Keanu Reeves Reports on Teddy Bears In Funny Throwback Video

Forum 3 years ago

Keanu Reeves Reports on Teddy Bears In Funny Throwback Video

An old video has resurfaced of a very young Keanu Reeves covering a teddy bear convention for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC shared the video from 1984 on Wednesday in honor of National Teddy Bear Day, and it’s full of the classic, quirky hijinks for which Reeves has become so beloved.

Many fans may not know that before Reeves’s feature film debut, he worked as a TV correspondent for the CBC show Going Great, which focused on news-style content for kids. At the time in 1984, Reeves was just getting his professional acting start with some community theatre projects and TV movies. He would later break out as a noted star with 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – a film which jump-started one of the most prolific film careers in recent decades.

The clip, shared by CBC’s Twitter account on Wednesday, shows Reeves at the first ever Canadian International Teddy Bear Convention in 1984. His narration and interview coverage is full of the same goofy persona that made him famous in Bill & Ted, and the whole clip is pure gold for fans of Reeves, or anyone just looking for a minute of joyful silliness. Highlights include Reeves being “attacked” by a large bear, carrying on a “business” conversation with another, and inquiring into a third bear’s academic credentials.

While Reeves has taken different turns on screen as a comedian, romancer and action star, he’s perhaps best known these days for his presence off-screen. He’s been praised for everything from his random acts of kindness to his stalwart respect of women’s personal space in photos, and even a conspiracy theory that he might actually be immortal. He’s an eccentric soul who’s not afraid to be himself in the public eye, and that authenticity has been a big part of his later-career resurgence. And his own self-awareness of his current cultural standing is just another reason to love the man. The CBC clip is just one more hilarious reminder of how long Reeves has been entertaining viewers.

Of course, despite the quirky-uncle persona Reeves has cultivated of late for many fans, his action career has never been stronger, with John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 aiming to shoot back-to-back next year, and The Matrix 4 set to bring Neo back to the big screen. Hopefully the teddy bear clip will help tide fans over while they wait for more feature Reeves-content. As he said himself, “If the bear fits, wear it.”