Jimmy Kimmel surprised Keanu Reeves with a “blast from the past” during Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. After discussing the John Wick: Chapter 4 actor’s comic book series (and possible movie), BRZRKR, the late-night host played an old interview that an adorably eager (and very Canadian) Reeves gave when he was still a teenager.
“I’m playing a 17-year-old body with a 40-year-old mind, OK?” Reeves said in the footage. “But then I had to play with my conception of 40, which was sort of older, right? You look at a 40-year-old and go, ‘You’re old.’ You know, but he’s not. I mean, Robert Urich, I was watching him, he’s a bouncy guy. And so I was trying to get that in there as well.” After it ended, the current-day Reeves said, “I didn’t know you were gonna do that. Wow, that was a blast from the past.” He then provided some context.
Reeves, who was living in Toronto at the time, was promoting the made-for-TV movie Young Again. He got the gig after auditioning for a “side role, but then they were like, ‘Hey, you could be the guy. One of the guys.’ And I was like, ‘Cool.’” (A natural born storyteller). He continued, “It was a big break for me, because it was, like, a Movie of the Week, it was a great role, and that allowed me to kind of get an agent in Hollywood.”
Without Young Again, there might be no John Wick, or, god forbid, Bill & Ted. Whoa.
You can watch the Kimmel clip above.