00In a moment of Beetlejuice BeetlejuiceLydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), sitting on a cemetery bench, complains to her daughter (Jenna Ortega) that “death is hard.” “Sometimes I think life is even worse,” the teenager replies, giving way to a close-up of her resigned mother before the epic entrance of the logo of the film studio that produces the film interrupts their conversation. It is not surprising that this scene has been the most prominent during the entire promotion of the sequel to Tim Burton’s classic; anyone who knows the least about the actress’s career knows how to recognize the weight behind that reply. 36 years after its release, the film that catapulted the teenager to international fame returns to theaters to the cheers of those attending its premiere. premiere Internationally at the last Venice Film Festival. “Excellent” and “charming” are some of the praises that the press has given to the work of an actress who has managed to maintain intact that mix of innocence and daring, of vulnerability and rebellion, of delicacy and mystery that made her one of the great stars of Hollywood in the nineties. A star that faded –or faded– at the beginning of the new century and that thanks to Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice hear again the festival ovations denied him for two decades. Death in Hollywood is hard, but Ryder’s life in the mecca of cinema has been, at times, even worse.
“There was a period when I stopped being fashionable,” has recognized These days the interpreter herself. 10, 12, 15 years… She herself hesitates about the time it took her to return to the front line, with a small supporting role in Black Swan as the only glimmer of true relevance until her work as Joyce Byers, the courageous mother of the supernatural town of Hawkins in Stranger Thingsreminded many that her presence in the successful series had much more to do with the actress’s unwavering talent than with the umpteenth surrender to the nostalgia of Netflix fiction. Ten years have passed since then – she is currently filming the last season – but even longer since she had the first meetings with Burton to materialize the sequel to which Michael Keaton also returns as the bio-exorcist Beetlejuice and Catherine O’Hara, his stepmother in the original film. At 52 years old, her return as the headliner of a project that aspires to become one of the five biggest box office hits of the year – forecasts point to a historic record in the month of September – has not changed her media profile one iota. Examples include her refusal to have social networks, to wear heels on the red carpet – she prefers boots – or to hire a stylist to decide her looks, leaving everything to her own intuition.
The truth is that her sixth sense is legendary in the hills of Los Angeles. “Her instinct about people and situations is incredible,” he wrote about her. British Vogue In 1994, “it’s like Winona came from another planet.” A sixth sense that helped her escape from the convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, the influential producer who reigned in Hollywood in the years when Ryder was triumphing with Edward Scissorhands, Reality Bites either Little WomenJohnny Depp got the legendary tattoo Winona Forever (‘Winona Forever’) on his right arm and they immediately rose as the quintessential couple of Generation X. However, in an episode revealed by herself a few days ago, Ryder claims that Weinstein blacklisted her after avoiding being sexually harassed by him. “The only time I had a meeting with him, I went to the Miramax office, I extended my hand and he shook it. I sat on the couch, we had a conversation and I left. Afterwards my agent yelled at me, ‘What the fuck have you done? ‘ Apparently, I offended him because I offered him my hand, I guess he expected something more,” says the actress, who considers the antipathy that Weinstein felt for her – “he didn’t like me” – as one of the main reasons for her professional decline.
The other is known to half the world. In 2001 she was arrested for taking 6,000 euros worth of designer clothes from a Beverly Hills department store and the video of her arrest made headlines all over the world. Her apologies, her confessed addiction to barbiturates or her mental health problems were irrelevant; while all-powerful sexual predators were running free in Hollywood, the actress was ridiculed and vilified with such vehemence that she not only saw her meteoric career sink, but was on the verge of going to prison. Winona Forever mutated into a Free Winona in much of the public eye. She was sentenced to three years probation, 480 hours of community service, a $10,000 fine and required to undergo psychological therapy. “Her career has been used as an emblematic example of the double standard with which men and women are treated in Hollywood,” ratified film critic Scott Mendelson. And when they decided it was time to rehabilitate her figure, the chronic ageism of the industry closed the doors to her. The usual co-stars like Depp himself or Adam Sandler had moved into their early twenties (Christina Ricci, Bella Heathcote) and she had to settle for roles like Spock’s mother in Star Trek at just 37 years old.
Ryder has called the decade between 2000 and 2010 the “most degrading time” to be a woman in Hollywood. “Actresses were punished for not getting the joke or playing along. They were all trying to be the girl.” coolsexualized, but at the same time one of them… I thought it was degrading. I remember feeling that, if this was the future, we were screwed,” she reflects. She moved to San Francisco, the city where she grew up, to get away from the noise. In 2010, during a party for the premiere of Black Swanthe founder of a textile brand based on organic and sustainable cotton named Scott Mackinlay Hahn approached her to congratulate her on her role in The fifth element. Although she did not appear in the film, Ryder considered his confusion with Milla Jovovich a wonderful compliment and it was the seed of a relationship that has remained stable to this day. The couple have announced that they will tie the knot later this year. “She is a survivor: of the dizzying success of her early years, of the scandals, of sexism, of ageism, of her own mistakes and the atrocious behaviour of others,” adds editor Alex Bilmes.
The so-called “lost girl” of cinema, Winona is finally free, both personally and professionally. The premiere of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice She closes the circle that began when she was only 16 years old and that changed her life forever. After the success of the premiere of the first film, she had to leave her school after being bullied by her classmates, who called her a “witch.” “I was wearing a boy’s T-shirt and, while I was going to the bathroom, I heard someone say, ‘Hey, faggot! ’ They hit my head against the locker. I fell to the floor and they started hitting me. They had to put stitches on me. The school expelled me, not the bullies”, told in the British edition of Marie Claire. In her own words, she was the “weird girl,” and it was thanks to Tim Burton that she learned to embrace her difference. She herself personally thanked the filmmaker, who was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, this week: “Tim knows the pain of the misunderstood, the weird and the unusual (…) You strengthened my voice, you reinforced my confidence in being myself and going against the currents of conformity. In other words, you made being the ‘weird girl’ not only okay, but something to celebrate or even cool.” In 2024, she is once again the epitome of what cool. The thing about Winona Forever was well thrown.
