Keanu Reeves has made the surprise confession that he sees a psychotherapist.

The actor – usually protective about his private life – spoke to reporters at the Cannes Film Festival to launch sci-fi animation A Scanner Darkly.

Work on the new film having finished 18 months ago, he was asked what he had been doing in the last year.

"I started some therapy. I was doing some personal work," he responded, after some thought, before discussing his new therapist's techniques. "This guy kind of changes his deal.

"If we're talking about youth stuff, he tends to be Freudian, it seems. And then, as we kind of go into more newer stories, it seems like a Jungian kind of thing."

"Why now?" enquired a journalist "Why not now? It had to happen some time," Reeves reasoned. "I guess it was just time. I had that classic moment of turning 40 and all of that kind of stuff.

"And working a lot. And it was just time to stand still for a second. But now I'm ready to go work."