Dude, Like, Keanu Is a Genius

Seeing his oeuvre on screen, you might believe action hero Keanu Reeves has trouble finishing a sentence. But after spending a day with the actor, Jeff Gordinier reports for Details that the star of films from Bill and Ted to The Matrix has in fact finished Proust's quotidian memoir and reads books like he's getting paid per page. Gordinier finds himself asking, "Is Keanu Reeves some kind of ... stealth genius?"

Though Reeves loads Gordinier up with new books, he doesn't lord his intellect over anyone in Hollywood. "He doesn't really care that nobody knows," The Day the Earth Stood Still director Scott Derrickson says of his literary nature. Just as he plays an alien among humans in that forthcoming film, writes Gordinier, he might be "the most extraterrestrial celebrity in our midst." (More Keanu Reeves stories.)