Have Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder been married for over 30 years?
Back in 1992, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves joined a brilliant cast comprised of Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Richard E Grant, Tom Waits and Sadie Frost in bringing Francis Ford Coppola’s vision of the story of Count Dracula to the big screen. The resultant gothic horror Bram Stoker’s Dracula might not be the best of any of the aforementioned film figures’ careers, but it serves as an important cultural moment nonetheless.
Reeves was responsible for portraying the solicitor Jonathan Harker, while Ryder portrayed his fiancée, Mina Murray, who sexually tantalises and romantically captivates Oldman’s Dracula. Critically, Reeves’ admittedly terrible performance and dodgy English accent brought ridicule. However, he was seemingly able to escape such scorn by going on to bigger and better things in the following years.
One thing from this period that would stick with Reeves for many decades, though—other than the tragic loss of My Own Private Idaho co-star and close friend River Phoenix—was the scene in which his character is wed to Ryder’s. In the marriage scene between Harker and Mina, Coppola used a real priest to conduct the ceremony, so according to the actors themselves, they are technically married.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in 2018, Ryder said of her prospective marriage to her Bram Stoker’s Dracula co-star, “We actually got married in Dracula. No, I swear to god, I think we’re married in real life. In that scene, Francis used a real Romanian priest. We shot the master, and he did the whole thing. So, I think we’re married.”
Reeves responded in the same interview with surprise, not initially remembering that he and Ryder had both said “I do”. However, after a while, the Point Break and The Matrix actor conceded, “Oh my gosh, we’re married”. At the time, the duo were promoting the film Destination Wedding, in which they played a pair of cynical wedding guests who reluctantly connected with one another.
Ryder and Reeves also starred together in Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, at which point they had been technically married for 14 years. Of course, it’s hard to say if the acting pair are married by law, but according to their admission and the comments of Coppola, who had once told The Guardian, “We realised that Keanu and Winona really are married as a result of this scene and this ceremony,” the pair are officially hitched.
However, the actors’ respective dating histories suggest that they don’t really see themselves as properly married. Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were dating while Ryder was making Bram Stoker’s Dracula, while the Beetlejuice and Stranger Things star has been with Scott Mackinalay Hahn since 2011. It’s unlikely that he would be best pleased with a Reeves-Ryder marriage, even if the pair do joke with one another that they are “husband and wife” via text.
But is Keanu Reeves married?
Like Ryder, unless somehow the marriage scene in Bram Stoker’s Dracula was legally binding (as some are willing to suggest it is), then Reeves has been free to date who he wishes. He had been with Jennifer Syme until her tragic death in 2001 and has been partnered with artist Alexandra Grant since 2018 – though not via marriage.
There’s certainly an element of fun when it comes to the way that both Ryder and Reeves approach their potential marriage, but there is often a laissez-faire attitude in Hollywood when it comes to tying the knot. Reeves and Ryder’s marriage seemingly can’t be proven or disproven with the proper documentation, so the real point is that they are great friends who have managed to transcend the limits of a legally binding marriage.
