During a chat at the Los Angeles Beverly Arts Icon Awards, the visual artist showers the 'John Wick' actor with praise for being an 'inspiration' whenever she feels stuck creatively.
- Sep 25, 2023
AceShowbiz - Alexandra Grant could not help but shower Keanu Reeves with praise. Making an appearance at the Los Angeles Beverly Arts Icon Awards, the accomplished visual artist gave rare insight into her relationship with the "John Wick" actor.
Speaking to PEOPLE while hitting the red carpet of the event on Friday, September 22, the 50-year-old said, "The good news about falling in love as an adult is that I had built my own career by the time that my relationship had begun. I feel very confident in the relationship on the red carpet. I feel confident on it alone. It's interdependent and independent in the best ways."
Alexandra went on to discuss how her 59-year-old beau helps every time she feels stuck creatively. "In a moment of frustration in my life, I once said, 'Sometimes I feel like a Maserati stuck in traffic,' that I have this big engine, but, for a variety of reasons, that I couldn't ever go," she admitted. "And I know a lot of people feel frustrated in their lives, that they're not able to run their engine. I think every creative person feels that way."
"What I love about Keanu and our exchange is that we're pushing each other to build new roads," she gushed. "Seeing the other person's problem-solving is inspiring, like, 'Oh, well, okay, this one, that's a cul-de-sac. How do I try this other thing?' He's such an inspiration to me. He's so creative, he's so kind. He works so hard."
During the chat, Alexandra also discussed the similarity between her and Keanu's works. "My work is much more of a private performance, but I have a text that I interpret in the studio into a painting, into an object. He takes the text in private and then turns it into a performance in public. There's a relationship. We're both at the heart readers and researchers. We both care about people and we care about characters," she elaborated.
"I think there's a lot of similarities," she shared. "Sometimes I feel like, to make a film, as we're seeing now in the strike, that it's a cruise ship. Everyone is dependent on everyone else. You can't go off and being an artist, maybe at the beginning of my career, I was in a kayak on the sea of creativity. Now maybe it's a small speedboat, but it's still a lot more nimble."
About Keanu creating a film, Alexandra pointed out, "I think that is very inspiring for him. To make a film, you require hundreds of people. To be an artist, you don't. You require one. You require a community to get the work into the world, but not to actually make it. I think part of the inspiration is the differences of scale."
Alexandra and Keanu were friends before they started dating. In 2011, the two worked together for a grown-up picture book titled "Ode to Happiness". Alexandra was the one working on its illustrations, while Keanu contributed to the text.
