Keanu Reeves had an interesting connection with a famous rock star when he was a child — the legendary rocker actually was Reeves’ babysitter. The actor recalled the circumstances behind how Alice Cooper came to babysit him as well as one rather bizarre memory from the time.
Keanu Reeves had a rock star babysitter
In a 2017 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon interview, Reeves shared the story of how Alice Cooper used to babysit him. Because Reeves’ mother was a costume designer in Toronto, she worked with famous people and one of them was Cooper.
When asked if it was a scary experience, as Fallon held up a photo of Cooper in his signature makeup, the actor said, “Well he didn’t look like that.”
Reeves was a bit muddy about all the details since he was so young at the time, but said he had been told that Cooper was his babysitter.
“I grew up in Toronto and I lived on a street called Hazleton and there was a recording studio there called Nimbus 9 and my mother was in costume design,” Reeves recalled. “She was in rock and roll, in the business and they had friends and she had friends and so Alice Cooper, I’m told, babysat me. I mean, I don’t know how that could actually possibly happen, but it did … supposedly.”
Reeves couldn’t recall much from the experience but he had one bizarre memory from that time. “I remember that there was fake poo in the fridge. Like somehow, that connected like that,” he said.
Keanu Reeves was a correspondent for a kids’ show
During the interview, Fallon continued to walk down memory lane with the actor, bringing up an early gig that Reeves had in Toronto — a correspondent for an ‘80s kids’ show called Going Great.
Reeves only kept the job for one season of the show, however. After Fallon played a clip from Reeves’ reporting at a teddy bear convention, the actor said, “That was one of my first gigs.”
He continued, “It was a kids’ show and … they’d send you out and go interview kids doing things. It was a lot of fun.”
Fallon asked Reeves if he learned how to do anything, to which he answered, “interview people, I guess.” The talk show host wondered if Reeves would cover for him if he was ever sick.
“No, I couldn’t fill those shoes,” Reeves answered.
As for the reason behind the short-lived gig, Reeves admitted, “They fired me after the first year. I got one year of Going Great … and then it was just not going at all.”
In another Tonight Show interview that same year, Reeves discussed how his manager wanted him to change his name when he came to Hollywood. He landed on two possible options: Chuck Spadina or Templeton Page Taylor.
Fortunately, he decided to stick with Keanu Reeves.
