Keanu is not sad. As a matter of fact, he found the Sad Keanu meme funny. That’s what he told Reddit in a two-and-a-half hour AMA (ask me anything) done in connection with promotion for his upcoming directorial debut of Tai ChiManof Tai Chi, which opens Nov 1.

He wanted to make it clear that he’s not, in fact, sad: “I think that a picture can tell a thousand words, and none of them can be right. Or true. I’m absolutely a very happy person.”

He also talked about growing up in Canada and wanting to play hockey, a dream that was sidelined when he discovered acting:

“I played a lot of hockey in Toronto Canada. I always thought it would be cool to play for the Canadian Olympic team. When I was 15, I decided to become an actor. And so I started taking acting classes and doing community theater, and then I played John Proctor in a high school play called The Crucible, and from that moment I decided — they always ask you when you’re coming out of school or university what you want to be, and I knew then that I wanted to become an actor.”

Keanu, who is 49, is, of course known for playing Neo in the Matrix movies, for Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, for Speed, My Own Private Idaho, Point Break, The Replacements, A Scanner Darkly and the much-maligned Constantine. (For the record, I love that movie and I don’t care who knows it.)

He’s aware that fans of the comic books didn’t love Constantine: “I mean, I know it’s not literal to the source material but I was hoping and I hoped that with the adaptation of the material that I was hoping to keep and was really attracted to the character, he’s one of those optimist cynics, he is world-weary but as his core he wishes it was not so, and the burden of knowing too much. So I hope that at its core that we came across to the people who love the original.” He also says he kept Constantine lighter.

As for upcoming projects, this one sounds intriguing: “I’ve got a project that I’ve been developing for over six or seven years. It’s a role I am looking forward to playing, it’s called Passengers. And in that film I play a character named Jim, who wakes up on a spaceship with five other people planning to homestead. He wakes up too soon, ninety years before arriving. What does he do?”

Asked about his musical tastes he mentions Nine Inch Nails and Toronto punk band Metz, the members of which are probably about to enjoy some newfound fame.

Keanu seems to have nothing but fond memories of growing up in Toronto: “There was a really great hamburger place called Licks. I really used to love hanging out by the grade school I used to go to, I played a lot of street hockey and basketball there. We had wonderful parks, Ramsden Park, we had chestnut fights running around Ramsden Park. The Bloor Street Cinema, I would go see movies there. The University Cinema.”

He asked how he manages to stay grounded, being famous and all: “. . . it’s easy to stay grounded. The ground is very close. And we walk on it every day.” Whoa!

We also learn that Keanu would like to play Macbeth, he loves the Olympics, that his hobby is reading, that he loves watching the stars (the real ones, not famous people), was a fan of Breaking Bad, that his favourite beers are Guinness and pilsner, that he likes pancakes with maple syrup and that he’s not immortal, although, “energy cannot be created or destroyed they say.” (There is so much more in this pretty damned great AMA, that you should definitely go read the whole thing).

Pressed on how he keeps looking so young, he denies having a fountain of youth and says, “Yeah, for me that’s something inherited I guess. How does that happen? I don’t know. I haven't done anything in particular, I will just go with genetics. I will just thank my mom and dad and then their parents and then their parents.”

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And, answering the question, “How do you think your life would be different if you had chosen the ‘blue pill’?”:

“I think if I had taken the blue pill, it says I would go back to sleep and I would have never known what was happening. Which sounds very depressing. So I’m glad I took the right pill.”