Skywalking | |
| Age: | 20s |
| Occupation: | War veteran and chocolates salesman |
| Is That Like An Insurance Salesman? | No, better. You can't eat insurance. |
| Distinguishing Feature: | A hat. |
| That's Not A Distinguishing Feature: | Yes it is. When have you ever seen Paul without a hat? |
What About Here:  | There is a hat. Your eyes deceive you. Look closely:  |
Keanu Reeves
Paul's a simple man, straight ahead, fairly good natured, kind. He's an orphan and he's coming back from the Second World War, fighting in the Pacific, and his experiences. I think have created in him a sense of sensitivity to emotions and people -- he just wants to have a family and a wife. For him, it was about taking responsibility for himself and for the others around him. I was attracted by the passion of the character. There is an honor about him. I wanted to have a man who through his experiences had come back desperately lonely, had seen death, and that caused in him an appreciation for life.
Through my imagination, I was trying to figure out what makes my character so sensitive. Why does he care about life so much? What does he want? I imagined this experience where I was coming up toward this Japanese stronghold with my partner. I imagined that he was beside me, and then I heard this sound. And I looked over and... his jaw was gone. And there was all this blood, and he was making these sounds.
That was probably one of the more enjoyable aspects of the role, the preparation of Paul in myself - how he was when he came off the boat. I really had a great time doing imaginative work, creating the events that happened to him in Japan, that sensitised him to life and the preciousness of life. It was great fun to play a person who felt like that. It was great to come back as someone who just cared and just wanted to give. It was one of the best elements of the film, that and how he cared about Victoria. It was just beyond his personality, it's just human. It was cool that I got to play that.