Chapter 08 - Right to the Top

At right, Keanu after the accident. At left, after the surgery.

During this break, he suffered one more motorcycle accident in Los Angeles. It resulted in a broken leg and other great scar. Walking for Sunset Strip, Keanu tried to deviate of a car and he beat it, flying of the motorcycle. He lost the conscience but quickly returned, being most concerned with the motorcycle than with medical cares. Few days later, he returned to stages.

It came to his hands then a daring project where could work with the star, and idol, Al Pacino: The Devil’s Advocate, originally to have starred Brad Pitt. Keanu accepted to interpret a sharp Florida lawyer Kevin Lomax, directed by Taylor Hackford. This film had everything to be a success. But the things didn’t run so well as he could imagine and Keanu and Pacino didn’t feel so well at the backstage. It is known that Al claimed that Keanu heard high music in his trailer. Pacino is not known by being a great friend in the sets and with Keanu it was the same thing.

Keanu also had a problem with stress and had to go through a doctor to end with a “shrill sound” in the ear that tormented him. In that time, also, he already suffered the effects of the countless motorcycle accidents and the column gave problem signs. He told that it had begun, in the bath, to lose the balance and after the filmings it went by a complicated surgery where had to receive a metal plate to fasten a disk in the column, in the height of the nape. During Devil’s Advocate promotion he appeared using an orthopedical vest and one more scar could be seen, now in the neck.

At least , Devil’s Advocate was a success. In spite of the obscure theme and of being rated to 18 years, the film made good box office. And his performance as Kevin Lomax impressed Warner, that shows him the script of two new directors, Larry and Andy Washowsky, a mix of kung-fu and fiction that several stars had already refused - Ewan McGregor and Will Smith turned it down. Keanu fell in love with the history and accepted to do the film. The pre-production work was difficult, with a heavy training, still more for him that was recovering of a column surgery. The rest of 1998 was spent preparing for and filming what would be one of 1999’s biggest hits - The Matrix.

The Matrix: trainning, filming and promoting.

What nobody knows, not even Keanu, is that The Matrix would become the revolution of the movies in the end of the century. The concept of action movies totally changed after the The Matrix release, and Keanu was spoted at higher status in Hollywood. The movie also was a HUGE success in the box offices, also being the most sold DVD in 1999. Keanu would take $10 million for his involvement, plus an incredible $35 million box office percentage.

After The Matrix, Keanu went back into training for sports comedy The Replacements, this time learning to be a football quarterback. Based on the 1987 players’ strike, the movie had Gene Hackman as a coach who must put together a pick-up side to keep the season going.