10 Brilliant Tweaks That Suddenly Made Actors Cool As F***

10. Keanu Reeves Got Long Hair & A Beard

Though it might seem like a distant memory these days, a decade ago Keanu Reeves' Hollywood career was in pretty damn rough shape, with 2013's big-budget flop 47 Ronin seemingly bringing his blockbuster days to an end.

But the very next year, John Wick of course surpassed any and all expectations by reinventing Reeves as a middle-aged action hero, in a movie which launched a now-five-movie franchise (including upcoming spin-off Ballerina).

While you can give a lot of the credit to the smart script and tight filmmaking, there's also one tweak to Reeves' appearance which restored a sense of cool he'd been lacking for forever - giving him longer hair and a beard.

Up until John Wick, Reeves was clean-shaven in the overwhelming majority of his films - though, ironically, not 47 Ronin. This certainly served him well enough as a younger man, but as he approached his fifties?

The shaggier, coarser look was just inherently better for portraying a grizzled, ageing hitman.

It, combined with the sheer bravura quality of the movie itself, made Keanu Reeves cool once again. Or as the character himself says, "Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back."