Winona Ryder Says Keanu Reeves Refused Coppola’s Direction To Insult Her On ‘Dracula’

Jun 25, 2020 by apost team

Keanu Reeves' gentle disposition once saved Winona Ryder from undue distress, the actress revealed in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times.

Everyone knows Winona Ryder, our horror queen from franchises such as Netflix's hit show, Stranger Things, and a more popular classic, Beetlejuice.

Our queen has performed in some of the most iconic roles of film history and has gained a place in the hearts of her fans. One person has been the most impacted by her existence, however, and that person is Keanu Reeves. As is we have ever needed proof that Hollywood has nice people, Keanu Reeves is here to show us the sweet side of Hollywood.

According to The Straits Times, in a statement to The Sunday Times, Winona Ryder says that her long friendship with Keanu Reeves began on the set of Dracula where Reeves was asked to insult his co-star to make her cry. He was told to do this by director Francis Ford Coppola during a vital scene of the movie.

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In this scene, Gary Oldman's Dracula was supposed to turn into a pile of rats causing Winona Ryder's character to act shocked. To make the scene more believable, Ryder was supposed to cry but had trouble getting the tears out.

Ryder tells us that the director thought that he could get her to cry if someone said hurtful things to her. In a seemingly outrageous course of action, Coppola even stood off-camera and repeatedly shouted, "You w****!" at her, hoping to drive her to the point of tears. When this tactic proved unsuccessful, the director instructed the other members of the cast to assist him in making Ryder cry.

"To put it in context, I'm supposed to be crying," Ryder stated in her interview. "Literally, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu (...) Francis was trying to get all of them to yell things that would make me cry. But Keanu wouldn't, Anthony wouldn't. It just didn't work. I was, like, really? It kind of did the opposite."

Reeves' refusal to insult Winona Ryder went a long way and resulted in a lasting friendship that has spanned decades. Ryder claims that Dracula was the film that started it all as it appeared early on in their careers. The film was a box office hit and gained $215 million globally with only a $40 million budget.

Ryder and Reeves would soon come together to co-star for several other films, including A Scanner Darkly (2006), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), and Destination Wedding (2018). Ryder recalls the negative reaction towards the last romantic-comedy film.

"It got the worst reviews," Ryder claims. "That movie, for some reason, every reviewer was like, 'This is the worst movie in the world,' and it was really rough." If you are wondering how the Dracula event impacted the relationship between Winona and Coppola, Ryder claims that she and the Oscar-winning director are on good terms. Ryder is now working on season four of Netflix's hit series, Stranger Things.

The actress is also in the middle of Emmys season for her supporting role in HBO limited series The Plot Against America by David Simon. Her last film release was Destination Wedding after it was greeted with negative reactions from critics and viewers.

Her lack of recent films may disappoint avid fans of Ryder, yet she has accumulated countless hits over her lifetime. If her presence in the film industry is missed, viewers can watch any of her previous films.

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