Mystery man

Keanu Reeves comes across as mysterious even to the people who know him well.

Rachel Weisz got to know him when they co-starred in the 1996 film “Chain Reaction,” so she expected there would be a bit of a shorthand with him when they made “Constantine,” which opens Friday.

“He’s still a very mysterious and enigmatic guy, but he’s the same one,” says Weisz, commenting that she half expected he’d have a lot of attitude after his “Matrix” hits.

“He isn’t trying to be mysterious; he just is. It’s probably what makes him this gigantic star.”

When he walks into a press conference wearing an all black tux and shirt and sporting a thick beard and moustache like his evil character in “The Gift,” the 40-year-old, baby-faced Reeves appears as confident as his comic book character who chases demons, John Constantine.

Yet he’s not facing demons from hell; he’s facing the press. And when pressed about how he contributed to the script of the dark film noir character, he says he added the lines: “He works his works in mysterious ways. Some people like it; some people don’t.”

“That’s mine,” Reeves smiles. “That to me was the ground for where Constantine ends up.”

He wasn’t looking for another superhero film franchise, but the script based on the popular “Hellblazer” comics came to Reeves while he was making the “Matrix” sequels.

Although the stylish outfits and subtle humor may seem reminiscent of Neo, Reeves sees Constantine as a very different, more adult character.

“Constantine is a very extroverted role on the whole. So much about it is very different from the experience that I was having then (with Neo),” Reeves says.

Nevertheless, Reeves seems drawn to spiritual-themed films like “Little Buddha,” “The Devil’s Advocate” and the “Matrix” series. Even Bill & Ted visited hell in one of their excellent adventures.

But he really doesn’t want to talk about his own spiritual beliefs.

“Please don’t, really, no, it’s something that I take very personal and it’s something that is private,” Reeves says.

As for “Constantine,” the film is steeped in Catholicism.

“The piece is using icons and a platform from a kind of Catholic heaven and hell, God and the devil,” Reeves says. “I think that these motifs of seekers and messiahs, anti-heroes and heroes, are journeys that we deal with in our day-to-day ways.”

Constantine has supernatural powers that he doesn’t understand at first, but he’s an anti-hero.

“He’s very connected to God; he just doesn’t understand what’s happening,” says Reeves. “His whole life is intertwined with God.”

But his character is killing himself by smoking a lot – something Reeves admits he does in real life.

“Too much, too much,” Reeves says about his smoking. “It’s a character trait the character has.

“I guess he’s dealing with a lot, and it’s a tool to kind of numb himself.”

Reeves says he doesn’t want everyone to be aware of him as a star, which is why he remains a private person.

“Hopefully, the film is engaging enough that for the whole two hours and six minutes, they’re not going, ‘He’s wearing a black coat.’ I don’t mean to be flippant, but hopefully they’re not thinking, ‘Wasn’t he wearing a stethoscope before?’ ” says Reeves, referring to his role as a doctor in the comedy “Something’s Gotta Give.”

“I’ve been really fortunate to be able to do different kinds of films on different scales, different genres,” he says.

“Thumbsucker,” an independent film in which he plays an orthodontist coping with a rebellious teenage patient, played at the Sundance Film Festival recently and is looking for distribution.

Coming this fall is “A Scanner Darkly,” adapted from a Philip K. Dick story about an undercover cop of the future who’s hooked on a drug that has given him a split personality as a narcotics dealer.

Directed by Richard Linklater, “A Scanner Darkly” was shot in live action, with the final film presented in computer animation created by digitally “painting” over the images.

Reeves also is preparing to shoot the romantic drama “Il Mare,” reuniting with “Speed” co-star Sandra Bullock.

For now, he’s happy playing a character in “Constantine” who has enough nerve to call the devil “Lu.”

“He’s a hard-edged, hardboiled, world-weary, cynical, fatalistic, nihilistic, self-interested guy with a heart,” he laughs. “I hope that fans of the comic don’t feel that we sabotaged something that is so well loved.”

At first, Reeves turned down director Francis Lawrence, whose biggest claim to fame was Justin Timberlake’s music video “Cry Me a River.” Reeves admits he was wrong.

“That came out of an uneducated bias,” he says.

Then he saw some of Lawrence’s videos, and when they met, they talked for two hours. They connected so well that Reeves doesn’t want to do a sequel unless it’s with the same team.

Obviously aware that “Son of the Mask” also is coming out on Friday, Reeves says: “The ‘Son of Constantine’ – I’ll play him too.”

“My contract didn’t have a second film in it, but I certainly fell in love with the guy,” he adds. “I had one of the best times that I’ve ever had working on a film, working on this particular project.”