B1 Industry Inspirations

 Industry Inspirations (AC1: Informing Ideas  AC5: Communication):

Someone in the media industry who I feel is inspirational is Keanu Reeves. Reeves is known across the world for his work as he

has starred in many blockbuster films, however few are aware of his many life struggles. Some of these struggles include the

fact that his father, Samuel Reeves, spent half of his life behind bars for dealing heroin, only to abandon his family when

Keanu was just 3 years old. Keanu’s mother, Patricia, was left to take care of Keanu and his sister Kim all by herself.

Although she was a costume designer, reportedly she was working as a stripper at the time, and she was the only earner in the

family. First, the family of three moved from Lebanon to Sydney and then to New York.

Eventually, they settled down in Toronto. Throughout this time, Keanu’s mother remarried 3 times, which meant that he had

3 stepfathers over a short period of time. As a teenager, Keanu struggled with dyslexia and a tendency to disobey

authority which caused him to eventually drop out of school. During an interview, Keanu told the reporter that “he did not have

a traditional path because he changed 4 high schools' ' so this whole period was difficult for him. Reeves never finished high

school. This is a huge disadvantage for anyone to overcome. Keanu went above and beyond his own expectations, but the

biggest trials of his character were yet to come. During the late 80’s, Keanu collected some small acting roles and began to

appear in commercials, such as one for Coca Cola. One of Keanu's biggest breaks came in 1999, when he received the

lead role in The Matrix and as most people know, this movie has gone on to be widely regarded as an action classic.

It has also been speculated that this role has added more than $30 million to his bank account. However in 1992,

his sister was diagnosed with leukemia and during this time, Keanu donated a lot of money to cancer charities and even

runs a private charitable foundation. Despite this, he does not attach his name to the charity which in my opinion, shows his

humbleness and that he has genuine intentions. During the period of making ‘The Matrix’, he met and developed a close

relationship with Jennifer Syme. The two soon began dating and a year into their relationship, she was pregnant. Sadly

however, the baby was born prematurely and was stillborn. Shortly after this, Jennifer also tragically passed away in a

car accident and was buried next to her daughter. This was obviously devastating to Reeves and because of this, he

needed to take time off from filming the sequel to The Matrix to grieve. After this, he took a break from the public eye.

However, people still saw Reeves in random places looking depressed. After this, many people interacted with him in

public and shared their heartwarming experiences online.

This showed people that Reeves was not the typical arrogant Hollywood star and that he was kind, polite and a good

listener, despite the tragic events that happened to him. This displays his strong character and is a very admirable trait.

After fading away from the spotlight, no one possibly thought that Keanu could make a comeback. This all changed with

the massive blockbuster franchise John Wick. The character’s grief is what drew Reeves to the role. In his 2019

interview for the Guardian, the actor said that grief “was one of the foundations of the role for John Wick. I love his grief.”

“For the character and in life, it’s about the love of the person you’re grieving for, and any time you can keep company

with that fire, it is warm. I absolutely relate to that, and I don’t think you ever work through it. Grief and loss, those are

things that don’t ever go away. They stay with you,” he added. Despite all of the lows Keanu has come to face during his life,

he has still remained to stay humble and polite with a smile on his face and this is why he is very inspirational.

Another figure within the media industry whom I personally find to be inspirational is Robert Downey Jr. Robert Downey Jr,

born on April 4th, 1965, is an American actor and producer. He was born as the younger of two siblings to parents, Robert Downey

Sr and Elsie Ford. As a child, Downey Jr was constantly exposed to drugs even to the extent that his (drug addicted)

father forced him to try marijuana at the age of six years old and he was addicted by 8. Although his father later admitted

to have regretted this incident. Downey later stated that drug use became an emotional bond between him and his father:

"When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how."

Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and "making a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs". In 1997,

Downey also gave a memorable performance in the film adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero, playing a rich kid

whose life went off the rails amid a severe heroin addiction. Downey’s off-screen life would soon uncannily resemble that role. Downey has said that for him "the role was like the ghost

of Christmas Future" since his drug habit resulted in his becoming an "exaggeration of the character" in real life. 

From 1996 through 2001, Downey was arrested numerous times on charges related to drugs including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. He went through drug treatment programs unsuccessfully, explaining in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I have a shotgun

in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal." He said he had been addicted to

drugs since

the age of eight, due to the fact that his father, also an addict, had been giving them to him. In April 1996, Downey was arrested for

possession of heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while he was speeding down Sunset Boulevard. A month later, while on parole, he trespassed into a neighbour's home while under the influence of a controlled substance, and fell

asleep in one of the beds. He received three years' probation and was ordered to undergo compulsory drug testing. In 1997, he

missed one of the court-ordered drug tests and had to spend six months in the Los Angeles County jail.

After Downey missed another required drug test in 1999, he was arrested again. Despite Downey's lawyer, Robert Shapiro, assembling the same team of lawyers that had successfully defended O. J. Simpson during his criminal trial for murder, Downey was sentenced to a three-year prison term at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California. At the time of the arrest, all of Downey's film projects had wrapped and were close to release. He had been hired to

provide the voice of the devil on the NBC animated television series God, the Devil and Bob, but was fired when he failed to attend rehearsals. 

After spending nearly a year in the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Downey, on condition of posting a $5,000 bail, was unexpectedly freed when a judge ruled that his collective time in

incarceration facilities (from the initial 1996 arrests) had qualified him for early release. A week after his 2000 release,

Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing a new love interest. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Series and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shepard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life album, and sang with Sting a duet of "Every Breath You Take" in an episode of the series. Despite the apparent success, Downey claimed that his performance on the series was overrated

and said, "It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn't give a fuck whether I ever acted again." In

January 2001, Downey was scheduled to play the role of Hamlet in a Los Angeles stage production directed by Mel Gibson.

Before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, over the Thanksgiving 2000 holiday, Downey was arrested when his room

at Merv Griffin's Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California, was searched by the police, who were responding

to an anonymous 911 call. Downey was under the influence of a controlled substance and in possession of cocaine and

Valium. Despite the fact that, if convicted, he would have faced a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months,

he signed on to appear in at least eight more Ally McBeal episodes.

In April 2001, while Downey was on parole, a Los Angeles police officer found him wandering barefooted in Culver City.

He was arrested for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but was released a few hours later, even though tests

showed he had cocaine in his system. After this last arrest, Ally McBeal executives ordered last-minute rewrites and

reshoots and fired Downey, despite the fact that Downey's character had resuscitated Ally McBeal's ratings. The

Culver City arrest also cost him a role in the high-profile film America's Sweethearts, and the subsequent incarceration

prompted Gibson to cancel his Hamlet production. In July 2001, Downey pleaded no contest to the Palm Springs charges,

avoiding jail time. Instead, he was sent into drug rehabilitation and received three years of probation, benefiting from

California Proposition 36, which had been passed the year before with the aim of helping nonviolent drug offenders

overcome their addictions instead of sending them to jail.

The book Conversations with Woody Allen reports that director Woody Allen wanted to cast Downey and

Winona Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2005, but was unable to do so, because he could not get insurance

on them, stating, "We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the picture unless we

could insure them. We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on Celebrity] and thought she

was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again. And I had always wanted to work with Bob Downey and always

thought he was a huge talent."

In a December 18, 2000, article for People magazine entitled "Bad to Worse", Downey's stepmother Rosemary told

author Alex Tresnlowski that Downey had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder "a few years ago" and added that

this was "the reason he has a hard time staying sober. What hasn't been tried is medication and intensive

psychotherapy". In the same article, Dr. Manijeh Nikakhtar, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and co-author of Addiction or

Self-Medication: The Truth, claimed she received a letter from Downey in 1999, during his time at Corcoran II,

asking for advice on his condition. She discovered that "no one had done a complete [psychiatric] evaluation

[on him] ... I asked him flat out if he thought he was bipolar, and he said, 'Oh yeah. There are times I spend a lot of

money and I'm hyperactive, and there are other times I'm down.'" In an article for the March 2007 issue of Esquire,

Downey stated that he wanted to address "this whole thing about the bipolar" after receiving a phone call from

"the Bipolar Association" asking him about being bipolar. When Downey denied he had ever said he was bipolar,

the caller quoted the People article, to which Downey replied, "'No! Dr. Malibusian said [I said I was bipolar]

... ', and they go, 'Well, it's been written, so we're going to quote it.'" Downey flatly denied being

"depressed or manic" and that previous attempts to diagnose him with any kind of psychiatric or mood disorder

have always been skewed because "the guy I was seeing didn't know I was smokin' crack in his bathroom.

You can't make a diagnosis until somebody's sober."

After five years of relapses and arrests with his last in April 2001, Robert fully decided that he was going to

strive for sobriety. Downey got his first post-rehabilitation acting job in August 2001, lip-syncing in the video

for Elton John's single "I Want Love". Video director Sam Taylor-Wood shot 16 takes of the video and used the last one because, according to

John, Downey looked completely relaxed and "The way he underplays it is fantastic". Downey was able to

return to the big screen after Mel Gibson, who had been a close friend to Downey since both had co-starred

in Air America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective (directed by his

Back to School co-star Keith Gordon). Gibson's gamble paved the way for Downey's comeback and Downey returned to mainstream films in the

mid-2000s with Gothika, for which producer Joel Silver withheld 40% of his salary until after production wrapped

as insurance against his addictive behavior. Similar clauses have become standard in his contracts since. Silver,

who was getting closer to Downey as he dated his assistant Susan Levin, also got the actor the leading role in the

comedy thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black. Between 2004 and 2006,

he released his debut musical album and did voice acting in Family Guy. In 2007 he also appeared in 'Zodiac'.

With all of the critical success Downey had experienced throughout his career, he had not appeared in a "blockbuster"

film. That changed in 2008 when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films, Iron Man and Tropic

Thunder. For the role of Iron Man, Downey had to gain more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of muscle in five months to look

like

he "had the power to forge iron". Today, Robert Downey Jr is one of the most easily recognisable actors in the world with an

estimated

net worth of $300 million. As well as this, he has many appearances in major films and several acting awards. Downey is

very inspirational because

not only did he resurge his career by recovering from major substance abuse issues and even significant jail time, but

he revitalised his

career to heights that no one could have possibly foreseen.

 

Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr work in the film sector of media as they are both actors. Acting is an activity in which

a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character whether that be in theatre, television,

film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.

  Both Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey JR have heavily inspired me through their hard work and resilience, despite the hard times and challenges that they have been forced to endure throughout their lives. Because of names in the industry such as theirs and as well as other reasons, I have developed a growing interest of wanting to work in the film sector of the media industry.

These two men that I have chosen as my inspirations are both very successful Hollywood actors.