These gorgeous new pictures of Winona Ryder are from the latest issue of Interview Magazine. Stephen Mooallem sat down with the 41 year old actress and discussed her upcoming "comeback" (though she hates that term) as a lead actress to the big screen. Here are a few highlight quotes.
"I would say that the last 10 years—and I did take a few years off at the beginning of that—have been different for me for so many reasons. I mean, you get used to thinking that things are going a certain way because of something, but then you just kind of grow up. Looking back—and this is all in retrospect—I did have a lot of success and a lot of great opportunities earlier in my career. But I did also have this thing that was sort of happening in my late twenties where, whether it was because of how I looked or because I started so young, even though I was the right age for things, people didn't think that I was old enough. I'm just guessing, but I think for a lot of people, I was the girl from Heathers or Edward Scissorhands [1990]. And by the way, it could've also been that they just didn't want me—that might have also been the case. There was a lot of brilliant, exciting talent coming along. I had been working for a while, but then we get someone like Kate Winslet or someone like Sarah Polley—both of whom I love. But who knows? It's hard thinking back. I mean, I work with people nowadays and see them going through stuff that I went through, and maybe making some mistakes because they're having their moment. But I remember going through that, too. So it's interesting for me now to be the older one, because I was always the kid."
On understanding 90's nostalgia in 2013 ~ "I remember going to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley when I was 11 or 12. Simple Minds was opening for the Pretenders. I was in the front row and I was getting squashed, so they pushed me up on the stage. I wasn't trying to get on the stage like other people—I was just literally so small that the security guys came to grab me. But Chrissie was like, "No, no." So they pulled me up on stage, and she put me up on, like, a speaker and sang "2,000 Miles" to me and ran her fingers through my hair. It was the biggest thing that had ever happened to me to that point. Then later, I met her at a PETA thing—with River [Phoenix] and Martha Plimpton, actually. I was very nervous, but she was so nice. Then I remember I saw her at this concert in Manchester. The hotel where everyone was staying was across the street from the stadium, and I remember walking back there with her and talking about love and stuff. It's funny because I see so many girls walking down the street now dressing like her. Even with photo shoots—not that I do so many, but the references are so often Chrissie and Siouxsie Sioux. I mean, I went to those shows . . . "
On how filming has changed since she started ~ "When I did Star Trek [2009], there was a day when I was in a crazy costume, and they were trying to get me from the trailer to the set, so there were all these PAs with umbrellas. I actually thought they were doing it for my comfort, so I was like, "No, guys—it's okay. I can walk." But they were like, "Uh . . . No." Even though we were shooting in the desert, they were holding up the umbrellas because they were worried about paparazzi shooting with long lenses from far away. I remember being like, "Oh, you're trying to keep this a secret"—like, my outfit."
On her roles as Lydia in Beetlejuice and Veronica in Heathers ~ "Those two roles that you just mentioned are the two that are closest to me. It's almost like I wasn't in those movies—I'm a fan of both of them on that level. But if I didn't get those parts, then I don't think I would've continued to be an actress. I was unusual looking—I didn't have the look of that time. If you look at Lucas—and, basically, my first five or six movies—the characters are not described in the scripts as attractive people. So I scored in the sense that if I hadn't done those, I don't know that I would've been cast in other things, because I wasn't really considered a beauty."
On her So-Called "Comeback" ~ "I have to admit, though, that every time I hear "comeback, blah, blah, blah," it's kind of hard for me. I'm not trying to be super-sensitive at all, but there is a little bit of defensiveness because I do feel like I have contributed. Even if I'd just made Beetlejuice and Heathers, I put in work. So I don't know if it has to do with the way the business has changed or the press has changed or that people have zero patience because of this instant access, and they get almost amnesia from it . . . I don't know what it is. It wasn't like I wasn't being offered anything. But then, at the same time, I do feel lucky to be working. I just really wanted to be much more selective. I know that a lot of actors can't afford to do that—and maybe I will become one of them. But I do love what I do, and I want to continue to do it."
On her role in the upcoming drama "The Iceman" in which she plays the wife of a mob contract killer ~ I saw her as not naive, to be honest. You know, this was something that I'd never done before—this genre, true crime—and my biggest fear was that there would be something romantic about it. I'm not saying this was the right thing to do, but I could not watch all of those interviews with Richard Kuklinski that are on YouTube or do a lot of research, because what creeps me out even more that the guy himself is the fascination that other people have with this kind of violence. I mean, I get it, but I also see it as repulsive, because this was not a guy in a situation where this guy was war-torn and it was kill or be killed.He was straight-up murdering people for a lot of money. They were living well. Yes, he came from an abusive home—and I do think there is something cyclical about violence. But this guy didn't overcome anything. I mean, I did look at some of the stuff that's out there, so I did know the gist of what he did, and then I thought about the wives of people like Bernie Madoff and even about The Sopranos. But I didn't do a lot of research, because if I had, then I think I would have played it in a way that the director did not want me to play it. I just went through the script with a Sharpie and blacked out all of the scenes where he was killing people and the ones that I wasn't in where things were happening that she wasn't aware of—or maybe she was aware them, but was choosing to be in denial about them.
For more, pick up the latest issue of Interview Magazine!
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