Keanu Reeves' British accent in Dracula is scarier than anything the Count himself could
conjure — but what exactly went wrong?
Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation of Dracula is more than 30 years old, and it's
an exquisite tale of love, horror, and tragedy that does justice to Bram Stoker's original
novel.
Few Dracula movies have managed to get as close to the book in spirit and story, and
Coppola's is a favorite among many horror fans for this very reason.
With that said, one performance that doesn't really stand the test of time comes from a
now-beloved actor: Keanu Reeves.
Reeves' performance wasn't well received back in 1992, and unfortunately, it's unlikely
to be rehabilitated with time.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Reeves portrays Jonathan Harker, a solicitor who travels to
Transylvania after his colleague, R.M.
Renfield, is mysteriously driven insane.
This leaves an opportunity for Harker to take over Renfield's old clients, including one
Count Dracula.
Harker arrives in Transylvania hoping to finalize business dealings with the Count over various
properties in London, but Dracula has other plans — especially upon discovering Harker's
photograph of his fiancé, Mina Murray.
Believing Mina to be the reincarnation of his deceased lover, the Count leaves Harker
to his three vampiric brides as he makes his way to London.
"Permit me to introduce myself.
I am Prince Vlad of Szekely."
Harker eventually escapes and sets out to fight back against Count Dracula and save
Mina's soul.
Looking back on Reeves' infamous performance as Jonathan Harker, Coppola has his own thoughts
as to why it all turned out…
like this.
"I doubted everything, even my mind.
I was impotent with fear."
When a perfectionist approach to filmmaking works, it really works — but, sometimes,
it can cause more trouble than it's worth.
Coppola is a pretty exacting director who expects a lot out of his actors, but that
need for perfection might have placed too much stress on Reeves' performance.
"Jonathan, what is it?"
"It is the man himself!
Look he’s grown young!"
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director explained:
"It was tough for him to affect an English accent.
He tried so hard.
That was the problem – he wanted to do it perfectly, and it came off as stilted.
I tried to get him to relax with it and not do it so fastidiously.
So maybe I wasn't as critical of him, but that's because I like him, personally, so
much.
To this day, he's a prince in my eyes."
Coppola's soft spot for the young actor may be to blame here, as well as Reeves' desire
for perfection, but there are also other factors to take into account.
Years after the release of the film, Reeves admitted that he was thoroughly exhausted
from back-to-back shoots before he took on the role of Jonathan Harker.
Notably, Reeves starred in three different movies in 1991, just before Dracula came along.
By the time he began shooting on Coppola's film, he just didn't have anything more to
give.
"No!"
There was one other factor working against Reeves: the sheer intensity of his co-stars.
Coppola pushed the cast of Dracula to really inhabit their characters, with Gary Oldman
allegedly spending a great deal of time sleeping in coffins and Cary Elwes, who played an aristocrat,
taking part in hunts on horseback.
Oldman's Dracula in particular is a force of nature, and when he goes up against Anthony
Hopkins' Van Helsing, almost any other actor is going to look flat by comparison.
All in all, it's a shame that Reeves pushed himself so hard to try and get the accent
right, because his performance as the wide-eyed, innocent Harker is otherwise great.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, all that intensity led to another classic Keanu Reeves moment
— one that proves a great Hollywood star is more than just an actor.
Winona Ryder, who was already apparently struggling with Gary Oldman's method approach to playing
Dracula, was, at Coppola's behest, verbally assaulted by various cast members in order
to get her to cry for a scene.
Reeves refused to participate, along with Hopkins, and Ryder went on to think of Reeves
as her "savior" on set.
The two have maintained a lifelong friendship ever since, forging something beautiful out
of a fairly ugly situation.