Back in 1999, Keanu Reeves changed the cinematic sci-fi game forever with The Matrix, which spawned its most recent sequel last month. The Matrix: Resurrections brought a renewed amount of interest in Reeves’ first foray into the franchise, along with a new report about how he spent the money he made off it. According to the New York Post, Reeves donated 70 percent of his earnings from The Matrix to cancer research. That’s an estimated $31.6 million.
Reeves’ interest in cancer research is personal, as his sister Kim battled leukemia for about ten years before finally going into remission in 2001. Her cancer battle came in the midst of a difficult season for Reeves. His first child was stillborn in 1999 and his longtime partner Jennifer Syme was killed in a car accident in 2001. Around this time, he started his own cancer research foundation, though he has been characteristically private about it. “I don’t like to attach my name to it,” he told Ladies Home Journal in 2009. “I just let the foundation do what it does.”
Next up for Reeves is his return to the John Wick franchise that reignited his career. Then he’s reportedly headed to his first major foray into television, eyeing the lead role in the series adaptation of The Devil in the White City for Hulu, which is being produced by Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.
