You may have seen this story over the weekend. You may need to come back and read it from time to time to remind you that people are and can be excellent to each other.
16-year-old Emily had a favorite film, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. “She came across it one day and was instantly hooked,” her mother Deborah said in a Facebook post. Because Emily is currently living with a kidney disease, the Make-a-Wish Foundation — one of our favorite organizations — reached out and asked what her one wish would be. The answer was simple: meet Keanu Reeves.
He may play the tough John Wick and failed Canadian stunt toy Duke Caboom, but who needs those characters when he is, simply, Keanu Reeves? When Reeves found out about Emily’s wish, he coordinated with his team to make Emily’s wish not just come true, but to make it as excellent as possible.
According to Make-a-Wish New Jersey’s Facebook post Friday afternoon, Emily
…was invited down to Louisiana to the set of Bill & Ted Face The Music to watch them film a scene hand-picked by Reeves himself. “Thank you Make-A-Wish,” Deborah says. “It was an unbelievable day. She hasn’t been this happy in months! Keanu seemed to be having as much fun with Emily as she was with him.”
Of course, Keanu’s co-star Alex Winters joined in, and it looks like Emily got a sweet Wyld Stallyns denim jacket for a day to remember. All three look like they’re having fun, and as someone pointed out to me, you can see Keanu modeling the behavior for celebrity photo poses — respectful clowning, with his hands to himself or out in the open. If Reeves is a true movie star — and he himself might shrug at that description — he is exactly the one we need right now. Like his character Theodore Logan, he clearly understands that the one thing we must do above all else is “be excellent to each other.”
You can be excellent and help the Make-a-Wish Foundation by donating here.
