Keanu Reeves told young actors to keep it simple: don’t be a “f--king a--hole,” and show up ready to work. In an exclusive interview, the star said aspiring performers should “go to work and respect who you’re working with until they prove they don’t get your respect.”
Cameron Diaz, who joined Reeves in the interview, said that advice fits the business because “that’s life.” There is no handbook for fame, she said, only the job of figuring out how to make it your own. “You gotta just make it your own—you don’t know what it’s gonna be,” Diaz said, adding that it also helps to reach out to people you admire and ask how they do it.
Matt Bomer offered a different but related lesson: if possible, stay close to the people who knew you before the industry did. Those friends, he said, can ground you and stay with you through “the good and the bad and the ups and downs.” The comments came as the cast of Outcome, the Jonah Hill-directed film set to stream April 10 on Apple TV, talked about life in Hollywood and what younger actors often learn the hard way.
The film also marks a reunion for Reeves and Diaz, who played love interests in the 1996 movie Feeling Minnesota. Diaz said she felt more capable and experienced making this film with Reeves than she did 30 years ago, and described him as still generous and present. Reeves said working with Diaz again felt the same as it did in the nineties, a sign that some on-screen chemistry outlasts the decades between projects.
That makes the advice land with a little more weight. Reeves has been in Hollywood for more than 30 years, long enough to speak from a career that has outlasted plenty of trends, and Diaz’s comments about finding your way in fame point to the same conclusion: the work matters most, and the people around you matter almost as much. Outcome will give audiences the reunion on screen; the interview gives them the clearest glimpse yet of how its stars have lasted this long.
