Winona Ryder Used To Write About Keanu Reeves in Her Diary
Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves share a beautiful friendship that has lasted for over 30 years. Although they have been pals since 1989 when they met at the Independent Spirit Awards, they became even closer while starring together in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The 1992 film proved to be one of the most challenging films that Ryder ever had to make, yet Reeves was her beacon of hope to get her through that tough time.
And because of her appreciation for the John Wick star, she recently revealed that she would write about him frequently in her journals.
Winona Ryder is the reason Keanu Reeves got cast in ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’
According to Francis Ford Coppola, he originally wanted Johnny Depp to star alongside Ryder in the movie. Considering the actors were engaged at the time, he thought having her actual love interest in the film would prove to be an exciting experiment.
Yet sadly, the casting directors thought Depp wasn’t a big enough actor for the film (at the time.) Instead, they wanted a bigger name for the role so more people would come to see it. So when Coppola asked Ryder who should star in the movie as her love interest, she didn’t hesitate to answer. She said, “Keanu Reeves.”
“Winona Ryder in those days was going out with Johnny Depp,” Copolla revealed. “And I wanted Johnny to have the part of Jonathan Harker. The studio thought he wasn’t enough of a star. I was so embarrassed. So I said to Winona, ‘What do you think? Who do you think they would think is a star who would want to do it?’ And she said Keanu. I just thought he was a very nice person. I was so touched by his sincerity.”
Winona would write about how thankful she was for Keanu in her diary
It is common knowledge that Ryder struggled behind the scenes of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Considering the film’s ominous nature, the Beetlejuice star found herself in a dark headspace throughout the shooting process. Several of her scenes proved to be quite tricky, and she had a hard time getting along with Gary Oldman, whose method acting interfered with their real life relationship.
Yet fortunately, Reeves was able to help her through the troublesome shoot.
“I have these journals, and I just pulled one out recently, and it was from around the time of Dracula,” she reveals in an interview with Vanity Fair. “The text: ‘angst, angst, angst, angst, thank God for Keanu. Thank God I’m going to see Keanu.'”
“I was always just so happy when you were around because there was so much, sort of, trauma,” Ryder tells Reeves.
Are Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves married in real life?
In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Ryder and Reeves’ characters get married by a real Romanian priest. Because of this, Ryder thinks the actors are married in real life.
The Stranger Things star is so insistent that they’re an actual couple that she refers to Reeves as her “husband.”
“Once in a while, I will get a text (from Ryder), that says ‘Hello, husband,'” Reeves tells PEOPLE. “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.”
