Keanu Reeves took a moment to toss around a football with a nine-year-old fan before his performance with the band Dogstar at the House of Blues in Houston.
The young fan's grandmother, Annette Cruz, told KHOU News that she enjoys meeting famous people, a pastime she likes to call "fishing," and she went to the music venue to see if she could fish around for Reeves.
She also took her grandsons Caleb, 11, and Elijah, 9, with her to see if the actor would sign autographs as he arrived at the venue with his bandmates.
Reeves more than delivered.
After Elijah got the star's autograph, he had an additional request for The Matrix actor.
“When I got his signature and my brother got his signature, I asked him if he could play catch with me."
Being Hollywood's all-around good guy, the 59-year-old happily obliged the young fan.
Elijah recalled:
“I asked him the first time and he kind of mumbled something."
"But I didn’t hear him so I asked him again and he said, ‘Yeah come on, let’s go.'”
The two tossed the pigskin back and forth for the next 30 seconds on the sidewalk by the stage door.
You can watch a news report, here.
Actor Keanu Reeves plays catch with 9-year-old Houston boy youtu.be
Elijah said:
“I was really nervous because I was playing catch with a famous superstar."
That's fair. But it turned out to be Elijah's big "top moment."
And the football they tossed together? Elijah said he was going to keep it "forever and ever," just like the special memory he made.
Elijah's older brother Caleb didn't walk home empty-handed, either, as he got a selfie with the John Wick star.
Social media users commented on the feel-good interaction, and they weren't surprised by the actor's affable personality with fans.
Playing football comes naturally to Reeves.
In the 1991 action thriller Point Break, he played an FBI agent who was an All-American quarterback.
He also portrayed a left-handed former All-America quarterback for Ohio State in the 2000 sports comedy film The Replacements.
The quarterback coach for the film, T.J. Rubley, said of Reeve's athleticism:
"Truth be told, when Keanu was done, he could drop back, he could throw just about every throw on the route tree."
"He probably would have been recruited by Division II or Division III (schools) out of high school."
Beyond the field and off-camera, Reeves is still winning.
