Winona Ryder

 Winona Ryder pitched "Dracula" (1992) to Francis Ford Coppola. She had been given a pile of scripts by her agent, one of which was titled "Dracula: The Untold Story." This was the first time Ryder had ever read anything to do with Dracula, let alone see a film about him. She gave Coppola the script, when they met to discuss a possible adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Coppola was interested in Dracula as he saw it as a bridge-building exercise between him and Ryder after she had dropped out of "The Godfather: Part III" (1990).

Ryder's departure from that film created a major fuss on set and in the media. Ryder did actually arrive on set to perform the part of Mary Corleone, but ultimately backed out. She arrived on set in Rome, two days after completing work on "Mermaids" (1990) in Massachusetts, but passed out immediately in her hotel room upon arrival, and was eventually diagnosed with exhaustion. Following her departure of the film, several headlines were created about the exit, either claiming that she was pregnant, that she had a nervous breakdown, that drugs were involved, that her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp was having an affair and making her crazy, or that Depp talked her out of doing the film so that she could appear in "Edward Scissorhands" (1990). On set, Ryder's replacement of the untested Sofia Coppola was a divisive choice among the cast of the film, and more than one name player reportedly threatened to quit the movie. Meanwhile, Ryder, still recovering, was threatened with lawsuits from several parties, including Paramount Pictures.

However, Ryder met a lot of support and empathy from the cast, including Diane Keaton and Al Pacino, who checked up on her many times through those weeks.

Coppola explains on the DVD commentary for "Dracula" that Mina and Harker's wedding was a re-shoot done at a Los Angeles Greek Orthodox church. They filmed the entire ceremony with a genuine Romanian Orthodox minister, and realized afterwards that Ryder and Reeves may have really been married to each other. Reeves has since confessed that he often gets text messages from Ryder that read "Hello, husband", and that they are both completely fine with it.

According to Coppola, much of the cast was assembled as Ryder's "dream cast", including Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Reeves, and Richard E. Grant. However, Oldman and Ryder did not get along well at all during filming. The rest of the cast was shocked because the two had been friendly during rehearsals, then came back from a break in the schedule seemingly hating each other, with no indication given (then or later) as to what had happened.

Happy Birthday, Winona Ryder!