Winona Ryder has disclosed an instance of inappropriate behavior she encountered with a director on a film set.
The seasoned actress gained fame for her role in the cult classic Beetlejuice as a teenager. Over the years, Ryder has amassed numerous accolades for her performances in films such as Edward Scissorhands, Little Women, Girl, Interrupted, and more recently, the Netflix hit Stranger Things.
In a candid interview, Ryder shared that her journey in Hollywood has not always been smooth, and she once had a confrontation with a director.
While speaking with Jeff Giles for Elle, Ryder, 53, discussed the growing pressure on actresses in Hollywood to combat aging through cosmetic measures like botox.
“They’ll say, ‘Just relax your forehead. Relax.’ I’m trying to be a great actor, and they’re saying that over and over,” she noted. “It’s nice that people are talking about how it’s OK to age, but there’s still enormous pressure. Every role I get is for a mother, you know? My career has definitely shifted.”
Reflecting on her time as the character Joyce Byers in Stranger Things, Ryder remarked, “I was the oldest person on the set.”
Even in her younger years, Ryder felt the industry’s pressures.
Despite her early Oscar nominations — at 22 for The Age of Innocence and at 23 for Little Women — Ryder faced criticism for her choice to work on Heathers, which reportedly cost her a role in The Freshman.
“They thought it was making fun of teen suicide. They were deeply offended and, yeah, they revoked the offer,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘I can’t work with Marlon Brando?’ But I had to stand my ground. I wasn’t gonna apologize.”
Ryder also recounted another incident where she reported inappropriate behavior by a director, which did not go as she expected.
“The next day I had a big scene,” she explained, when the director allegedly approached her and whispered threatening words in her ear.
“He came up to me, and he was like, ‘OK, so, um, if we just try it like – you f***ing c**t, I’m gonna destroy your f*cking life. OK? So let’s just do it like that?’ And I had to f***ing act. And what’s so crazy is my brother was working as a PA on the movie, and I didn’t even tell him, and I didn’t complain.”
She later realized the gravity of the situation while discussing it with Jenna Ortega on the set of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the 1988 film.
“I was almost telling it like it was this funny story. Then I’m looking at Jenna’s face and imagining it happening to her. It wasn’t until that moment that I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is bad,'” Ryder said.
Her revelations also follow last year’s account where she mentioned being ‘screamed at’ after a meeting with the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
While Ryder clarified that Weinstein did not behave inappropriately toward her, she recounted an agent shouting at her following a handshake in the Miramax office: “‘What the f*** did you do?’”
Ryder reflected, “I was like, ‘What?’ Apparently, I offended him because I extended my hand?… I guess.”