Bullock and Reeves, both 57, first met while filming 1994’s Speed. The two became close friends on set, and one day, while talking about Champagne and truffles, Bullock mentioned that she hadn’t tried them, the actress recalled to Esquire.
When Reeves asked, “Really?,” Bullock replied, “Nope, never had ’em,” and the two moved on to another topic — or so Bullock thought. She told the magazine that just a few days later, she was at home painting her nails with her roommate when Reeves pulled up outside on his motorcycle.
When he rang the doorbell, Bullock opened the door only to find a sweet surprise. Reeves had shown up with flowers, Champagne and truffles, she told Esquire.
He told her, “I just thought you might want to try Champagne and truffles, to see what it’s like,” and came inside, where he sat on Bullock’s couch while she poured Champagne and cracked open the truffles.
Bullock even painted Reeves’ nails, she said, when the actor put his hands out and she gave his nails a coat of black, the same color she had been painting her own.
“He’s a listener,” Bullock told Esquire. “And it drives. People. Crazy.”
Bullock said Reeves did not hang around too long after dropping off the truffles and Champagne because he had a date to get to. Bullock said her costar’s kind gesture was a prime example of his listening skills.
“That’s what I mean that it drives you crazy,” she told Esquire. “When I first met him, I would spend as much time as I could filling a silence, just to feel comfortable. And the more I jibber-jabbered on, the quieter he would get.
“And I thought, I don’t understand what’s happening!,” she continued. “He’s looking at me with eyes of confusion. He’s quiet. Did I say something to offend him? And then a day or two later, he would arrive with a note or a little package, saying, ‘I thought about what you said.’ And he would have his response.”
Bullock added, “How many people do you know like that?”
Although he surprised her with a romantic gesture that day, Bullock insisted that she and Reeves never dated — although she suggested they could have been a good couple.
Bullock also told Esquire she thought that “maybe” she and Reeves “could have survived” as a couple if they had struck up a romance.
“Keanu’s a guy who, I feel like, is friends with every woman he’s ever dated,” she explained. “I don’t think there’s anyone who has something horrible to say about him. So maybe we could have survived. I don’t know.”
She added, “But we didn’t have to survive anything. We just get to grow up together on parallel roads and tip our hats and meet for a dinner and try to work together. And the longer time goes on, the more in awe I am of the human being.”
“Would I have been able to say that if he had dumped me and made me angry? Probably not,” Bullock said.
