Keanu Reeves may not have to try too hard when it comes to making a big impression in his movies. But he still likes to nail down the characters he plays as far as getting it real and getting it just right is concerned. Keanu described to PlanetHollywood.com some of the creative extremes he went to for his new film Hardball, when fleshing out the hard drinking compulsive gambler and ticket scalper Conor O'Neill. He also assessed what it was like to immerse himself in some wild ensemble acting with a bunch of very determined kids, who play a ragtag Chicago team of inner city little leaguers...
PLANET HOLLYWOOD: You were seriously into football long ago, with The Replacements. Now you're turning up in a baseball movie. Is there something going on here?
KEANU REEVES: Not exactly. I play a character in Hardball who is a gambler and a ticket scalper. The movie takes place in Chicago. One thing leads to another, and I end up having to coach these kids on a baseball little league team, as a way of paying back the bookies who are after me.
PH: How did the experience of working with kid jocks in Hardball compare to mixing it up with more hard bitten, wackier adult versions in The Replacements?
KR: Oh, it was a lot easier on me. And those kids, they were great in this movie. You know, most of them hadn't acted before, so they were just amazing.
PH: How exactly do you get into character to play a ticket scalper?
KR: Well, I wanted to know more about the behavior of my character, so I looked into that whole lifestyle. You know, like the way he would operate and how he might think or react. So what I did was, I met with a bunch of bookies in kind of the backroom of a bar. I learned a lot of stuff from them, and they were really nice guys. We kind of just drank and talked about gambling and getting into in debt, stuff like that. Then I met some actual scalpers. And when I thought I knew enough, I went over to some parks, to well, kinda practice scalping some tickets. And if anybody recognized me, I would just admit to being Keanu Reeves, and then... ask them if they wanted any tickets!
PH: How did you do?
KR: I really surprised myself. Like I learned that I was actually pretty good at scalping. I even managed to sell one ticket for a hundred bucks. I felt really good after that.
PH: Do you think you might contemplate a change of profession after all that shady kind of success?
KR: Well, probably not right now anyway.
PH: I guess you wouldn't want to give up movies just when you're really getting into those Matrix sequels right now. How are those going?
KR: Just great. I have to head back to Sidney, Australia to keep working on the two of them.
PH: What can you say about what's going on with The Matrix sequels right now?
KR: Absolutely nothing. Sorry, I can't do that. But then you get to be surprised. I can tell you that the sequels will be released in 2002 and 2003.
PH: How do you film two sequels at the same time anyway?
KR: I try to like think of them as one film that will eventually be split in two, or something like that. And we're not filming in any particular order anyway. It's kind of like we're making both of them at the same time.
PH: What are you up to whenever you can get away from your nonstop schedule?
KR: I mostly play with my band whenever I can. And we had a couple of concerts.
PH: I've been hearing that your worst movie experience ever was The Watcher.
KR: Oh yeah. There's a whole story behind it, that I really couldn't talk about until now. But it involved like somebody forging my signature on the contract. I didn't want to go through the whole mess of getting sued, so I just went ahead and did the movie anyway. It was like I had no other choice.
PH: What's going to happen with the work the late Aaliyah put into The Matrix project?
KR: I really don't know. I'm not even sure what she had finished filming when she died. So I have no idea what they'll decide to do with that footage, if anything.
PH: What's the downside of being a movie star?
KR: The worst part is when people start believing that you really are a character that you're playing. So you can imagine what hell I went through after playing a wife beater in The Gift!
-- Interview by PlanetHollywood.com Special Correspondent Prairie Miller --
posted by Janete Tokuo on Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Yahoo!News
THE LONE STRANGER
By RON DICKER
TORONTO - Keanu Reeves joked with his child co-stars in a Toronto hotel hallway about their experiences making "Hardball," a heart-tugging baseball movie that opened Friday and was No. 1 at the weekend box office.The group had gathered for a press day at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Reeves finished the reunion by saying, "Thanks for watching my back."
But when he faced the prospect of an interview, his joy deflated. The 37-year-old actor does not like talking to strangers about himself or his movies.
Reeves, his dark Eurasian good looks set off by a black sports jacket and T-shirt, answered questions brusquely.
Asked about a recent report that he had donated his profit points for the two "Matrix" sequels - a sum that could reach millions of dollars - to the movies' special-effects and costume-design crews, Reeves said he preferred not to answer.
"I'd rather people didn't know that," he said. "It's just a private event."
He lives in hotels most of the time. He has said he likes to stare at the walls. And he often travels solo, except when he plays bass with his band, Dogstar.
Reeves' first name means "breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, but those who know him say he is not at ease.
Brian Robbins, the director of "Hardball," was surprised that Reeves wanted the part of a gambler who finds meaning in guiding a ragtag baseball team of kids from the projects. But when Robbins met the actor, it made sense.
"Keanu Reeves the person has a sort of void," Robbins said. "He's a guy sort of needing something, looking for something, like the character in the movie. I thought it was a good fit."
During filming in Chicago, Robbins and his wife sometimes would find Reeves on Sunday mornings, sipping coffee alone at a cafe. They'd invite Reeves to join them, but he didn't always accept.
The itinerant actor will spend the next nine months in Sydney, working on the "Matrix" sequels, which will be shot one after the other. ("The Matrix Reloaded" is scheduled to premiere in 2003.) The stint in Australia does not faze Reeves.
"I'm so grateful to be there and so grateful to be working on something I love," he said. "Its demands are what's so great about it."
Reeves first earned attention as an easygoing dude in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989), then became a bankable action star with turns in "Point Break" (1991) and "Speed" (1994).
Then "The Matrix" catapulted him into the stratosphere on a wave of box-office grosses and four Academy Award nominations (though none for his acting).
Toronto is perhaps the one place Reeves could call home. He spent his adolescence here with his mother, Patricia. She was a showgirl in Beirut when she met Reeves' father, Samuel, a geologist, and the two divorced shortly after Reeves was born.
Reeves dropped out of four high schools here, clinging to his dream of becoming an actor. He does not visit old haunts when he returns, but he says, "There's a certain nostalgia to it, a certain reflection."
Reeves got his break when he was cast in a bit part in "Youngblood," a 1986 hockey movie that was shot in the area. The film's lead, Rob Lowe, encouraged Reeves to move to Los Angeles.
"Hardball" shows Reeves at his most down to earth. He says he did not feel the need to reveal a warmer side, only that he liked the redemption of his character, Conor O'Neill, who must coach a corporate-sponsored baseball team to pay off a gambling debt. Naturally, the players aren't any good.
The neighborhood in which the movie was filmed was not exactly upscale.
"When we had to go home early from work because people were shooting at each other close by, it just kind of intensified the feeling of how hard these places can be and how unfortunate it is," says Reeves.
Although Reeves is perceived as a loner, his young co-stars found him approachable. Reeves entertained them by re-enacting "Matrix" scenes. "I expected him to be stuck-up," said Bryan Hearne, one of the kids.
Reeves' detractors can be harsh, though. Two recent efforts, the football comedy "The Replacements" and the romance "Sweet November," renewed criticism that his acting was wooden.
Reeves began acting at 15 because it made him happy. It still does. "I know that I want to have truthful acting," he says, "and so maybe that's something I'm searching for. Maybe that can turn into a truthful life."
posted by Janete Tokuo on Tuesday, September 18, 2001
ABCNews.com
Keanu Gets on Base
Hardball Wins the Weekend as Americans Turn to Hollywood for Relief
By Andrew Johnston
Film Critic
Us WEEKLY
Sept. 17 — Americans sought relief from the national catastrophe at the movies this weekend, making Keanu Reeves's inspirational Little League drama Hardball the highest-grossing film in the land.
Early September is always a slow time at the box-office, yet though less money was spent at the movies than on any other weekend this year, the total box office was still up 43 percent from a year ago, when another Reeves movie, The Watcher, topped the charts with a meager $5.8 million.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Newsweek
Two-Lane traffic on the screen
Plus: Keanu Reeves scalps tickets — it was research
Keanu, with kids
“
The Bad News Bears” with “Dangerous Minds” is the plot-coupling that comes out “Hardball.” In it, Keanu Reeves plays a drinkin’ and gamblin’ man dragooned into coaching a Little League baseball team from Chicago’s Cabrini Green housing projects.
Keanu Reeves in "Hardball"
Specifically, his character is a ticket scalper, prompting Reeves — ever the diligent researcher — to apply himself: “I wanted to know more about the behavior of my character so I looked into that whole lifestyle — the way he’d operate, how he might think or react.
“What I did was, I met with a bunch of bookies in the backroom of a bar, then some actual scalpers. When I thought I knew enough, I went over to some parks to, well, practice scalping tickets. I really surprised myself. I learned I was pretty good at it!”
posted by Janete Tokuo on Tuesday, September 18, 2001
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We challenge you to find an actor working today who's more casually disparaged than Keanu Reeves. Critics skewer his many flops and credit the success of his blockbusters not to his talent, but to the films' ability to take advantage of the star's limitations. It is true that Reeves' acting often leaves something to be desired and his film choices can be somewhat bewildering. Still, even though we don't expect to see him claiming any Academy statuettes anytime soon, all the animosity leveled at Keanu does seem a little unjustified. In the interest of justice, here are half a dozen reasons you ought to reconsider your disdain for Keanu Reeves.
He doesn't preach: While Keanu did immerse himself in Buddhism for 1993's Little Buddha, he didn't take the typical Hollywood route and adopt a watered down version of the religion as his own. Nor, thankfully, did he take up Satanism after filming The Devil's Advocate (though some critics might suspect that a deal with the Dark One is all that's kept Keanu's career afloat). Other actors might have more Oscars, but Keanu's presence is far more tolerable at awards ceremonies.
He's his own man: By turning down Speed 2 and the millions that came with it, he pretty much negated the argument that he's only in it for the bucks (why the generally incorruptible Jason Patric took the part is anybody's guess, including, probably, Mr. Patric's). By insisting on the development of Sweet November -- a wispy nothing of a film, at least as far as box-office was concerned -- he showed a commitment to projects that meant something to him, even if they didn't mean all that much to anybody else. Just because his individualism is patently oddball doesn't make it any less... individualistic.
He doesn't give a damn what you think: While he has been linked to several very attractive women, Reeves staunchly refuses to confirm his sexuality. Rather, he seems to delight in his ambiguity. This is a far cry from Tom Cruise, who threatened to perform all the wrong moves on anyone who claimed he was gay.
He's no smarter than the next guy, and he knows it: The biggest knock on Reeves is that he's, well, stupid (actually, the word most often used is "vapid," but everyone knows vapid is just a high-brow stand-in for "stupid"). Reeves himself seems unconcerned with this impression. He once responded to comments about his intelligence by saying, "I'm sorry my existence is not very noble or sublime." The funny thing is, apologizing for your existence being neither noble nor sublime is one of the smartest things you can do. The fact that most actors pretend like they're both makes Reeves' humility seem downright brilliant. This is a man who won't disgrace himself by yammering half-baked opinions about the economy on "Politically Incorrect".
He admits he's a terrible bassist: Unlike all those singers-turned-painters out there, Reeves won't even say he's proficient at his secondary artistic talent. Reeves has described himself as "the worst bass player in the world," a statement buttressed by nonexistent sales of his band Dogstar's albums. But hey, who's gonna begrudge a red-blooded Canadian the right to play bass in a rock and roll band?
He's a very attractive man: Seriously. He is. Not only that, but the Beirut-born actor's quite exotic; in fact, it might be the exoticism that makes him so attractive.
When it comes down to it, Keanu Reeves lacks many of the qualities we hate most in our movie stars, which must explain why we can't seem to get enough of him. He could fit his ego inside a kumquat, he doesn't make movies just to make money; he's not trying to show anyone the path to spiritual glory and he doesn't think he knows it all just because he qualified for a SAG card. He might just as well be that goofy friend you never quite get but hang out with anyway because you're so curious to see what weird stunt he's going to pull next. Or maybe you just like him because he's really good looking.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
Keanu Reeves doesn't look jet-lagged. But he acts it.
The Canadian movie star has flown into Toronto from Australia to do two days of interviews for his new baseball melodrama, Hardball. By the time he gets off the plane in Oz to return to the set of The Matrix sequels he's shooting there, he will have spent as much time in the air as he has answering questions in his old home town. No wonder he's a bit cranky.
Actually, that's not entirely fair. He's polite, articulate and gracious toward director Brian Robbins and the pint-size players who make up the Chicago inner-city Little League team his troubled character coaches toward mutual redemption.
He's also well-dressed in regulation film-industry black, and has the sleek, fit look that seems to come with fame and very fat paycheques. He's just not having a good time. And it shows. "Chuckles" would not be Reeves's nickname on this day.
We talked last weekend, before the American airplane hijackings made such conversations seem even more contrived and superficial than normal. It can be said, however, that Hardball is a more worthy subject than most to see the light of production day in Hollywood.
Reeves is Conor O'Neill, a drunk and obsessive gambler who agrees to coach a team of under-privileged black kids in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in Chicago to pay off his debts. To Robbins's credit, the portrayal of life in the projects is harrowing. Routine violence, murder and crack addiction are shown against a backdrop of non-existent male role models and housing so decrepit no middle-class American would set foot in the place. Under these circumstances, it is possible to imagine how some might come to hate corporate America.
"I don't consider Hardball a baseball movie," Reeves explained.
"It's about the concept of play. My character wants to foster a more positive environment for his kids. As they feel safer, their language shifts. There is less swearing and less aggression because there's less anger. The process becomes a positive, affirming experience."
Many of the boys on the team come from the Chicago projects. All were athletic, few had ever acted and all had attitude to spare. Adoration of the fantastic martial-arts world of The Matrix was their common bond, and they hounded Reeves unmercifully to duplicate the stunts from the movie, most of which were either done by a stunt double or generated by computer.
Despite the ribbing, he discounted the old line about never working with children or animals. "They're wrong. Working with kids was great."
The community got behind Hardball, too. Robbins, whose work includes the sports movies Varsity Blues and Summer Catch, resolved to shoot his film in a convincing urban setting and settled on Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project.
"We went in and said, 'This is the situation. This is how we want to do it,' " Reeves recalled. "The community got comfortable with it and got involved."
Many worked as extras, and all now enjoy a community playground built for the production and left behind. It also helped that Reeves's character is no "white knight" riding in to save the poor black folks from themselves. He's a mess who needs the kids even more than they need him.
"There's no positive male role model in this film," he said. "White or black."
Hardball is based on a book by Daniel Coyle that is based on a real character, and there's some talk of a lawsuit floating around. But Reeves's character is not that character. "The film was never put to me as based on anyone. It's a fictional piece."
He perks up when asked about the state of his rock group Dogstar.
"We finally got out of our old label contract and have finished a four-track EP that's due soon." But it will be a while before he and the band do any serious woodshedding.
He started shooting The Matrix 2 and The Matrix 3 simultaneously last November, and - with a few of these brief, unfortunate breaks - continues at a punishing pace till next June. "This Matrix is much more demanding than the first one. Physically and emotionally."
So that's it. Reeves isn't unhappy. He's beat.
- Hardball is now playing in Montreal cinemas.
- John Griffin's E-mail address is jgriffin@thegazette.southam.ca.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
SunTimes.com
Pitching in with 'Hardball'
BY CINDY PEARLMAN
It's Sunday afternoon , and Keanu Reeves stops his rusty 10-speed bike at a choice spot on Chicago's lakefront. He pulls out a bottle of water and just watches the sun set over Lake Michigan.
Not even one person bothers him. That's only because no one knows it's the star of such movies as "Speed," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "The Matrix." He's just another man in the crowd for once in his life.
With wrap around sunglasses and wearing jogging pants and an oversized sweatshirt, Reeves could be any other yuppie getting in a little exercise after a tough day at the office. And speaking of tough days, Keanu knows a little bit about them.
For three months last year, he was in the Abla Housing Project in Chicago filming "Hardball," which is in its opening weekend. It's inspired by Daniel Coyle's book Hardball: A Season in the Projects and revolves around a down-on-his-luck gambler (Reeves) who takes a job coaching an inner-city baseball team as a condition of getting a loan to pay his debt.
"The best part of the shoot was Chicago," Reeves says. "It's a beautiful city. Most nights I was there, I'd go for that ride down the lakefront. I did it because I felt very comfortable in your city. Chicago to me is good people, good bars and good clubs."
There is no time for leisure today. The thin, 6-foot Reeves in a serious black Armani suit jetted into Toronto from Australia where he was filming "The Matrix: Reloaded" to talk about his season in the dugout.
Q. Keanu, let's start by clearing up a rumor. The real Chicago kids who play your baseball team in the movie say that as a ballplayer you're a pretty good actor. In other words, the kids say you stink!
A. This hurts me deeply. As a baseball player, I'm actually a pretty good hockey player because as a kid growing up in Toronto if you don't play hockey, they kill you. As for the Chicago kids saying I stink well, the only way to console myself is to tell you that kids lie.
Q. On a serious note, it wasn't easy for you to shoot in the Chicago projects. Didn't production have to halt one night due to real gunshots breaking out in the distance?
A. Yeah, we were shooting one night in the projects and we heard gunshots that weren't actually that far in the distance. It was sad to me, but it re-affirmed what we were doing with this movie. We were telling a story of kids who lead tough lives. I mean, we could leave and go back to our hotels. The kids who live in these projects don't have that luxury now do they?
Q. This wasn't your first visit to a Chicago project?
A. No, it's a funny story, but when I was promoting "Bill and Ted" in your city, I felt so cooped up so I went out to take a little walk. I got really lost and kept walking and walking. I ended up in Cabrini-Green. At first, I felt like I might get hurt when these tough kids approached me. But all they wanted to say was, "Whoa, dude, you're Keanu!" I signed a few autographs and they helped me find my way back to where I needed to go.
Q. The producers of Training Day, an upcoming Denzel Washington movie actually went and met with gang leaders in Los Angeles to get permission to film on their streets. Did you do the same thing in Chicago?
A. I know that our production company went to the community. The main thing for us is that the community be present and supportive. We didn't want to invade their area with some movie. But it turned out that we had great cooperation except for a few protestors who didn't like the language the kids use in the film. But that's how kids speak in real life and this movie is very real.
Q. What was it like for you out on that baseball field? Were the kids impressed that they were hanging out with the "Matrix" guy?
A. Oh yeah. They were thrilled that they were meeting the "Matrix" guy. They actually made me do a bunch of "Matrix" moves for them between takes. It was fine because I love that kind of pure excitement about anything.
Q. In "Hardball," you play a street punk and gambler who finds redemption. We've seen this type of story in so many movies. What made this different enough for you to sign on?
A. There are a limited amount of stories to tell. And yes, we've seen the fallen man try to find redemption in countless movies. What made this interesting was the depiction of it. He wasn't a bad man. You honestly like my character Conor despite all of his failings. He gambles. He scalps tickets outside the United Center. But the minute he's forced to get on that field and be with those kids, he likes them. He respects the kids. And he doesn't talk down to them. All of a sudden, you see a man with a good heart. And I like anyone who treats kids with that sort on inherent goodness. His humanity made him beautiful.
Q. Does it worry you being so identified with "The Matrix"?
A. Hopefully, by the end of my life there will be five or six parts I'll be identified with so they don't just write "Matrix Guy" on my tombstone. But I am really proud of my performance in that film. It's a great film. I'm also just as proud of "The River's Edge." Anyway, people who like film aren't affected by the publicity generated by a mainstream movie like 'Matrix.' They're like me. It's not about the budget. It's about the film. That's why I did 'Hardball.' I felt that it could change people's feelings about kids because it was an honest picture and that made it worthwhile.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
News.com.au
Matrix star on a roll
By PHILLIP KOCH
MATRIX star Keanu Reeves hopped straight back on his bike after returning to Sydney from Los Angeles last week.
And with filming of Matrix Reloaded due to start this week, the brooding young hunk looked much more the movie star than last week.
He has shaved off his grungy facial growth in preparation for his first day on set with co-stars Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Dressed in his regulation black street clothes, Reeves was seen burning up fashionable Oxford St on a Harley-Davidson last Thursday night.
He returned to Sydney only on Wednesday after attending the Hollywood premiere of his film, Hardball, with co-star Amanda De Cadenet. He was on the same flight as pop princess Britney Spears and US Open hero Lleyton Hewitt, but escaped the waiting media.
However, The Sunday Telegraph photographed Reeves preparing to ride out of his harbourside hotel on his impressive black Harley, complete with Californian plates.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
Last weekend Hardball reviews
Yahoo! News
Americans play 'Hardball' in wake of tragic week
By Brian Fuson and Josh Spector
ABCNews.com
Hardball Hits Box Office Home Run
Despite Terror Attacks, Audiences Head to Theaters - By Anthony Breznican
The Associated Press
L O S A N G E L E S, Sept. 16 — Movie attendance remained strong this weekend despite the terrorist attacks on the United States, with a slate of new films nearly matching last weekend's box office returns, according to industry estimates today.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
Boston Herald.com
`Hardball' leads a strong weekend at the movies
Entertainment briefs
LOS ANGELES - ``Hardball,'' a new baseball melodrama starring Keanu Reeves, led the North American box office over the weekend, when overall ticket sales were surprisingly strong given last Tuesday's terror attacks in New York and Washington.
According to studio estimates issued yesterday, the top 12 films tallied $54 million for the three days beginning Friday, up 43 percent from the year-ago period.
``It's obvious that some people are a little stir crazy and need to get out of the house,'' said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures.
REUTERS
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
With no sports events to watch and a need for moviegoers to take their minds off the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Paramount movie was the first choice for those seeking an uplifting tale. Keanu Reeves stars as an down-on-his-luck compulsive gambler who finds purpose and redemption coaching an inner-city team. The PG-13-rated film averaged $4,726 at 2,137 sites.
Some moviegoers chose another kind of escapism--the standard teen thriller. Although some critics pegged it as an unintentional laugh riot, The Glass House, starring Leelee Sobieski as the object of cliché scary stuff, earned $6.1 million in second place. The PG-13 Sony movie, the week's only other major new release, had a per-screen average of $3,834 at 1,591 locations.
The top 12 films grossed an estimated $54.1 million, up 43 percent from the same time last year when normal life in America included professional football and baseball games. (This year's higher ticket prices also had some impact on that statistic.)
The overall take was down nearly 12 percent from last weekend, before the horrific attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Movie theaters were fairly deserted on Friday, which was designated a national day of remembrance, but by Saturday people had started to show up at the nation's megaplexes.
Although not in the top 10, the G-rated Disney family movie The Princess Diaries became the 13th film this year to pass the $100 million mark. The fantasy about a high-school nerd who discovers she's royal took in $2.6 million in 11th place.
Last week's number one, The Musketeer, a classic tale injected with modern Matrix-style stunts, dropped to third place. Losing 49 percent of its audience, it earned $5.3 million.
According to Exhibitor Relations Inc. which tallies the grosses, here are estimates for the top 10 (final figures due Monday):
1. Hardball, $10.1 million
2. The Glass House, $6.1 million
3. The Musketeer, $5.3 million
4. The Others, $4.8 million
5. Two Can Play That Game, $4.7 million
6. Rush Hour 2, $4.3 million
7. Jeepers Creepers, $3.8 million
8. Rat Race, $3.62 million
9. American Pie 2, $3.6 million
10. Rock Star $3.5 million
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
Film star Keanu Reeves and Australian tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt were on the same flight as Spears and they were only told of the hijacked aircraft attacks after they touched down in Sydney.
"We arrived in Australia (on Wednesday) and, only then, heard of the terrible tragedies that had occurred in New York and Washington," Spears was quoted as saying.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
Reuters
Keanu Reeves Baseball Film Leads Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Hardball," a new baseball melodrama starring Keanu Reeves, led the North American box office at the weekend, when overall ticket sales were surprisingly strong given the distraction of last Tuesday's terror attacks in New York and Washington.
According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, the top 12 films tallied $54 million for the three days beginning Friday, up 43 percent from the year-ago period, when "The Watcher" -- a thriller also starring Reeves -- was tops amid competition from the summer Olympic Games.
"It's obvious that some people are a little stir crazy and need to get out of the house," said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures
"Hardball" grossed an estimated $10.1 million in its first three days of release, according to Paramount Pictures, which distributed the film in North America. A spokeswoman estimated the film could have made between $12 million and $15 million if it had not been for the attacks.
The box office is traditionally weak at this time of the year, when studios burn off modest releases before rolling out their big fall projects. Indeed this weekend's tally was the lowest of the year for the second consecutive weekend, off 12 percent from Sept. 7-9.
Overall business on Friday was weak because of memorial services and candlelight vigils, but it bounced back Saturday and was expected to be similarly strong Sunday, said Wayne Lewellen, Paramount's president of distribution. Final data for the three-day period will be released on Monday.
In "Hardball," Reeves plays a baseball coach in inner-city Chicago. Paramount's publicity efforts were hampered by the television networks' commercial-free coverage of the attacks. Reeves had promoted "Hardball" at a press junket last weekend, but none of those stories have run yet, the Paramount spokeswoman said. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. .
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
Ana Nova
Hardball tops US Box Office
Keanu Reeves' new film, Hardball, is at the top of the American box office.
It made just over $10 million during its first weekend in cinemas.
Box office figures show the amount of people who went to the cinema over the weekend was relatively normal, however attendances were down on Friday compared to previous years.
The Musketeer dropped from the top spot to number three, with Nicole Kidman's latest film The Others in fourth place.
The Glasshouse is at number two.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Monday, September 17, 2001
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The Seattle Times: Ticket scalping and bar tales help Keanu Reeves get in character
By Terry Lawson Knight Ridder Newspapers
If there's a more private person in Hollywood than Keanu Reeves, he's not in the movie business.
"When I'm working, I don't go out; I usually just stay in my room and prepare," says Reeves.
His preparation for "Hardball," which is to open nationwide today, extended to some research on the occupation of his character — a ticket scalper and sports bettor who gets so deep into bookies he has to take a job coaching a Little League team in Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project.
"I had a friend who called a friend who hooked me up with this businessman who works out of a bar, and I spent the night with him and some of his customers, drinking and listening to some pretty incredible stories. And me and John Hawkes (who plays his scalping partner in the film) spent a night over at Wrigley, doing some business ourselves," he recalls.
"Oh, sure, I got busted (recognized), but after we went through all the movie stuff, then we'd haggle over the ticket prices. I got some people some pretty good seats for a fair price. It was capitalism at work. People got seats; Wrigley made money; I made money."
One night when he was in Chicago, Reeves took a walk that unexpectedly led him to Cabrini-Green, where residents greeted him with "Yo, Bill and Ted," and "Yo, Eno."
The first refers to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," the film that made him a star and established his persona as dude. The latter refers to his character in "The Matrix," the film that made him an action star.
The day after this interview, Reeves was set to return to Australia, where he had been since July, to resume work on the two sequels to the 1999 surprise smash. The first of these, filming under the title "Matrix Reloaded," will be released in 2002.
Reeves says the next two "Matrix" chapters "are so beyond the first film, it's unbelievable." Without revealing anything about the plot, he promises the films will be deeper and more elaborate in every way, especially in story. Reeves will be in Australia for nine months making the films, but he's not one of those movie stars who takes along a squad of assistants or a posse of pals for diversion. A guitar, some books and a good job, he says, are pretty much his only requirements.
"Nine months isn't that long when you have work to do and you're focused on it," says Reeves. "I think I'll survive it."
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Never work with children? Keanu Reeves didn't mind
John Griffin
The Gazette
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves and I talked last weekend, before the U.S. airplane hijackings made such conversations seem even more contrived and superficial than normal. It can be said, however, that Hardball -- his new movie -- is a more worthy subject than most to see the light of production day in Hollywood. "I don't consider Hardball a baseball movie," says Reeves. "It's about the concept of play. My character wants to foster a more positive environment for his kids. As they feel safer, their language shifts. There is less swearing and less aggression because there's less anger. The process becomes a positive, affirming experience." Many of the boys on the team come from the Chicago projects. All were athletic, few had ever acted, and all had attitude to spare. Adoration of the fantastic martial arts world of The Matrix was their common bond, and they hounded Reeves unmercifully to duplicate the stunts from the movie, most of which were either done by a stunt double or generated by computer. Despite the ribbing, he discounted the old line about never working with children or animals. "They're wrong. Working with kids was great." The community got behind Hardball, too. Director Brian Robbins, whose earlier work has included the sports movies Varsity Blues and Summer Catch, resolved to shoot his film in a convincing urban setting, and settled on Chicago's ALBA Housing Project. "We went in and said 'This is the situation. This is how we want to do it.' " Reeves recalls. "The community got comfortable with it and got involved." Many worked as extras, and all now enjoy a playground built for the production and left behind. It also helped that Reeves' character is no "white knight" riding in to save the poor black folks from themselves. He's a mess who needs the kids even more than they need him. Reeves' rock group, Dogstar, is still active -- "We finally got out of our old label contract and have finished a four-track EP that's due soon." -- but it will be a while before they do any serious woodshedding. He started shooting The Matrix 2 and 3 simultaneously in November, and, with a few brief breaks, continues until June.
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Search Results | Story
Roger Ebert Special to National Post
HARDBALL
Hardball tells the story of a compulsive gambler whose life is turned around by a season of coaching an inner-city baseball team. That sounds like a winning formula for a movie, and it might be, if the story told us more about gambling, more about the inner city, and more about coaching baseball. But it drifts above the surface of its natural subjects, content to be a genre picture. We're always aware of the formula -- and in a picture based on real life, we shouldn't be.
Keanu Reeves stars, as Conor O'Neill, whose life revolves around sports bars and the point spread on the post-Jordan Bulls. True, betting on the Bulls is just about the only way to develop interest in the team these days, but compared to such movies as The Gambler and California Split, Hardball uses gambling just for motivation and atmosphere. We never feel the urgency and desperation of a man deeply in debt to bad people. Oh, we see a man acting urgent and desperate, but the juice isn't there. Consider the scene where O'Neill negotiates a weekly payment plan with a collector: They could be working out the instalments on a car.
O'Neill turns to a friend in the investment business for a loan, and the friend makes him an offer: $500 bucks a week to coach a kid's baseball team in the Chicago Housing Authority league. This is not something O'Neill wants to do, but he needs the money. We meet the kids (one too small, one with birth certificate problems, one with asthma, etc.) and of course they're a bunch of unmotivated losers, and of course by the end of the movie they will be champions, because the formula demands it. (It would take more imagination than this movie has to show the kids and the coach redeemed by a losing season.)
There's little detail about who these kids really are, and what kinds of homes they come from. A few dialogue scenes with worried parents, and that's it. Toward the end, in a truly heartbreaking scene where an older kid cradles the body of a younger one who has been shot in a drive-by, there's genuine emotion that makes us realize how much was missing earlier.
As the coach, O'Neill mostly addresses the kids as a group, not individually. His dialogue consists of the announcement of plot points (he likes them, he doesn't, he's quitting, he's staying, he's taking them to a Cubs game, they have to believe in themselves). There is not, as nearly as I can remember, a single one-on-one scene in which he tells a kid anything specific about baseball strategy. For that matter, does he know anything about baseball? In many scenes he just lines them up and hectors them, and they look like kids patiently watching some crazy white guy work out his issues.
There's a low-key love story involving Diane Lane as Elizabeth, who teaches some of the kids and keeps an eye on O'Neill because she would like him if (can you see this coming?) he could learn to like himself. I liked the freshness of a moment when O'Neill breaks into a conversation to say, "You like me! You just looked at me a certain way and I could see you liked me." The rhythm of the formula was broken for a moment, and it felt nice.
The movie is based on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects, by Daniel Coyle, unread by me, based on life. I doubt the book is as inauthentic as the movie. The screenplay shows signs of having been tilted in the direction of the basic Hollywood workshop story structure in which we get a crisis because it's time for one. And Keanu Reeves seems subdued in the role -- so glum and distant, we wonder why we should care if he doesn't. He delivers some of his dialogue with excessive hand movements, as if trying to guide his sentences in for a landing.
There was controversy when the movie was made because the dialogue includes various words that would be used by most kids on any baseball team. I think I spotted a couple of times when an eight-letter word was dubbed in for its seven-letter synonym. Why bother? Kids talk this way. We might as well face it. Rating two 1/2
Hardball cliched but works
Hardball hits triple
By JOHN KRYK
Toronto Sun
Hardball is a movie about a baseball manager with a gambling problem. No, it's not the Pete Rose story. It's The Bad News Bears, updated. It's less funny, but more poignant
Bad News Bears, released in the mid-1970s, starred Walter Matthau as a no-account drunk who unwillingly takes over as manager of a hapless Little League baseball team in an upscale Los Angeles suburb.
Hardball features Keanu Reeves as a no-account gambler who, in his desperate hunt for easy money to pay off menacing bookies, agrees to coach a youth baseball team in the Chicago ghetto for $500 a week. He's white, all the kids are black, and that's the extent of everything they have in common -- at least at first.
Parents be forewarned. Just as Bad News Bears was somewhat controversial in its time period, the mid-1970s, for showcasing kids swearing up a storm, so is this movie today. Only the swearing in Hardball goes well beyond kids telling others to stick their trophies up where the sun don't shine.
I took my nine-year-old boy to the preview screening this week, and apart from the 50 or 60 "s---s" and the odd "f---," I'm hoping it was the first 10 or 15 times he's ever heard another nine-year-old put down a friend by barking, "You be my (rhymes with witch)" before demonstrating how that might be achieved.
Ummm, but there really are some good messages in this movie, right son?
Actually, there are. While the plot has more holes than the windows of the high-rises shown, and as much as the laughs at times are too forced, Hardball is striking in its portrayals of just how despicable, and frightening, life in the ghetto is for a kid.
For instance, Reeves' character at first doesn't understand why practices have to end so early in the evening. It's so the kids can get home before dark. When one boy doesn't, he gets viciously mugged.
Another time, Reeves walks one of his players home, and as they pass through his crumbling tenement they slow down at one family's single-room dive. It has a steel cage as a front door, and inside the family huddles low on the floor while watching TV. "Why are they all on the floor?" Reeves asks. Because, the boy explains, they can't get shot by a stray bullet if they're all below window-level.
"Are there any people who live like that in Canada?" my son asked me afterward. "I don't think so -- at least I sure hope not," I answered.
There's a romantic angle -- the kids' teacher, played by Diane Lane, falls for the coach -- but it's so predictable it almost undermines the heart-tugging yet heartening plot twist at the end.
The child actors are amazingly convincing -- so much so that it is hard at times to understand some of their rapid-fire exchanges. You believe them when they say the only thing they have in life to look forward to is playing baseball.
All that swearing is necessary because it makes this touching story believable.
Diamond in the rough / Troubled Keanu Reeves coaches poor kids in uplifting 'Hardball'
In "Hardball," the kids are black and their baseball coach is black Irish.
The name is Conor O'Neill, and he's played by Keanu Reeves. Viewers may need to check their cynicism with an usher to enjoy this disarming movie about a guy on the skids who finds salvation in the Chicago projects.
The thing is, "Hardball" works where it counts, on the emotional level. Some of the movie's heart-tugging effects stack the deck -- one is a whopper --
but Reeves, as a borderline alcoholic and compulsive gambler, makes up for it with a very sympathetic performance. If Reeves plays his cards right, he could still become a big-time prole anti-hero, a John Garfield in the making, as well as "Matrix" spinner.
The ethically slippery O'Neill -- a ticket scalper who's into bookies for thousands and is likely to get his thumbs broken for it -- accepts money under the table to take over coaching the preteen, housing-project baseball team. O'Neill is given to stretching the truth, all too transparently, for his own aggrandizement, but he isn't the only one. The stockbroker who palms off the coaching gig on him says he originally had wanted "to give something back to the community." Sure.
It's a team nobody wants. The closest O'Neill has come to a baseball bat is the one he carries every time he answers a knock on the door, and the team members -- the Kekambas -- are rightly skeptical of him. He smokes on the sidelines and can hardly understand a word the boys say. His gambling buddy sarcastically calls him "the coach of the crack babies."
The Kekambas each come with a distinctive trait, a little too pat but hard to resist. One of the ball players is asthmatic, for instance, and another pitches and dances with headphones over his ears (actually a form of self- defense to drown out feared jeers from the crowd). It's almost a relief that a couple of these kids are easier to resist than others, especially when director Brian Robbins ("Varsity Blues") lets them get away with merely showing off.
Diane Lane ("The Perfect Storm") plays a schoolteacher who sees through O'Neill and also sees something in him.
"Hardball" goes out of its way in a disclaimer to say that the people and events depicted have no connection with any organization (i.e., Little League), but coincidentally, real life keeps breaking through the story. Some fast-and-loose messing around with the date on a birth certificate will remind people of the "12-year-old" (who was actually 14) Little League pitcher recently in the news.
Robbins' directing occasionally drifts off into Robert Redford-style mythic celebration of the game, but the scene where O'Neill takes the kids to a big- league game (with a cameo by a star slugger) still got to me.
Parents of children who want to see this movie should be aware that, late in the game, "Hardball" makes a sudden turn toward an act of violence, which isn't entirely unexpected. The PG-13 rating (inappropriate for children younger than 13) is certainly the right one. While preteens might seem a natural constituency for this movie, they need a parent or other adult who will take them and talk to them about it afterward.
The movie has some healing to offer, and this is a good time for it. 
Hardball reviews
Washingtonpost.com
Surprising 'Hardball' Gets It Right
'Hardball': A Weak Dribbler Down the Line
Boston Herald.com
Keanu Reeves' acting throws `Hardball' a curve
Sunspot.net
'Hardball' isn't anything we haven't seen before
Entertainment Weekly's
Hardball
Movie Review by Lisa Schwarzbaum
LA Times.com
Put your own review of "Hardball"
posted by Janete Tokuo on Friday, September 14, 2001
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HOLLYWOOD hunk Keanu Reeves steps out with old flame Amanda de Cadenet in his first public appearance since his girlfriend Jennifer Syme died.
Matrix star Keanu, 37, took Brit Amanda, 28, to the premiere of his new film Hardball in Los Angeles.
Jennifer, 29, was killed in a car smash in April.
Blonde telly star Amanda was engaged to Keanu before he met Jennifer.
His co-star in the sequel to Matrix was due to be soul singer Aaliyah, 22, who died in a plane crash last month.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Thursday, September 13, 2001
NY Post.com
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
September 13, 2001 -- TWO days after the United States suffered the worst terrorist attack in history, New York's entertainment world slowly emerged from total shutdown as some movie houses and Broadway theaters reopened.
. . .
Reviews of tomorrow's two biggest films, "The Glass House," a thriller starring Leelee Sobieski, and "Hardball," a baseball flick with Keanu Reeves, were in jeopardy because critics' screenings were canceled or postponed.
posted by Janete Tokuo on Thursday, September 13, 2001
People News
Keanu tricked into film
Friend's forged signature trapped star
Keanu Reeves has revealed that he was tricked into starring in last year's box-office flop The Watcher. Unable to prove that his prankster friend Joe Chrabanic had forged his signature on the contract, the Matrix star took the role rather than face a long legal battle. Now that the contractual obligations forbidding him to comment for 12 months are no longer in force, Reeves has spoken out. 'I never found the script interesting,' he claims. Reviewers worldwide agreed. 'Short of getting Lassie for the part,' said the Guardian critic, 'the miscasting could not be more complete.' 'The movie is frequently so ridiculous,' agreed another, 'that your own laughter may keep you awake.'
Posted 11 September 2001
posted by Janete Tokuo on Thursday, September 13, 2001
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Hardball ( * * ) It's appropriate that the best song from the Keanu Reeves film about a guy coaching a Little League baseball team would be a radio-friendly ditty that features a trio of ''Lil' '' rappers -- Bow Wow, Wayne and Zane -- and teen star Sammie boasting about their diamond exploits. The rest of the album, which includes the Notorious B.I.G.'s Big Poppa and a remix of Jagged Edge's Where the Party At, isn't always as buoyant as that first single. Newcomer Fundisha's bouncy Insomnia is a cool track, but contributions from the likes of R. Kelly, the Big Tymers and Da Brat are not quite up to their usual standards. This is more like a solid double than a shot hit out of the park. -- Jones
posted by Janete Tokuo on Wednesday, September 12, 2001
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