Aziz Ansari’s Comeback: Keanu Reeves Joins Amid Controversy and Past Claims

There were anxious scenes outside New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Monday evening. 

Amid the roaring traffic and ceaseless footfall that typically defines Upper West Side Manhattan, a congregation of fans had gathered, cameras at the ready, desperate for a golden opportunity to meet one of the greatest Hollywood stars of this, or perhaps any other generation. 

Indeed, no one can attract a crowd quite like Keanu Reeves, the much loved American star who began his career as a time travelling teenager in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and continues that same career here, some four decades later, as a bearded, middle-aged angel in Good Fortune. 

And little wonder, given his legendary status as one of the nicest men in Hollywood, an actor whose seemingly boundless humility appears to be at odds with his status as one of the most famous men on the planet. 

Accompanied by long-term girlfriend Alexandra Grant, Reeves was at his affable best as the Lincoln Center aired a special screening of his new film, a supernatural comedy written and directed by Aziz Ansari, who also stars. 

But Ansari, who makes his directorial debut with the imminent release of Good Fortune, was curiously absent as guests walked the red carpet, posed for obligatory photos and made their way inside. 

Unlike his leading man, the auteur – better known for his stand-up comedy and a former role on hit US show Parks And Recreation – is viewed rather differently after clawing his way back from a career threatening allegations of sexual assault. 

One might forgive Ansari for hoping a little of Reeves’ enduring appeal rubs off on him as they promote the film while he attempts to recover from a more controversy – an ill-advised comedy show in Saudi Arabia. 

The comedian was one of the star performers at Riyadh Comedy Festival, held in the capital city of a country widely condemned for its appalling human rights record, when the two week event got underway on September 9. 

He wasn’t alone of course – Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson and Louis C.K were also among the US contingent, while Jimmy Carr and Jack Whitehall ensured Great Britain were well represented in the Saudi capital. 

But the event has come under fire from human rights groups who accuse the Saudi government of using the event to whitewash the country’s unsavoury image. 

Closer to home, Ansari’s involvement has done his own image no favours, for rather different reasons, with the comedian attempting to justify his trip to the Middle East during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

‘It’s a pretty brutal regime,’ Kimmel reminded him. ‘They’ve done a lot of horrible, horrible things.’

But Ansari, who was born into a Muslim family, said he had given his performance ‘a lot of thought,’ and he ultimately decided that ‘A comedy festival felt like something that’s pushing things to be more open and to push a dialogue.

‘You kind of have to make a choice of whether you’re going to isolate or engage. For me, especially being me and looking the way I do and being from a Muslim background, it felt like something I should be a part of,’ he said.

Appearing on the show to promote Good Fortune, Ansari admitted he planned to donate a portion of his fee from the Riyadh Comedy Festival to organisations including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

But on Thursday, Human Rights Watch announced that it ‘cannot accept’ the comedian’s donation, nor donations from any other comedians who performed at the festival and ‘generously offered to donate part of their performance fees,’ as reported by Variety.

‘But while we cannot accept, it is not too late for [the comedians] to call for the release of detained Saudi activists,’ said Joey Shea, a Human Rights Watch researcher focused on Saudi Arabia.

‘Human Rights Watch didn’t call for comedians to boycott the Riyadh Comedy Festival, but simply asked them to express their support for free speech by urging the release of Saudi activists unjustly imprisoned.’ 

Human Rights Watch’s Saudi Arabia researcher Shea previously said in September that ‘Comedians receiving hefty sums from Saudi authorities shouldn’t be silent on prohibited topics in Saudi like human rights or free speech.

‘Everyone performing in Riyadh should use this high-profile opportunity to call for the release of detained Saudi activists,’ she added.

Arvind Ganesan, the head of the economic justice and rights division overseer of fundraising policies for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement to Variety that the organization was ‘very mindful of our independence and objectivity’ and would therefore not be able to accept either direct government funding, or indirect funding in the form of donations from Riyadh Comedy Festival performers, as their fees came directly from Saudi Arabia.

He added that Human Rights Watch is also ‘very careful’ about the private funding that it accepts.

‘We have been critical of the comedians, including Mr. Ansari, who are performing in Saudi Arabia [because of] the government’s human rights record,’ Ganesan continued.

It’s a troubling turn of events for Ansari, who may well have been hoping to avoid further controversy after his career was threatened by allegations of sexual assault, levied by a female photographer in 2017. 

The unnamed woman, based in Brooklyn at the time of the alleged incident and speaking to women’s website Babe on the condition of anonymity, claimed she endured ‘violating night, and a painful one’ after visiting Ansari’s Manhattan apartment the previous year.  

According to the woman, Ansari repeatedly tried to pressure into having sex over the course of the night and ignored her verbal and nonverbal cues. 

She said they originally met at an Emmy Awards after-party in Los Angeles on September 17 2016, when she noticed they had both brought the same kind of film camera to the event. 

‘I stood up, and I’m like tipsy at this point and feeling really confident. I’m in a gown, and I walked up to Aziz and said, ‘What’d you just shoot with?” she recalled.

She said she exchanged phone numbers with Ansari at the party and later made plans for a date when they had both returned to New York.

On Monday, September 25, 2016, she said she went to Ansari’s swanky TriBeCa apartment, where they drank white wine and talked.

‘I didn’t get to choose and I prefer red, but it was white wine,’ she recalled.

Ansari then walked her a few blocks away to Grand Banks, an oyster bar on a historic wooden schooner on the Hudson River, she told the publication. She claims the dinner proceeded and Ansari seemed in a rush to get her elsewhere.

‘When the waiter came over he quickly asked for the check and he said like, ‘Let’s get off this boat’,’ before her wine glass was even empty, she said. ‘Like, he got the check and then it was bada-boom, bada-bing, we’re out of there.’

When the pair returned to his apartment on trendy Franklin Street, she said they kissed, but she declined sex when Ansari offered to get a condom.

She claims he performed oral sex on her and then asked her to reciprocate, which she did.

The woman claims he stuck his fingers down her throat and allegedly kept moving her hand towards his penis.

‘He probably moved my hand to his d**k five to seven times,” she said. “He kept doing it after I moved it away.

‘It was 30 minutes of me getting up and moving and him following and sticking his fingers down my throat again. It was really repetitive. It felt like a f***ing game.’

She said she couldn’t say whether Ansari was just clueless or actively ignoring her signals.

‘I know I was physically giving off cues that I wasn’t interested. I don’t think that was noticed at all, or if it was, it was ignored,’ she said.

She alleges that Ansari repeatedly asked her ‘Where do you want me to f**k you?’

When the woman stood up to leave, Ansari insisted on calling a car for her, she claims. He allegedly instructed her to use the name ‘Essence’ with the driver.

‘I cried the whole ride home. At that point I felt violated. That last hour was so out of my hand,’ she claimed. 

Remarkably, Ansari emerged chastened, but relatively unscathed as he addressed the following year, during a pop-up show at New York City’s Village Underground. 

‘There were times I felt really upset and humiliated and embarrassed, and ultimately I just felt terrible this person felt this way,’ he told those in attendance. 

‘But you know, after a year, how I feel about it is, I hope it was a step forward. It made me think about a lot, and I hope I’ve become a better person.

‘If that has made not just me but other guys think about this, and just be more thoughtful and aware and willing to go that extra mile, and make sure someone else is comfortable in that moment, that’s a good thing.’ 

‘I think it also just gave me perspective on my life. There was a moment where I was scared that I’d never be able to do this again,’ he said.

Ansari revealed that he’d always close out his stand-up shows saying ‘Thanks so much!’ but didn’t really mean it. It was just the protocol.

‘But now, I really mean it on a different level. You canceled whatever you were supposed to do tonight, and you came out in the cold, and you waited in line, and you put your phone in a stupid pouch,’ he said.

‘You did all this s**t just to hear me talk for an hour and some change, and it means the world to me, so thank you so much,’ he added.

Bridge over troubled water, one might say, but as Good Fortune prepares for release and Ansari embarks on a new career behind the camera, only time will tell if the levees break…