Heaven sent

WITH A BIG-SCREEN COMEDY AND A BROADWAY DEBUT, THE ICONIC ACTOR CONTINUES TO WOW WITH GRIT AND GRACE

- Jennie Noonan

After casting Keanu Reeves in his new movie, Good Fortune, writer and director Aziz Ansari admits he was more than a little awestruck at the thought of working with the A-list actor who he'd been a fan of for decades.

"I was like, 'Hey man, we got to hang out a few times, so I'm not freaked out being around you. You know what I mean?'" the comedian and Parks and Recreation star told Entertainment Weekly in May. "So he was like, 'I get what you mean.' So, we hung out and he came over to my house. I made him Indian food and we hung out for a while and he told me all these stories. And then we went to dinner a couple of times and I tried to really spend time with him to get to know him a little bit so I could become comfortable around him."

Playing low-ranking angel Gabriel, who attempts to show struggling gig worker Arj (Ansari) that money can't buy happiness by body-swapping him with a wealthy tech bro (Seth Rogen), Reeves seems to be a universally respected A-lister who manages to appear both down-to-earth and untouchable at the same time. “Keanu’s one of these guys who’s in pretty rarefied air. You don’t see him around. He’s still pretty mysterious. He’s one of the few guys who still has this real movie-star aura,” Ansari continued to Entertainment Weekly. “That guy just seems like he’s on a different planet, you know what I mean?”