In a very recent episode of the podcast “Inside of You”, comedian Keanu Reeves makes a delicious (dare we say…) confession about filming Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula.
If the indestructible myth of the vampire count, born from the pen of Bram Stoker, has been revisited more than 200 times on screen, the version delivered by Coppola is undoubtedly the one that is most faithful to the original work.
Released 30 years ago, his version of Dracula, carried at arm’s length by an extraordinary Gary Oldman in the guise of the Prince of the Night, is a pure masterpiece.
Prominent among the headliners is Keanu Reeves. Still considered a promising young actor in the eyes of the general public, but also as a muse of American independent cinema, Keanu Reeves was entrusted with the role of Jonathan Harker.
However, his performance was quite criticized, due to his English accent used in the film. A British accent with which the latter was not comfortable, but which according to him does not detract from the qualities of the film.
In an interview given to Entertainment Weekly in 2015, Francis Ford Coppola will make amends by taking responsibility for this bad impression on the actor’s performance. The fault is the filmmaker’s perfectionism, which would have somewhat “paralyzed” the actor.
“It was really difficult for him to do the English accent. He tried so hard. That was the problem, he wanted to do it perfectly, and it came out stilted. I tried to get him to to relax, and not do it in such a tedious way.
So maybe I wasn’t as critical of him, but that’s because I love him so much personally. To this day, he is a prince in my eyes.”
Not necessarily to upset the actor too much, who even gave him a strange gift on the film set. Guest on the podcast Inside of YouKeanu Reeves reveals that he gave the filmmaker hallucinogenic mushrooms for his birthday during filming!
“I heard it was his birthday, so I brought him some mushrooms [hallucinogènes]”. “How did he react?” asks the host. “He took them, and he had a great birthday!”