Keanu Reeves’ longtime partner, Alexandra Grant, knows better than anyone how committed the actor is to getting his characters right — even at home.
“I think we share [just] the belief in [our] projects,” Grant, 53, a visual artist, told People on Thursday, May 28, of her and Reeves’ dedication to their creative pursuits. “Every project has its own autonomy, its own team, it has its own sort of rules, and it has a beginning, middle and end.”
She explained, “So we both are people who do projects, and you know, I’ve lived with John Wick, I’ve lived with Neo,” referring to Reeves’ iconic roles as John Wick from the action movie franchise and Neo in The Matrix films.
Reeves, 61, originated the character of hacker Thomas Anderson, better known as Neo, for 1999’s The Matrix and has since played him in three more movies. He has portrayed John Wick in four movies, beginning with 2014’s John Wick. He also reprised the role in 2025’s Ballerina.
Grant, who has been romantically linked to the actor since 2017, shared, “When he’s in a character, for example, I have so much respect for that understanding that this is the middle to the end of a project, right?”
She noted that the “same goes for painting.” Grant, who has exhibited her work around the world, added, “When I’m in painter mode, I am in it. I’m fully in it, and it’s not playing a character, but it is performing, you know, painting really is a form of performance too.”
Grant and Reeves’s connection began professionally when they worked on 2011’s Ode to Happiness, a book that he wrote and Grant illustrated.
The couple later cofounded a publishing house, X Artists’ Books (XAB), in 2017, two years before they went public with their relationship. (In November 2019, Us Weekly confirmed that Reeves and Grant started dating in summer 2017.)
At the heart of their romance is their “respect” for each other and love of the arts, according to Grant.
“I’d say the key to it is the mutual respect and also just like, come on, it’s play, right? It’s play that we get to play creatively,” Grant explained on Thursday, noting that over time she and Reeves learned how to navigate their creative outlets in tandem.
The LOVEwine founder noted that Reeves is “always so appreciative” and “cautious” with feedback, which is something she is also good at.
“You want to always be respectful and leave the other person to bake their cake. Just talking about my love makes me sweat,” Grant gushed. “I would say that there is all the listening in the world that we know that we could talk about any problem or challenge or creative idea and talk about it forever if that is needed, and also respect the individual need to dive deep and have a process that’s maybe quiet or in another collaboration.”
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