Winona Ryder Recalls Keanu Reeves Sticking Up for Her on the Set of Dracula

We’ve all heard how good of a guy Keanu Reeves is — the stories aren’t at all uncommon. In case you still had reservations all these years later, Winona Ryder is here to set you straight. Ryder, who appeared with Reeves in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Dracula nearly 30 years ago, said during a recent interview the actor refused to verbally harass her, despite Coppola’s insistence during a time on set. In a recent chat with The Sunday Times, Ryder says there was a scene in Dracula where Coppola felt she wasn’t crying enough.

In an attempt to fix the situation, Coppola then directed those involved on set to insult the actress. Ryder says Coppola himself was the primary instigator, himself shouting insults that included “You whore!”

“To put it in context I’m supposed to be crying,” Ryder told the Times. “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.”

She added, “I was, like, really? It kind of did the opposite.” In the same chat, she said the moment helped lead to her lifetime relationship with Reeves. In fact, two years ago the two made the news because Coppola revealed he thought the two were legitimately married during a scene on set.

“We actually got married in Dracula,” Ryder explained. “No, I swear to god I think we’re married in real life… In that scene, Francis [Ford Coppola] used a real Romanian priest. We shot the master and he did the whole thing. So I think we’re married.”

Shortly after, Reeves joked he’d routinely get text messages from Ryder about the situation.

“Once in a while, I will get a text: ‘Hello, husband,’” he said at the time. “I didn’t really believe her, and then Francis Ford Coppola, the director of Dracula, contacted Winona and said publicly that, yeah, that really happened, the priest did a full ceremony, and Winona and I got married.”

Ryder will next be in Stranger Things 4, which will pick production back up shortly. Reeves was in the middle of shooting The Matrix 4 when things shut down. The movie is now expected to hit theaters April 1, 2022 a month or so before he’s also set to appear in John Wick: Chapter 4.