Winona Ryder says Francis Ford Coppola asked Keanu Reeves to verbally abuse her on ‘Dracula’ set, but he refused

Winona Ryder said that her “Dracula” co-star Keanu Reeves refused to make her cry by yelling insults at her, as requested by director Francis Ford Coppola to benefit a scene.

In a recent interview with U.K.‘s The Sunday Times, the Golden Globe-winning actress said that her longtime friendship with the actor began when he refused to follow instructions by Coppola to make her weep, during the filming of the 1992 horror “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

During a scene when Dracula (played by Gary Oldman) turns into a pile of rats, Ryder’s character, Mina Harker, was supposed to react in horror and shock.

The legendary director wanted the young actress, who was about 20 at the time, to cry.

According to Ryder, to achieve the desired emotional effect, Coppola started shouting insults at her — including “You wh--e!” — and told her male co-stars to join in.

“To put it in context, I’m supposed to be crying,” she told the publication.

“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,” she said.

“I was, like, really? It kind of did the opposite.”

The 48-year-old actress, who currently stars in the hit Netflix science fiction drama “Stranger Things,” also added that her relationship with Coppola, 81, is “good now.”

Ryder and Reeves have maintained their friendship since “Dracula.”

Last year, the 55-year-old actor said during an appearance on “The Talk” that occasionally Ryder calls him “husband” — as part of an ongoing pop culture tale.

In 2018, Ryder told Entertainment Weekly that she thought that the pair is “married in real life,” playfully referring to their characters’ wedding in the film.

“In that scene, Francis used a real Romanian priest,” she said. “We shot the master and he did the whole thing. So I think we’re married.”