Winona Ryder became so famous at the start of her career that it began costing her jobs she really wanted because “there was baggage” that came with her being in a project.
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The Oscar-nominated actress spoke with Esquire UK ahead of the release of her upcoming film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , during which she opened up about her fame, being bullied after the first Beetlejuice , Stranger Things and more.
Ryder explained she hit a point in her career where she was being pushed to do mainstream blockbusters that she wasn’t particularly interested in. She felt the industry started to associate her with the kind of movie she didn’t want to make. And when it came to the ones she did want to make, her fame began to get in the way.
There was an obsession surrounding her personal life and her love life, and “trying to convince someone to ignore the noise around me was tough. I saw it in their eyes. I lost a lot of parts because of that,” she told the publication.
“I’m not in any way complaining,” she added, “but there was this whole time when I felt like I would be a distraction, as well. I got it. Certainly, in the 1990s, I became aware of that. And there was a switching-of-the-guard feeling, too. As you get older there are these new, younger actresses. It’s so drilled into you how disposable actresses can be, our shelf life. You hear it all the time.”
Ryder’s breakthrough role came when she was 16, as she portrayed Lydia Deetz in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice , opposite Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis , among others. While the film was a hit, it didn’t seem to matter to her high school classmates.
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“I remember thinking that it was going to, like, change my status, and it made it worse,” she said. “They were like, ‘You’re a witch! You’re a freak!’ It amplified it. I was like, ‘But I’m in a movie!’”
For much of the early 2000s, the actress took somewhat of a step back from acting, appearing in smaller projects than previously. When she landed the role of Joyce Byers in Stranger Things , Ryder found her way back into the zeitgeist in a way she hadn’t been for a long time.
She was the original draw for the now-hit Netflix series, which is currently filming its fifth and final season in Atlanta. In the Esquire profile, the Heathers star acknowledged she’s “not oblivious” to the fact that she was cast for the “element of nostalgia” she brought to the 1980s-set sci-fi show, as that’s when she first broke into the industry.
“I’ve gone from being the youngest person on set to being the oldest,” she said, pointing out it’s been 10 years since they first began filming the Emmy-nominated series. “I never thought. [At first] I was like, ‘I don’t want to be doing this when I’m in my fifties!’ It’s nuts, and it’s extra nuts to be my age. But I love the boys and I love Sadie [Sink] and Maya [Hawke]. It’s been really wonderful.”
She also noted that she brought a bit of her knowledge of a 1980s woman. “I really fought for [Joyce’s] flaws,” Ryder added. “I didn’t want to be like supermom. I wanted her to be one of these women I saw [in the movies of the 1970s and 1980s], that was just doing the best they can.”
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