It’s Keanu Reeves’ Birthday, So Please Enjoy Him Rinsing A Journalist For Mixing Up ‘Bill & Ted’
We love this man.
Keanu Reeves — man, legend — is turning 56 today, and in celebration, one Twitter user wanted to draw your attention to the moment he “murdered someone on live TV”.
In the resurfaced interview with MTV from 2013, Reeves is chatting to journalist Josh Horowitz about his career.
In the clip below posted to Twitter by tv producer Tze Chun, Horowitz goes to bring up Bill & Ted, the cult classic comedy films where Reeves and Alex Winters play two slacker music-nerds who time-travel to save the world from utter destruction.
Given the duo pretty much speak and act the same for a lot of the films, it can be hard to remember who plays who. It’s understandable, then, when Horowitz makes the faux pas of telling Reeves he played Bill, not Ted.
“Is it hard to get the cadence back of Bill?”, asks Horowitz, talking about the particular Cali-stoner drawl the duo speak in.
“I played Ted,” Reeves says stone-faced.
His indignant response is obviously a joke, and he can’t help by smile when he adds that Horowitz just “lost all [his] cred, dude”. Horowitz, presumably dying inside, stands up and leaves.
It’s a small moment but a perfect snippet of why so many love Reeves: he never takes himself very seriously, even though he’s one of our most universally beloved actors.
In the full interview, you see Reeves shrug off the mistake, and things resume. Where others might take it as a sign of disrespect, he simply doesn’t care. Watch it below.
On Keanu Reeves’ birthday let’s just remember when he murdered someone on live TV.
Wait for it. #HappyBirthdayKeanuReeves #iplayted #BillAndTed3 pic.twitter.com/QRxwKCVogF
— TZE THEE CHUN (@thetzechun) September 2, 2020
Almost 30 years after the second Bill & Ted film, the long-awaited and -teased follow-up Bill & Ted: Face The Music is in cinemas next week, with Reeves and co-star Alex Winters returning as Bill & Ted — or, lest we make the same mistake as Horowitz, Ted & Bill, respectively.
Reeves is also currently working on Matrix 4, which he’s remained ultra-tight lipped on. In a radio interview to promote Bill & Ted, Reeves did say that writer-direct Lana Wachowski had “created a beautiful story and a beautiful script… and I am really grateful to be here and be a part of this story.”
It’s not much, but it’s something. Between that and Lily Wachowski’s recent confirmation that the Matrix is indeed a trans allegory, we’ll have to be tided over until Matrix 4 is slated for release April 1, 2022.
Bill & Ted: Face The Music is in Australian cinemas on September 10, with select advance screenings. Watch the trailer below.