Veteran actor and filmmaker Alex Winter is currently experiencing what he describes as a 'complete time-bend' as he returns to Broadway after decades away from the stage. The 60-year-old performer is starring alongside his longtime friend and Bill & Ted co-star Keanu Reeves in a celebrated revival of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, marking a significant full-circle moment in his varied career.
Broadway Reunion with Keanu Reeves
Six weeks into their 16-week Broadway run, Winter and Reeves have reunited as Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett's absurdist masterpiece. Despite both performers having extensive experience, Winter admits to experiencing moments of 'similar state of terror' with Reeves during their first previews. 'I was looking at Keanu, who's in a similar state of terror,' Winter recalls. 'And it would have worried me if either of us were like, 'whatever.''
The production represents a three-year collaboration between the two actors, who first found fame together in 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Winter describes their on-stage chemistry as being 'like being in a band', with both performers sharing bass guitar backgrounds. 'Sometimes we're on a fucking groove and we look at each other and go: 'God damn, that was good! Where the fuck did that come from?'' he reveals.
From Child Actor to Documentarian
Winter's return to Broadway closes a loop that began when he was just 13 years old, making his debut opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I. He spent most of his high school years in Peter Pan, playing John Darling alongside Sandy Duncan. However, this period also brought prolonged sexual abuse that left him with 'extreme PTSD' and mental health challenges he only began publicly addressing in 2018.
Following his early success in The Lost Boys and the Bill & Ted franchise, Winter dramatically shifted course in his mid-twenties. 'I just wanted to get the hell out of the public eye,' he explains. He moved to London, started a family, began therapy, and established a production company. This reinvention led to his current status as a respected documentarian, having explored topics from Napster and Bitcoin to the Panama Papers and YouTube's societal impact.
New Film and AI Concerns
This season also brings the release of Adulthood, Winter's first film as director in over a decade. The black comedy features Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario as siblings who discover a skeleton in their parents' basement, triggering a spiral of bad decisions. Winter describes the film as being 'about the unrelenting and unspoken impossibility of living in this culture today' and the fallacy of the middle class in countries actively hollowing it out.
As someone who has chronicled the internet's evolution, Winter now has his sights trained on artificial intelligence. During the recent writers' and actors' strikes, he served as an interlocutor, running Zoom consortiums with AI technologists and experts. He's critical of much current AI discourse, stating 'most of the criticism is really fucking dumb' when it comes to proposed regulations.
While Winter acknowledges there are 'smart people with good morals' in the AI space (excluding OpenAI's Sam Altman), he predicts 'an enormous amount of carnage on the way to things being OK.' He observes that across industries from Hollywood to journalism, 'people are getting fired all over the place. They're not getting replaced by a robot. They're just not getting replaced.'
Winter finds contemporary resonance in his current Broadway role, particularly a line from Godot where Vladimir states 'We got rid of our rights.' 'Every night, I say that line to Keanu,' Winter notes ruefully. 'We were fucking idiots. We did it again.' As ever, the show goes on, with Adulthood available on digital platforms from 17 November.
