Keanu Reeves Tried Way Too Hard To Perfect An English Accent For His Gothic Horror Masterpiece

Accents can be tricky, just ask Don Cheadle about his "Oceans" movies or Russell Crowe about "Robin Hood" (actually, probably best not too considering how upset he got the last time). The point is that accents can be tough for even celebrated thespians, which meant Keanu Reeves was really up against it when he had to affect a 19th Century aristocratic British tone for 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula." The result was about as horrible as his previous attempt in 1988's "Dangerous Liaisons" and according to "Dracula" director Francis Ford Coppola, it all came down to trying too hard.

"Bram Stoker's Dracula" remains a bloody, gothic delight to this day, reinventing Stoker's oft-reinterpreted 1897 novel while still managing to stay true to the source material. Pretty much everything about Coppola's take on the age-old tale worked, except perhaps for Reeves' portrayal of English solicitor Jonathan Harker, who travels to Transylvania to attend to his predecessor, R.M. Renfield's client Count Dracula (Gary Oldman). As anyone familiar with the original story will know, things quickly go awry when the Count becomes obsessed with Harker's fiancé Mina Murray (Winona Ryder), who he believes to be the reincarnated version of his former love.

But things sort of went awry from the outset as Reeves couldn't believably portray a member of the British upper class. Sure, he was charming in the way he always is, but his accent in particular left much to be desired. According to Coppola, it was all due to the fact Reeves was taking things too seriously. The director told Entertainment Weekly, "We knew that it was tough for him to affect an English accent. He tried so hard. That was the problem, actually — he wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted."

During his EW interview Francis Ford Coppola remembered trying to help Keanu with his accent. "I tried to get him to just relax with it and not do it so fastidiously," he said. "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." You can hardly blame him for being charmed by literally the most charming man in Hollywood. Still, as the man in charge Coppola surely shares some of the blame for an accent that was undeniably distracting.

Reeves has been quoted elsewhere as saying he was burnt out prior to making "Bram Stoker's Dracula." That might have explained some aspects of a performance that The Independent's Adam Mars-Jones described as "plain bad," adding that Reeves spoke "as if English vowels had been injected into his gums during a painful session at the dentist's." Confronted with that particular explanation, Coppola went on to say Reeves' exhaustion might have detracted from his performance, adding, "I know the critics gave him trouble about the accent. But of all the young people I've met in the film industry he's so endearing and sincere, and a good person, and a generous person, and I'm glad I came to know that. He's the nicest person you'll ever want to meet."

Again, nobody is going to argue with that. Unfortunately Reeves kept giving critics opportunities to attack when he once again tried to put on a period-accurate British accent for 1993's "Much Ado About Nothing." Unlike Robert Pattinson's enjoyably barmy movie accents or Tom Hardy's fascinatingly weird accents, Reeves' were just sort of bad — not that he cares now that he's the biggest action star in the world.