Yep, you read that right. Keanu Reeves, everyone’s favourite, well everything, has admitted that he doesn’t believe that Shakespeare wrote the works of Shakespeare.
The actor revealed his theory in a video interview with BuzzFeed. When asked if he could time travel to any period in time when would it be and why, he answered, “I always wanted to know growing up who really wrote the plays of Shakespeare. So I want to be there for that moment when ‘Shakespeare’ [he makes air quotes] – because I don’t believe that Shakespeare was really Shakespeare – wrote Hamlet.”
Adding, “I’m an Edward de Verean, Earl of Oxford. So I’d like to be there in the 1600s.”
Fans took to social media to both embrace the idea and wonder if the star had lost his mind. One even jokingly alluded to the fan theory that Reeves is actually a vampire (to explain his youthful looks at 54) and could have been there to see for himself without the need for time travel.
keanu reeves doesn’t believe shakespeare wrote his own plays and wants to go ‘back in time’ to see if it was really the bard or not?!
keanu, we all know you were present and have first hand knowledge which is why you’re dragging the bard’s ass now … i love 1 messy immortal ?
— Jenny (@tinyconfusion) May 17, 2019
What’s he going on about then? Well, there is school of thought that believes that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, actually wrote the works attributed to our greatest playwright. While there is no evidence to prove this, it is still the most popular of all the authorship theories that surround the bard.
Reeves has starred in several films based on the works of Wililam Shakespeare, including Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, where he played Don John.
Kenneth Branagh, right, poses with Emma Thompson and Keanu Reeves, at Cannes on May 21, 1993, for the screening of his interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)
Watching the BuzzFeed video it is easy to get distracted, as the actor is surrounded by puppies while he answers the questions – an allusion to his character the erstwhile assassin John Wick, who comes out of retirement when some thugs kill his puppy.
During the interview he was also asked which Marvel character he would like to have played. He admitted that as a child he always wanted to be Wolverine.
