Matthew Perry apologizes for ‘Keanu Reeves still walks among us’ putdown in new book
The actor-director wrote it for a fan, who, in turn, had been inspired to put together an entire collection of his essays for an upcoming book, “The Big, Big Thank You: A Collection of Essays from Keanu Reeves.”
“It started with me reading a letter the fan had written to me,” Perry said. “We met, shared our ideas, and became friends.”
“Then, on a day during an overseas trip, on an airplane, I came to realize that while the fan’s words were heartfelt, with a few good quotes sprinkled in, the letter really just sounded like a short story,” he said. “So, I took out a piece of paper and wrote what’s become known as my ‘original’ letter to him. That made him feel like I was writing to him like we were friends. He knew I was writing for my own personal appreciation of him as a filmmaker, to share my admiration and respect of his work as a writer and actor, and was just thrilled to share that with him. And, he was just as delighted to share it with you. So, we all became friends, and we are all friends now.”
In the book, he describes their friendship and the circumstances that led him to write the piece.
“This is not a story about a young boy learning to be a man,” he wrote. “This is a man who had already been a man, and who had been a man already when he was a kid, and who was no stranger to the manhood he had created when he was just a boy. He has not only been, and always will be, Keanu Reeves. But, this is not a story about Keanu Reeves as an isolated child actor, or as an isolated young man.”
Perry said he was inspired to write the book on the advice of another friend, former movie producer David Brown.
“While I was writing for his fan, he told me that David Brown had said he was a fan of Keanu Reeves for