Not too long ago, celebrated Hollywood star Keanu Reeves was photographed sitting on a park bench looking, well, kinda sad. For some reason that photo struck a nerve with millions of Internet users (seriously, millions) who decided to put their own stamp on the photo—both by reporting it and by creating their own Photoshopped interpretations of the now-famous pic.
Then, a few months later Keanu was snapped again, almost in the same pose as the original photo, only this time he was on the set of his new film, "Generation Um."
When MTV caught up with the actor recently at the Toronto International Film Festival, we asked him about the second photo, the one with the cupcake.
"It was a lovely [birthday] gift from Jessica at Technicolor," he revealed, adding that even though there has been much ado about that photo, the story behind it is not too exciting. Including his birthday celebration.
"That birthday was quiet," Keanu said. "But it was a great birthday because I was working, and I spoke with friends and family. It was all right."
Regarding the crazy, widespread Internet phenomenon "Sad Keanu" has become, the "Matrix" actor recently told New York magazine that he'd seen the original photo, but not the millions of pieces of fan art that followed.
"That's funny!" he said upon hearing about his new "fame." "So they like take paparazzi pictures and re-contextualize them? Funny."
Keanu went on to say that given the breadth of what could be written or created about him, the internet meme sounded pretty tame.
"Well, it sounds like harmless, good clean fun," he said. "I haven't seen them. But given the scope and scale of what can happen out there, that sounds like an all right one. It sounds conceptually funny."
Hooray for Keanu taking it all in stride. Our crush remains intact.
What do you think about the "Sad Keanu" meme? His response is pretty cool, right?
** Hollywood Crush Twitter