Gary Oldman said he clashed with director Francis Ford Coppola while filming Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992, telling an audience that all directors are a little crazy.
The Oscar-winning actor, 68, said his overall experience working with Coppola and co-stars Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves on the gothic horror drama was a good one. He said he wanted to make the film solely because of Coppola, the acclaimed director behind The Godfather.
Speaking on a panel at the Toronto International Film Festival, Oldman said the interesting part was seeing how Coppola would approach his own vision of Dracula, adding that they sometimes met creatively and sometimes clashed. He was responding to a question about the production of the 1992 film, which later grossed $216 million worldwide.
Oldman said he was not particularly proud of some of the behavior behind the cameras, nor of footage that captured the dynamic between the actors and crew on set. He described that period as a lesson in how to better manage professional relationships later in his career.
Apocalypse Now Clip and a Reconciliation at Cannes
Oldman recalled that when he later moved into directing, he used a clip from Apocalypse Now in his own film and had to ask Coppola for permission. Coppola granted it for free, telling people that Gary could take whatever he wanted, Oldman said. He added that he later saw Coppola again in Cannes, and whatever differences they had at the time were resolved.
Praise for Coppola's Directing Style
Oldman also praised Coppola's distinctive approach to directing, recalling that Coppola would talk to him while a scene was being filmed, as though they were shooting a silent movie. He then imitated some of the instructions he said Coppola would shout at him in the middle of a tense scene, joking that everyone on set was a little crazy, which drew laughter from the audience.
Directors are all very strange, Oldman said, adding that they are geniuses, that some of them are close friends of his, but that they are all a bit crazy. He said the way to handle it is to adapt, telling himself that one director is simply like that, or that another wants 100 takes, and that he will surrender to the process.
Winona Ryder's On-Set Claims
Stories about the production of Bram Stoker's Dracula have circulated in the film industry for years. Winona Ryder said in a 2020 interview with the Sunday Times that Coppola had asked other actors on set to shout insults at her during key scenes.
Coppola responded at the time in a statement given to Entertainment Weekly, saying he considered Ryder an excellent actress but that the incident she described did not happen the way she described it, and that shouting at or mistreating people was not something he did, either as a person or as a director.
Coppola said that in the specific instance, which he remembered clearly, he had instructed Oldman, staying in character as Dracula, to whisper improvised lines to Ryder, as he did with other characters, making them as horrifying and vicious as possible. He said he did not know exactly what was said, but that improvisation was a common practice in filmmaking.
A representative for Ryder later confirmed Coppola's account in a new statement, saying that Winona and Francis agreed and that his memory was correct. The representative said Coppola had asked actors, while staying in character, to say terrible things to Ryder as a technique meant to help her cry on camera. Although the technique did not work in her case, the representative said Ryder loves and respects Coppola and considers it an honor to have worked with him.
