Male on Monday: Keanu Reeves

PHS editor Michelle Styles revisits  an old inspiration of hers -- Keanu Reeves

Sometimes an old film will bring back memories and revive  ideas for heroes. Last week, I happened to rewatch Something's Gotta Give (2003) which had Keanu Reeves in it and remembered that he is actually very watchable. There is something about the way he looks.
I loved him in Point Break (1991) and The Lake House (2006) but then he fell off my radar. He has starred in a wide of ecletic films in the Matrix trilogy.  Several  films including a Samurai epic 47 Ronin (releasing November 2012) and Generation UM... are in post production. He is also filming The Men of Tai Chai. So perhaps he will not be off the radar for as long.
After a chaotic childhood including being expelled from high school, Reeves has had a turbulent private life.  He grew up as a Canadian and once wanted to play ice hockey for a living but had a career ending injury put paid to that and he concentrated on acting. Through his father, he has American citizenship and his mother is English. His education was apparently hampered because of dyslexia as well as changing schools often as his mother had a complicated private life.  In 1999 Reeves had a stillborn daughter.The mother of his child was later killed in a tragic carcrash in 2001. He has never married.
He was accused and sued by a member of the papparazzi in 2008, but acquitted in 2009 after only an hour of deliberations.
One can only hope his personal life has settled and that he manages to keep it private. In the meantime, it was great to rediscover  the inspiration behind one of my early heros.
He is just one of those people that you see and think -- ah yes, good hero material, particularly a hero in need of an understanding heroine who can redeem him. And how could I have forgotten about him?

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty, and intimate historical romance for Harlequin Historical. Her next book will be His Unsuitable Viscountess (August 2012 in the UK and the US)v YOu can read more about Michelle's books on www.michellestyles.co.uk