InBill & Teds Excellent Adventure, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter play Platonic ideals of 80s suburban California youth.
But the first face you see in the beloved film is older, and wiser.
Rufus was originally a 27-year-old sophomore, says Ed Solomon, who co-wrote theBill & Tedmovies with Chris Matheson.
Keanu Reeves, Alex Winters, and George Carlin in ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures’.Everett Collection
We never explained it initially.
Rufus would now travel back from that future, with a chrono-hopping phone booth.
When we found out it was Carlin, we were honestly kind of blown away.
Then he shows up, and hes this larger than life, beautiful, spiritual, incredible human being.
He was super soft spoken, says Reeves.
He was not one of those guys who wants to take over a room.
I remember him really kind of finding Rufus, playing with a couple things, just being very modest.
Was that okay?'
Reeves recalls the comedian asking his starstruck costars.
Its okay, George.'
Reeves also remembers, with great fondness, of his final interactions with Carlin on the set ofExcellent Adventure.
That takes a beautiful spirit to do that, says Winter.
Its so awesome, Reeves agrees.
Does he still have the autograph?
You know what happened, Reeves says.
Even better, though says Winter.
Its just the ethereal nature of life.
