Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder is an American actress. One of the most profitable and iconic 1990s actresses, she made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. As Lydia Deetz, a goth teenager in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, she won critical acclaim and widespread recognition. After appearances in film and on television, Ryder continued her acting career with the cult film Heathers, a controversial satire of teenage suicide and high school life that has since become a landmark teen film. She later appeared...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth29 October 1971
CityOlmstead County, MN
CountryUnited States of America
You can't pay enough money to... cure that feeling of being broken and confused.
I thought it was a cool parallel. Being replaced by the young thing. I know that definitely happens in Hollywood. It's harder to find good roles, and suddenly there's new girls. I'm at that age I've been warned my whole life about.
I was very lucky because Tim Burton really gave me a career. I don't think Hollywood would've known what to do with me. If I hadn't done 'Beetlejuice,' I think I would've just gone back to my school.
I was not the first choice for Veronica in Heathers. I auditioned and they were like, "Oh, thanks." And I went to the Beverly Center to Macy's and had them do a makeover on me. I went back because I kind of knew that they thought I wasn't pretty enough. They were trying to get Jennifer Connelly.
Sometimes I'll watch a movie, and it's got some big star in it playing a working-class person, and the character is in a grocery store, and you can kind of tell, from just watching the scene, that this actor doesn't do their own shopping. So you have to have some sense of reality.
Dear Diary: My teen angst bullshit now has a body count.
Somehow I was invited to visit with Audrey Hepburn. I had this afternoon with her, and she gave me a couple things. She was so gracious and everything you would think that she would be.
When I met Johnny, I was pure virgin. He changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. My first real boyfriend. My first fiancé. The first guy I had sex with. So he'll always be in my heart. Forever. Kind of funny that word.
I write pretty much every day, but I don't have any desire to publish anything.
I was inspired by lots of people, certainly in acting and in writing and stuff, but I never wanted to be somebody else.
I was so lucky that I got to meet certain people. It came through Roddy McDowall, who had become a photographer and would do these portraits of celebrities. Then he would get another well-known person to write a thing. He photographed me when I was 15 or 16, and he got Jason Robards to write the thing because he was sort of my mentor. And Roddy would invite me to these dinner parties that were insane. Like, Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen O'Hara and people that were just crazy. I still can't really believe that I met them.
It's equally as important to me to be a good friend and a good sister and a good daughter. I'm very close with my family and friends.
I remember being 18, and my first boyfriend said to me, "Unless you're in the room, you don't know if it's true." We were talking about gossip.
In retrospect, I went to Jane Fonda for literally everything. During Mermaids, we were staying in the same building, so she was right upstairs from me. I was in my first relationship, so I got all sorts of advice. She became famous in her late teens.