[Commlist] cfp - Special Edition of /Celebrity Studies/

*Call for Papers *

*Special Edition of /Celebrity Studies/, edited by Renee Middlemost and 
Sarah Thomas*

***Keanu Reeves***

Since his emergence as a teen actor in the 1980s, Keanu Reeves has been 
an enduring, yet elusive celebrity who continues to fascinate and 
frustrate in equal measure. Despite his unwavering popularity, in recent 
years his lower public profile has seen Reeves assume the status of cult 
or folk icon; yet slowly the world appears to have fallen for Reeves all 
over again. / USA Today/ declared June 2019 ‘The Summer of Keanu Reeves’ 
with the release of /John Wick 3/, /Toy Story 4/, the announcement of 
his role in X Box game /Cyberpunk 2077,/ memorable cameo in /Always Be 
My Maybe/, memes, magazine features, the first ‘KeanuCon’ film festival, 
and high profile fashion brand ambassador spreads (Saint Laurent). With 
the latest instalment of Bill and Ted (/Bill and Ted Face the Music/) 
due for release in 2020, this special issue of /Celebrity Studies/ will 
be a timely exploration of the resurgent Reeves in the transmedia age.

Often discussed as an emblematic star of 1990s postmodernist cinema and 
queer sensibilities with a liminal, endless screen presence that stood 
between the margins and the mainstream of contemporary filmic texts 
(c.f. Giarrantana, 2002 and Rutsky, 2001), even now twenty years on from 
/The Matrix/ (1999), Reeves remains an enigmatic icon straddling 
boundaries of fixed identity and meaning. His 21^st century stardom has 
extended beyond the Wachowski’s ground-breaking series and his other key 
roles of the 1990s, and Reeves’ performances and star persona continues 
to reflect the wider ages and identities he lives through, endlessly 
being rewritten, rebooted and reinterpreted.

His success in the /John Wick/ series, from cult hit to global franchise 
phenomenon, has partly reinvigorated interest in his screen work, 
conceptualising the change from the physically beautiful youth (Rutsky, 
2001) to the ageing, effortful labour of action role and star. The 
character of John Wick further mythicises the always ‘extraordinary’ 
Reeves, whilst his ‘ordinariness’ has been embraced by transmedia 
digital cultures, such as ‘sad Keanu’ meme which draws on the perception 
that Reeves’ tragic personal life has never been fully resolved, or 
viral fan encounters that emphasise an authenticity to his unstarry 
behaviour. His cameo in the recent Netflix production /Always Be My 
Maybe/ brought questions of race and transnational identity back to the 
forefront of his star image, with his appearance reflecting an overt 
desire by the filmmakers to claim Reeves as an Asian-American icon 
(Yamato 2019) – as aspect also explored by Nishime 
<https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Leilani+Nishime&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Leilani+Nishime&sort=relevancerank>(2013).Beyond 
this, the ongoing commercial appeal of the Bill & Ted series and his 
partnership with Winona Ryder in /Destination Wedding/ (2018) reveals 
the significance of Reeves as a point of reference for exploring 80s and 
90s ‘cool’ nostalgia.

We seek original, truly ‘Excellent!!” essays of 7-8000 words that 
address the celebrity of Keanu Reeves, particularly reflecting on and 
exploring his career and image post-2000. Revisiting Keanu Reeves offers 
a timely discussion around key contemporary media landscapes, from 
franchise, reboot and remake cultures; multi-media, transmedia and 
technology; nostalgia and memory; participatory fandom and online 
cultures; racial identity and transnationalism; changes across the 
mainstream, the independent and the marginal; ageing; narratives of 
contemporary celebrity authenticities; and the continuing persistence of 
mythic and elusive stardom.

Topics that the articles may address include, but are not limited to:

*Keanu, the 1980s and nostalgia

*Keanu as Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan – rebooting Bill and Ted

*Keanu and his relationship to other iconic 80s performers (Winona Ryder)

*The figure of ‘tragic Keanu’

*Keanu online – Keanu as meme

*Keanu and masculinity

*Asian-American identity and transnational cinemas

*Keanu and ageing stardom

*Stuntwork, physicality and labour

*Keanu and genre (action, romance and science fiction)

*Keanu and cinematic innovation

*Keanu and cinematic franchises

*Fan responses to Keanu

*Queer identity and star image, especially post-2000

*Keanu as ‘reluctant celebrity’

*Transmedia Keanu

*Keanu as producer, or from a production studies perspective

*Acting and screen performance

*Authenticity and ordinariness

*Keanu and video game cultures

*Presence, affect and ‘being’

Please send proposals of 300 words and brief author bio/contact to Renee 
Middlemost (reneem /at/ uow.edu.au) <mailto:(reneem /at/ uow.edu.au)>and Sarah Thomas 
(S.K.Thomas /at/ liverpool.ac.uk) <mailto:(S.K.Thomas /at/ liverpool.ac.uk)>by 1 
December 2019.

References:

Carmel Giarratana (2002) ‘The Keanu Effect – Stardom and the Landscape 
of the Acting Body: Los Angeles/ Hollywood as Sight/Site’, in Ndalianis 
and Henry (eds.), /Stars in Our Eyes: The Star Phenomenon in the 
Contemporary Era/, Westport, Conn. : Praeger: 61-83


  Leilani Nishime

<https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Leilani+Nishime&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Leilani+Nishime&sort=relevancerank>(2013)
  /Undercover Asian: Multiracial Asian Americans in Visual Culture/,
  Chicago: University of Illinois Press

R. L. Rutsky (2001) ‘Being Keanu’, in Jon Lewis (ed.) /The End of Cinema 
as We Know It/, New York: NYU Press: 185-194.

Jen Yamoto (2019) ‘Keanu Reeves’ ‘Always Be My Maybe’ role has everyone 
obsessing: Here’s why’, /Los Angeles Times/, 2^nd June 2019: 
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-keanu-reeves-always-be-my-maybe-20190602-story.html


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