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Seemingly every week, a new story makes headlines that adds to the growing legend of Keanu Reeves, who’s already widely considered to be the nicest guy in Hollywood.
Now, while versions of this story have been kicking around for years, we’ve finally got more specific details of what Reeves did with his salary for The Matrix: according to Daily Mail, Reeves donated 70% of his income from the iconic 1999 action film to leukemia research. The report states that Reeves “was inspired to fund research into the blood cancer after his sister Kim, now 55, was diagnosed in 1991.”
In addition to Reeves’ sizable donation, the Speed and Point Break star has also launched a cancer charity foundation, telling Ladies Home Journal back in 2009 that he has” a private foundation that’s been running for five or six years, and it helps aid a couple of children’s hospitals and cancer research.” Reeves, however, doesn’t “like to attach” his name to it and just lets “the foundation do what it does.”
Over the years, Reeves has built up quite the reputation as being charitable with his earnings. As Daily Mail points out, “according to a 2001 Wall Street Journal report, the star handed over a significant portion of his second and third Matrix film back-end points to the VFX and costume design teams.” There have also been smaller gestures along the way, such as buying $9,000 Rolex watches for members of the John Wick 4 stunt team back in the Fall.
It’s getting to the point that when I begin my days, I should look into the mirror and ask myself “What would Keanu Reeves do?” and then make decisions based on that train of thought.
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