Trivia: Winona Ryder saw the script when it was originally going to be made as a TV movie, directed by Michael Apted. She took the script to Francis Ford Coppola, whom she had not spoken to since withdrawing from The Godfather: Part III (1990) due to exhaustion six months earlier. Coppola agreed to make the film, and Apted stayed on as executive producer.
Prince Vlad's scream after he drives his sword into the cross is not the voice of Gary Oldman. Lux Interior, lead singer of punk band The Cramps, recorded the scream and it was dubbed in.
Sadie Frost dyed her brown hair red after concerns that she resembled Winona Ryder too much.
In an attempt to elicit more emotion, Coppola shouted "*****" and "****" while filming the scene when Van Helsing catches Mina with Dracula.
Anthony Hopkins also plays Cesare, the priest who tells Dracula that Elisabeta's soul is damned; and he provides the voice-over sequence during the narrative for the Captain of the Demeter.
Red jelly was used for the blood.
Earnings from the film was enough to save Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola's studio) from bankruptcy after suffering from financial difficulties and liabilities of $27 million over the past 3 years.
When Mina recalls her previous life as Elisabeta she says she remembers a land beyond a great forest. "Land beyond the forest" is the literal meaning of Transylvania.
Among the moving-picture displays in the scene where the prince and Mina first converse is a shadow-figure show depicting the battle between Vlad's army and the Turks.
The shot of Keanu Reeves's character entering Dracula's castle was filmed in reverse, making his entrance a bit more ominous.
Ian Dury was among those interviewed for Renfield.
Steve Buscemi was the first choice to play Renfield but turned down.
The coach scene before the arrival of Keanu Reeves at the castle (including the slow-motion horses) is taken directly from Mario Bava's Maschera del demonio, La (1960).
Francis Ford Coppola has openly criticized his own reasoning for casting Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker. According to him, he needed a young, hot star that would connect with the girls.
The painting of Count Dracula which Jonathan Harker mentions after his arrival at the castle, is in fact a self portrait of Albrecht Dürer (a German painter, 1471-1528), but with Gary Oldman's face (the face of the young Count).
Mina walks past an advertisement for the Lyceum Theatre and Henry Irving. Dracula author Bram Stoker managed the Lyceum, and Sir Henry Irving is rumored to be one of the primary inspirations for the character of Count Dracula.
At the first "cast meeting" called by Francis Ford Coppola, he got all the principal actors to read the entire Bram Stoker novel out loud to get a feel for the story. According to Anthony Hopkins, it took two whole days to complete.
The little girl who played the child carried into the crypt by Lucy was genuinely terrified of Sadie Frost in her vampire make-up, and obviously wasn't expecting to do more than one take. Director Francis Ford Coppola and Sadie Frost had to do a lot of sweet-talking to the child in order to get her back in Sadie's arms for another go at the scene.
Costume Designer Eiko Ishioka was from Japan, and because the costumes had a Kabuki theater-like appearance, Gary Oldman's wig maker and hair designer Stuart Artingstall studied traditional Kabuki and Geisha hair styles and incorporated them into her unique and elaborate designs. Each wig was "built" and took many hours of painstaking work to thread each hair in a base individually, as is done in traditional opera companies do.
Gary Oldman was quite drunk the night they filmed the scene where he had to lick blood from Keanu Reeve's straight razor. The scene was filmed far beyond midnight, which added to the spirit of the scene and helped put the cast "in the proper mood".
It is well known that Ryder did not like Oldman and between scenes she avoided him whenever she could. She particularly did not enjoy the scene where Oldman met her in the picture show the first time and comforts her when she is terrorized by a white wolf. She complained that by having to stoop to his level, she was getting "charley horses" and wanted to make the intimate takes as brief as possible.
It was Winona Ryder who brought the idea of redoing Bram Stoker's novel to Francis Ford Coppola's attention. She had been given a pile of scripts by her agent, one of which was entitled "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. Coppola was interested as he saw it as a bridge-building exercise between him and Ryder after she had inexplicably dropped out of The Godfather: Part III (1990).
To keep the budget manageable, Columbia insisted that the film be shot in Los Angeles and not on location.
Among those who auditioned for the part of Dracula were Andy Garcia (who had concerns over the number of sex scenes), Gabriel Bryne, Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas and Viggo Mortensen.
Sadie Frost didn't bother auditioning for the part of Lucy as she figured that she was too physically similar to Winona Ryder. It was only after Francis Ford Coppola had real trouble casting the part, and had happened to see Frost's performance in Diamond Skulls (1989), that she was approached.
The blue flame that the coach crosses over to enter the castle is mentioned in the original book. In the novel it is explained that on one night every year blue flames are seen over areas containing hidden treasures.
Dracula's final Kabuki dress is directly inspired by a Gustav Klimt painting known as "The kiss"
Prior to Sadie Frost's casting as Mina, 'Juliette Lewis' was the first choice for the role of Lucy.
Liam Neeson was considered for, and very much wanted, the role of Van Helsing, but after Anthony Hopkins, still riding the success of The Silence of the Lambs (1991), showed interest in the role, Neeson was ultimately turned down.
