Latest meme: Sad Keanu Reeves

Sad Keanu is a viral meme based on the following photo of Keanu Reeves enjoying (sure doesn’t look like it) a sandwich by himself:

It has since been photoshoped/reinterpreted in various ways.

Keanu is hungry!

Keanu is really, really hungry

Cheer up, Keanu

Blue collar Keanu

The Matrix Keanu

Keanu at Yalta Conference

… but wait. Who’s Keanu?

He’s the guy who has starred in movies such as The Matrix, Constantine, and The Day The Earth Stood Still.

According to Know Your Meme, his father abandoned him and his mother when he was 3, and has never reconnected with him since. His mother became a costume designer and showgirl who constantly remarried and divorced a string of 3 stepfathers for Keanu, and they were always moving. Because of that, he went to different high schools.

Keanu has never married and avoids most relationships. In 1999, Reeves’ girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a daughter, Ava Archer Syme-Reeves, but she was stillborn. Two years later, Syme herself got into a fatal automobile accident. His close best friend, River Phoenix, died due to drug overdose one Halloween morning.

He took a 90 percent pay cut on The Replacements just so that Gene Hackman could be cast. Also, he had deferred 2 million of his salary so that Al Pacino could be cast on The Devil’s Advocate.

Here’s one of the many lovely anecdotes on Reddit about Keanu:

“I had a few friends working special effects jobs on the Matrix movies, he bought all of them f—ing HARLEYS for Christmas during the shoot for the second one.

One of those guys, Paul, said that Keanu was the most sincere, humble and lovely dude he’d ever met. Said he eschewed contact with the cast in favour of hanging out with the crew, was the only guy the martial arts coaches respected out of the whole cast, and was the bravest man he’s ever met.”

Damn. Now I feel bad for joking about his acting skills. I’m going to join this facebook event NAOW.