter out loud a politically incorrect, but, alas, axiom:

DIVORCE – ALWAYS A TRAGEDY FOR CHILDREN

Naturally the reasons behind the impossibility of further coexistence can be plentiful and some are understandable, domestic violence for example. But it’s all the same extremes, and so – yes, a lot depends on how civilized the divorce is… but the scars remain the same. Of various sizes, depths, healing rates… but everything is no longer going as intended – and sometimes it breaks down life very seriously. Parting with his father was very difficult for Keanu and it predetermined his fate for years and decades to come… but that will come later.

In the meantime, he is only a child, experiencing a breakup with one of the most important people in his life. Those who knew him from life in Canada talk about a serious, shy and angry teenager with a huge inferiority complex, who is practically unable to establish normal relations with his peers. Everything was so serious that it came down to a visit to a therapist! How much this helped in this situation – well, at least it didn’t do much harm. The psychotherapist, by the way, taught Kean to play chess quite decently. This hobby will last throughout the life of the famous actor. But did Keanu really win the games, or did the therapist simply succumb? This question haunted him for a long time..

Virgos are usually calm outside, but their minds never rest. They have thousands of thoughts, reflections on this or that. This restless mind always forces them to analyze every aspect of a situation or person, and they rarely make false judgments. They do not leave details unnoticed. Such an analytical and methodological approach is their strength, helping them succeed in life.

(TOP 10 REASONS WHY VIRGO IS THE BEST ZODIAC SIGN; JANUARY 10, 2017 ASTROLOGY & LIFE)

Anyway, after some time and a certain number of sessions, everyone decided that Keanu was better. Well, let it be so.

In fact, he led the life of an ordinary teenager. Together with others he made karts and skateboards, on which the boys drove around the blocks, competing for the honorary title «The Fastest». On his home-made skateboard, Keanu mastered all kinds of tricks on wheels. Like everyone else. Naughty, however, not particularly naughty. They didn’t even do graffiti. The worst that teenagers in Toronto then allowed themselves was to throw chestnuts at teachers.

Like everyone else, Keanu was fond of rock music… more of punk style. (If you are interested in which bands Keanu listened to, here they are: Agent Orange, Pixies, Discharge, Husker Du, Sham 69 … to be honest, when I tried to listen, it took me about three minutes… but it was what it was). Like everyone else he tried to perform something on the bass himself, bringing the volume of the amplifier to such a level that it seemed that walls were about to crack…. Well, everything similar to others.

Oh yes he also had to go to school. With school Keanu had faced major problems. Patricia was able to bring «a lot of love, but little discipline» to her children, so it was an extraordinary event for Keanu to just come to school on time. After five years of study, he changed four educational institutions: (I got kicked out of one and I stopped going to one, and I switched from another, and another one I quit.) Because it was insanely difficult for him to fit into the team. A shy guy, together with being a leftie and dyslexic, is the most suitable candidate for studying in a regular municipal school. «I was a loner in high school,» he says. «I wasn’t like a lot of my peers.» Did his classmates bully him? Quite possibly – if a person, without going into details, says that in school years he played the role of a jester (I was kinda shy in school, but I also had the class-clown element about me.) – this makes you wonder you know.

One of the schools was Jesse Ketchum Public School (61 Davenport). A year after Keanu left this school, it earned the first Elmer the Safety Elephant prize in 1978—79 without incident. I wonder if these two events are related?

One of his teachers, Donald Mason, said: «There would be times when Keanu would be around the school late in the evening, long after most kids had gone home. He would be shooting baskets on his own».

Then came the North Toronto Collegiate Institute (North Toronto CI, NTCI. Or North Toronto) (70 Roehampton), in which Keanu was forced to do many things. Although the school’s motto – «Labor Omnia Vincit» – which means something like «Patience and labor will rub everything», he may have taken it into service.

No, Keanu was neither a rebel, nor a lazy person, nor stupid. He simply did not quite understand what he was doing here. Although, his childhood dreams of the future suggested education: he wanted to be a racer, inventor, nuclear physicist and orchestra conductor. Roughly in this order. Interestingly, the actor’s profession was not on that list.

Being an Earth sign, Virgo relies on a physical body, real and reliable. She can come up with the best pragmatic solution for any problem, because her thoughts are based on reality, not imagination. Virgo does not live in a fantasy world, she firmly holds on the ground in her intelligent reality.

(TOP 10 REASONS WHY VIRGO IS THE BEST ZODIAC SIGN; JANUARY 10, 2017 ASTROLOGY&LIFE)

What remained was to look for an alternative to school. «Sometimes I regret not finishing high school, but I was just trying to live my life.»

Keanu seriously went in for sports – basketball – and of course hockey, a Canadian boy who is not interested in this sport is nonsense. «I was raised in Toronto from the time I was six years old. I learned very quickly that if you don’t know how to play hockey in Canada your peers can make life miserable for you. It’s a lesson I’m grateful for».