Ana de Armas gets candid about Keanu Reeves amid Tom Cruise split

Ana de Armas made her way from Cuba to Hollywood.

During one In the Conversation session at the Red Sea International Film Festival on Friday, the actress opens up about her longtime friendship with Keanu Reeves and her unexpected turn to action movies.

De Armas recalled meeting Reeves shortly after arriving in Los Angeles for her first US film, Knock Knock. “When I first moved to Los Angeles, we did Knock Knock together, and at the time I barely spoke English,” he said.

“We bonded really well and have a beautiful friendship.” She described Reeves as “incredibly kind and generous”, adding that the Ballerina reunion “felt full circle… to have him there, supporting me ten years later, meant a lot”.

Her acting career, she said, took off unexpectedly. “I never thought of myself as athletic or doing action movies,” he noted, citing No Time to Die, The Gray Man, Ghosted and Ballerina as landmarks. The training, he admitted, was exhausting: “It was exhausting – but I enjoyed it. I learned so much.”

De Armas also reflected on her childhood in Cuba – “I had a very happy childhood… I always knew I wanted to be an actor. There was no Plan B” – and her early start at theater school in Havana before moving to Madrid with just “300 euros”.

Her success in Hollywood came along Blade Runner 2049which he called “a dream”. she said There is no time for death marked a turning point: “Those fifteen minutes on screen changed my life.”

Her Oscar-nominated performance in Blonde it was transformative. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but also the most beautiful… It changed the way I approach acting.”

Now, she’s focused on finding roles that challenge her. “Sometimes what the industry offers is not what I want to do… I’m not here to play it safe.”