Keanu Reeves takes acting seriously — so seriously that he even went method on one of his first-ever gigs, a Coca-Cola commercial in the 1980s.
“So I had to play a cyclist, who’s like, you know, a young kid, my father’s my coach, it’s a big race,” Reeves told James Corden on his talk show Monday night, explaining that the commercial is all about the father-son relationship between the cyclist and his coach.
But even the silly commercial, Reeves looked at as a great learning experience.
“For me it was a great experience because you’re going from school and from study, to the real world. To practical,” he said. “So it was like hitting marks, we had to improv some scenes, we had to pretend it was hot and we were filming in the winter. You know, so it was real-world, working experience.”
Talking about the job clearly made Reeves excited, and he revealed that his method acting went one step further — since he was playing a cyclist, he shaved his legs for the role.
“You shaved your legs for this commercial?” Corden asked to laughs and cheers from the audience. “Yeah!” Reeves answered. “Cause I’m playing a cyclist.”
Corden then surprised Reeves by playing the commercial, after which, Reeves recalled, “I had to drink so many Coca-Colas.”
Watch the clip above.