Keanu Reeves Refused Directions To Verbally Abuse Winona Ryder On Set Of 'Dracula'

Add this to our ever-growing list of reasons to love Keanu Reeves

There are already so many reasons to love Keanu Reeves, who may just be the least problematic man in Hollywood. He dates women his own age, rather than an endless parade of 22-year-old models (not pointing any fingers here, Leo). He raises tons of money to support charities for kids. Just name him Person of the Year already (and someone please get me the Keanu coloring book while we’re at it, please and thank you).

Now we have yet another reason to love the guy, ready to add to the list. Winona Ryder recently did an interview with the Sunday Times where she talked about starring alongside Reeves in the 1992 film Dracula, the first film the two actors did together. In one scene, Ryder was required to look shocked and scared. In order to get her to cry more, director Francis Ford Coppola started yelling at her off-camera, calling her a whore and encouraging all the other men on set to do the same.

“But Keanu wouldn’t,” Ryder said. Of course he wouldn’t, because that’s a pretty messed up thing to do and it’s just not his style. Ryder did also add that her other co-stars, Anthony Hopkins and Richard E. Grant, also refused to participate.

Insert eye roll here at the fact that Ryder said she and Coppola “are good now.” But what I truly love about this story is that it was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between her and Reeves. They went on to work on three more movies together — 2006’s A Scanner Darkly, 2009’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, and 2o18’s Destination Wedding — but more than that, it seems like they hang out in their free time, too.

“I love Keanu,” Ryder said in the interview. “We’re great friends. I miss him so much, and it’s hard because he’s not far, just over there,” she added, pointing out the window of her home. So they’re neighbors, too? We can’t even handle how much we love this.

Ryder continued, “That’s the hardest thing, I don’t know with this virus, can you just go over and …?”

The Sunday Times wrote that when the interviewer suggested she go for a socially distanced walk in the neighborhood with Reeves, Ryder lit up and said, “I’m going to call Keanu!”

Hopefully, these two sweet friends are enjoying all the walks around their neighborhood now. They both deserve it.