We didn’t need it, but Mrs.Ryder has just confirmed what we already knew about Keanu Reeves’ good heart.
Winona tells The Sunday Times (via The Independent) that her longtime friendship with Keanu Reeves started on the set of “Dracula”, when Reeves refused director Francis Ford Coppola’s direction to insult her (he was playing her fiancee) in order to make her cry during a scene.
In the scene in question, Gary Oldman (in the role of Dracula) turns into a pile of rats and Ryder’s character reacting in shock. Ryder was supposed to cry during the scene but was having trouble producing tears.
“To put it in context, I’m supposed to be crying,” Ryder said. “Literally, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu [Reeves]…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 Ryder was the beginning of a very long friendship.
As for Coppola, Ryder told The Times that she and the well known director “are good now.”