10 Movies That Ruined Perfect Casts With One Bad Choice
6. Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Keanu Reeves
Francis Ford Coppola’s sexy adaptation of the classic Gothic horror featured some impeccable casting: notably Gary Oldman, deliciously evil as the titular bloodsucker, and Anthony Hopkins hamming it up to his heart’s content as vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing. But the casting of Keanu Reeves, not exactly known for his acting range, as English solicitor Jonathan Harker was quite baffling.
Not only is his acting stiffer than all the wooden stakes in the film, Keanu also apparently had difficulty dropping his natural drawl (which, despite spending his formative years in Canada, is curiously California surfer dude) resulting in one of the most maligned interpretations of a British accent ever seen on film … or at least since Dick Van Dyke’s attempt at Cockney in Mary Poppins.
Thankfully the film didn’t suffer too much and received its fair share of praise, but it could’ve been a better movie entirely had the fate of Harker been in the hands of a more capable actor.