“It’s the oddest thing,” claimed Keanu Reeves while talking about his co-star in The Devil’s Advocate – one of the first films that catapulted him to stardom and recognition in Hollywood. But it wasn’t The Godfather alum Al Pacino that he was referring to, as would be expected of a young star suddenly being thrown into a film to steal the show from Michael Corleone himself.

Instead, Reeves couldn’t stop saying the nicest things about the then up-and-coming star, Charlize Theron, who played the part of his on-screen wife with stellar grace and made an equally spotlight-stealing impact on the audience once the movie was out.

Charlize Theron

Keanu Reeves Talks About Starring Opposite Charlize Theron

While reminiscing about the days of old, Keanu Reeves often finds himself caught in the 90s – 1994, to be specific – the year he met Sandra Bullock who could have potentially been the one great love of his life. But while the fans wail at the missed opportunity of these two perfect people missing out on their chance because of circumstance, there remains another actress who Reeves struck up a wonderful rapport with on-screen. Speaking of Charlize Theron and their intimate time on the sets of The Devil’s Advocate, the Constantine actor revealed:

“We get along really well. We’re friends, we know each other and stuff, but there’s something that happens when we act together that’s very different than how we are when we are together in life. It’s the oddest thing. When I watch The Devil’s Advocate, I go ‘That’s a great couple. They rock. If I saw that couple I’d say they’re f–king hot. They’re just hot’ and I felt that again on Sweet November that even though they’re such different characters that they should be together.”

Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron in The Devil’s Advocate (1997)

While most among the audience who had the pleasure of watching the $153 million Al Pacino film would agree, it’s the 2001 romance drama that makes for a much more interesting movie to talk about in hindsight than their 1997 horror fantasy film that took its title a bit too literally. As was later revealed during a THR interview, the tragic love story between the terminally ill Sara Deever (Charlize Theron) who gifts a dog to her partner, Nelson Moss (Keanu Reeves) set up the entire plot of the John Wick franchise that Reeves would later go on to become synonymous with.

A-lister Charlize Theron Steps Out From Under the Shadows

It’s not every day that a character with such less screen time as Charlize Theron had in The Devil’s Advocate ends up being such an integral part of the audience’s perception and recollection of the movie in retrospect. It was hardly evident back then that the young actress playing a secondary part in the film would end up being one of the most coveted leading ladies of the 21st century.

But Charlize Theron grew beyond her supporting actress roles when she headlined her first action movie, Æon Flux, in 2005. Despite the film tanking critically and commercially at the box office, Theron caught the eye of Hollywood filmmakers. Before the decade was out, she was being hauled in to steer major franchises, the most impressive of which was George Miller’s Mad Max reboot with 2015’s fiery recreation of apocalyptic rage and vengeance in Fury Road.

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy in Fury Road (2015)

Within two more years, Charlize Theron was spearheading as the primary (and seductively psychopathic) antagonist of the Fast & Furious franchise, helming the Cold War era action movie, Atomic Blonde – a film epic enough in its scale and ambitious direction to impress even Quentin Tarantino, and going on to snag a role in one of Netflix’s most-streamed movies to date, The Old Guard.

Charlize Theron returned as Cipher in Fast X which is currently playing in theatres worldwide.