HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — You might receive a holiday card from Keanu Reeves, but rest assured that will arrive the old fashioned way and not through cyberspace.
“I don’t own a computer and I don’t e-mail,” the technology-shy actor confesses to Parade. “I’m fascinated by people who freak out when they don’t get an instant response to an e-mail. It’s like they expect as soon as they send an email to get the answer back and if they don’t it’s like awful. I just hope people won’t totally lose the ability to write letters because it’s a good way to communicate.”
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — You might receive a holiday card from Keanu Reeves, but rest assured that will arrive the old fashioned way and not through cyberspace.
“I don’t own a computer and I don’t e-mail,” the technology-shy actor confesses to Parade. “I’m fascinated by people who freak out when they don’t get an instant response to an e-mail. It’s like they expect as soon as they send an email to get the answer back and if they don’t it’s like awful. I just hope people won’t totally lose the ability to write letters because it’s a good way to communicate.”
Reeves, who next stars as an alien trying to save the world in the remake of the 1951 classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” says he likes to use a typewriter when it comes time to communicate.
“I enjoy the sensation of sitting down and taking time to think about what I want to say and then, typing, which has a kind of physicalness to it as the imprint goes on the paper,” he explains to the mag. “It’s also something that doesn’t take batteries.”
Long known for being one of the most private stars in Hollywood, Reeves tells Parade that maintaining that mystery is a definite challenge in today’s gossip-crazed society.
“I always find it surreal that complete strangers come up and ask me personal questions,” says Reeves. “I don’t mind speaking about work, but when the talk turns to ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What do you do off-screen?’ I’m like, ‘Get out of here.’ I’ve been in situations where people have felt they had a relationship with me or something and I didn’t even know who they were.”
When it comes to dating, Reeves has been particularly private over the years. In 1999, the “Matrix” star’s girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to a stillborn child in the eighth month of her pregnancy. Two years later, Syme was killed in an automobile accident, shortly after leaving a party at the home of rocker Marilyn Manson. When asked if he envisions wanting to settle down in the future, the 44-year-old Reeves tells Parade that he remains optimistic.
“I’d like to have a family,” he shares. “I’m getting older and maybe that experience can help you to be the best that you can be to yourself and to another person that you’re with.”
“I think you have to use communication and imagination in a relationship,” adds Reeves. “It’s an imaginative act; it’s an act of creation.”
