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Winona Laura Horowitz (born October
29, 1971), better known under her professional name Winona Ryder, is an
American actress who made her film debut in the 1986 comedy Lucas. Ryder's
first significant role came in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988) as a gothic
teenager, which won her critical and commercial recognition. After making
various appearances in film and television, Ryder continued her career
with the cult film Heathers (1989), a controversial satire of teenage
suicide and high school life, which drew Ryder further critical and
commercial attention.
In the mid 1990s, after appearing in numerous critically acclaimed, box
office successes, Ryder emerged as one of the most celebrated actresses of
her generation. Since then, she has played many diverse roles, ranging
from period to contemporary films, and from major Hollywood productions to
independent films. Ryder won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting
Actress and an Academy Award nomination in the same category for her role
in The Age of Innocence in 1993, as well as another Academy Award
nomination for Little Women the following year for Best Actress. In 2000,
Ryder received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.
Ryder's personal life has been widely reported by the media. Her
relationship with actor Johnny Depp in the early 1990s was highly
publicized and received much scrutiny by the media and tabloid press. A
much talked about 2001 shoplifting incident led to a four-year hiatus from
acting. She has also revealed her personal struggle with depression,
briefly checking into a clinic. In 2006, Ryder returned to the screen
which prompted several media outlets to call her performance "a remarkable
comeback" to acting.
Born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, she was named
after the nearby city of Winona. She was given her middle name, Laura,
because of her parents' friendship with Aldous Huxley's wife, Laura
Huxley. Her mother, Cynthia Palmer (née Istas), is an author, as well as a
video producer and editor. Her father, Michael Horowitz, is an author,
editor, publisher and antiquarian bookseller. Ryder's mother is a Buddhist
and her father is an atheist. Ryder has described herself as Jewish; her
paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Ryder has one
full sibling, a younger brother, Uri (named in honor of the first Soviet
cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin), an older half-brother, Jubal, and an older
half-sister, Sunyata. Ryder's family friends included her godfather, LSD
guru Timothy Leary, beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
and science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick.
In 1978, when Ryder was seven years old, she and her family relocated to
Rainbow, a commune near Elk, Mendocino County, California, where they
lived with seven other families on a 300-acre plot of land. As the remote
property had no electricity or television sets, Ryder began to devote her
time to reading and became an avid fan of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in
the Rye. She developed an interest in acting after her mother showed her a
few movies on a screen in the family barn. At age 10, Ryder and her family
moved on again, this time to Petaluma, California. During her first week
at the Kenilworth Junior High, she was bullied by a group of her peers who
mistook her for an effeminate, scrawny boy. As a result, she ended up
being homeschooled that year. In 1983, when Ryder was 12, she enrolled at
the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco, where she took
her first acting lessons. Ryder graduated from Petaluma High School with a
4.0 GPA in 1989. She suffers from aquaphobia because of a traumatic
incident in which she nearly drowned at age 12. This caused problems with
the underwater scenes in Alien Resurrection (1997), some of which had to
be reshot numerous times.
In 1985, Ryder sent a videotaped audition, where she recited a monologue
from the novel Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger, to appear in the film
Desert Bloom. Although the part went to Annabeth Gish, writer/director
David Seltzer noticed her talent and cast her in his 1986 film Lucas. When
asked how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, she suggested
"Ryder" as her surname as a Mitch Ryder album which belonged to her father
was playing in the background. Her next movie was Square Dance (1987),
where her teenage character creates a bridge between two different worlds
— a traditional farm in the middle of nowhere and a large city. Ryder won
acclaim for her role, and The Los Angeles Times called her performance in
Square Dance "a remarkable debut". Both films, however, failed to gain
Ryder any notice, and were only marginally successful commercially.
Director Tim Burton decided to cast Ryder in his film Beetlejuice (1988),
after being impressed with her performance in Lucas. In the film, she
plays goth teenager Lydia Deetz. Lydia's family moves to a haunted house
populated by ghosts played by Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Michael
Keaton. Lydia quickly finds herself the only human with a strong empathy
toward the ghosts and their situation. The film was a success at the box
office, and Ryder's performance and the overall film received mostly
positive reviews from critics.
Ryder landed the role of Veronica Sawyer in the 1989 independent film
Heathers. The film, a satirical take on teenage life, revolves around
Veronica, who is ultimately forced to choose between the will of society
and her own heart after her boyfriend (Christian Slater) begins killing
popular high school students. Ryder's agent initially begged her to turn
the role down, saying the film would "ruin her career". Reaction to the
film was mostly lukewarm, but Ryder's performance was critically embraced,
with The Washington Post stating Ryder is "Hollywood's most impressive
inge'nue ... Ryder ... makes us love her teen-age murderess, a bright,
funny girl with a little Bonnie Parker in her. She is the most likable,
best-drawn young adult protagonist since the sexual innocent of Gregory's
Girl." The film was a box office flop, yet achieved status as a
predominant cult film. Later that year, she starred in Great Balls of
Fire!, playing the 13-year-old bride (and cousin) of Jerry Lee Lewis. The
film was a box office failure and received divided reviews from critics.
In April 1989, she played the title role in the music video for Mojo
Nixon's "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child".
In 1990, Ryder was selected for four film roles. She played the leading
female role alongside her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp in the fantasy film
Edward Scissorhands. The film reunited Tim Burton and Ryder, who had
previously worked together on Beetlejuice in 1988. Edward Scissorhands was
a significant box office success, grossing US$56 million at the United
States box office and receiving much critical devotion. Later that year,
she withdrew from a role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III
(after traveling to Rome for filming) due to exhaustion. Eventually,
Coppola's daughter Sofia Coppola was cast in the role. Ryder's third role
was in the family comedy-drama Mermaids (1990), which co-starred Cher and
Christina Ricci. Mermaids was a moderate box office success and was
embraced critically. Ryder's performance was acclaimed; critic Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Winona Ryder, in another of her alienated
outsider roles, generates real charisma." For her performance, Ryder
received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Ryder then performed alongside Cher and Christina Ricci in the video for
"The Shoop Shoop Song", the theme from Mermaids. Following Mermaids she
starred in the lead role in box office flop Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
(1991).
In 1991, Ryder played a young taxicab driver who dreams of becoming a
mechanic in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth. The film was only given a
limited release at the box office, but received critical praise. Ryder
then starred in the dual roles of Count Dracula's reincarnated love
interest Mina Murray and Dracula's past lover Princess Elisabeta, in Bram
Stoker's Dracula (1992), a project she brought to director Francis Ford
Coppola's attention. In 1993, she starred in the melodrama The House of
the Spirits, based on Isabel Allende's novel. Ryder played the love
interest of Antonio Banderas' character. Principal filming was done in
Denmark and Portugal. The film was poorly reviewed and a box office flop,
grossing just $6 million on its $40 million budget. Ryder starred in The
Age of Innocence with Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis, a film based
on a novel by Edith Wharton and helmed by director Martin Scorsese, whom
Ryder considers "the best director in the world". Her role in this movie
won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as an
Academy Award nomination in the same category.
Ryder's next role was in the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994),
directed by Ben Stiller, playing a young woman searching for direction in
her life. Her performance received acclaim and the studio hoped the film
would gross a substantial amount of money, yet it flopped. Bruce Feldman,
Universal Pictures' Vice-President of Marketing said: "The media labeled
it as a Generation X picture, while we thought it was a comedy with broad
appeal." The studio placed TV ads during programs chosen for their appeal
to 12–34-year-olds and in interviews Stiller was careful not to mention
the phrase "Generation X". In 1994, Ryder was handpicked to play the lead
role of Josephine March in Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May
Alcott's novel. The film received widespread praise; critic Janet Maslin
of The New York Times wrote that the film was the greatest adaptation of
the novel, and remarked on Ryder's performance: "Ms. Ryder, whose banner
year also includes a fine comic performance in 'Reality Bites,' plays Jo
with spark and confidence. Her spirited presence gives the film an
appealing linchpin, and she plays the self-proclaimed 'man of the family'
with just the right staunchness." She received an Best Actress Oscar
nomination the following year. She made a guest appearance in The Simpsons
episode "Lisa's Rival" as Allison Taylor, whose intelligence and
over-achieving personality makes her a rival of Lisa's. Her next starring
role was in How to Make an American Quilt (1995), an adaptation of the
novel of the same name by Whitney Otto, co-starring Anne Bancroft. Ryder
plays a college graduate who spends her summer hiatus at her grandmother's
property to ponder on her boyfriend's recent marriage proposal. The film
was not a commercial success, nor was it popular with critics.
Ryder made several film appearances in 1996, the first in Boys. The film
failed to become a box office success and attracted mostly negative
critical reaction. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated that "Boys
is a low-rent, dumbed-down version of Before Sunrise, with a rent-a-plot
substituting for clever dialogue." Her next role was in Looking for
Richard, Al Pacino's documentary on a production of Shakespeare's Richard
III, which grossed only $1 million at the box office, but drew moderate
critical acclaim. She starred in The Crucible with Daniel Day-Lewis and
Joan Allen. The film, an adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, centered on
the Salem witch trials. The film was expected to be a success, considering
its budget, but became a large failure. Despite this, it received acclaim
critically, and Ryder's performance was lauded, with Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone saying, "Ryder offers a transfixing portrait of warped
innocence." In December 1996, Ryder accepted a role as an android in Alien
Resurrection (1997), alongside Sigourney Weaver, who had appeared in the
entire Alien trilogy. Ryder's brother, Yuri, was a major fan of the film
series, and when asked, she took the role. The film became one of the
least successful entries in the Alien film series, but was considered a
success as it grossed $161 million worldwide. Weaver's and Ryder's
performances drew mostly positive reviews, and Ryder won a Blockbuster
Entertainment Award for Best Actress. Ryder then starred in Woody Allen's
Celebrity (1998), after Drew Barrymore turned down Ryder's role, in an
ensemble cast. The film satirizes the lives of several celebrities.
In 1999, she performed in and served as an executive producer for Girl,
Interrupted, based on the 1993 autobiography of Susanna Kaysen. The film
had been in project and post-production since late 1996, but it took time
to surface. Ryder was deeply attached to the film, considering it her
"child of the heart". Ryder starred as Kaysen, who has borderline
personality disorder and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for
recovery. Ryder starred alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Angelina Jolie.
While Ryder was expected to make her comeback with her leading role, the
film instead became the "welcome-to-Hollywood coronation" for Jolie, who
won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
Jolie thanked Ryder in her acceptance speech. The same year, Ryder was
parodied in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The following year, she
starred in the romantic comedy Autumn in New York, alongside Richard Gere.
The film revolves around a relationship between an older man (Gere) and a
younger woman (Ryder). Autumn in New York received mixed reviews, but was
a commercial success, grossing $90 million at the worldwide box office.
Ryder then played a nun of a secret society loosely connected to the Roman
Catholic Church and determined to prevent Armageddon in Lost Souls (2000),
which was a commercial failure. Ryder refused to do commercial promotion
for the film. Later in 2000, she was one of several celebrities who made a
small cameo appearance in Zoolander. On October 6, 2000, Ryder received
her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located directly in front of
the Johnny Grant building next to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on
Hollywood Boulevard. She was the 2,165th recipient of this honor.
Ryder had a hiatus after her shoplifting incident in 2001 (see below). The
book Conversations with Woody Allen reports that in 2003 film director
Woody Allen wanted to cast Robert Downey, Jr. and Ryder in his film
Melinda and Melinda, but was unable to do so because "I couldn't get
insurance on them ... We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding
companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them. We were
heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before and thought she was
perfect for this and wanted to work with her again."
In 2002, Ryder appeared in two films. The first was a romantic comedy
titled Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler. This was her most commercially
successful movie to date, earning over $126 million in the United States
alone. She played a cynical reporter for an unscrupulous television
program. The second film was the science fiction drama S1m0ne in which she
portrayed a glamorous star who is replaced by a computer simulated actress
due to the clandestine machinations of a director, portrayed by her
Looking for Richard costar Al Pacino.
In 2006, after her hiatus, Ryder appeared in Richard Linklater's A Scanner
Darkly, a science fiction film based on Philip K. Dick's critically
acclaimed 1977 novel. Ryder starred alongside Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey,
Jr., and Woody Harrelson. Live action scenes were transformed with
rotoscope software and the film was entirely animated. A Scanner Darkly
was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the 2006 Seattle
International Film Festival. Critics disagreed over the film's merits;
Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times found the film "engrossing" and
wrote that "the brilliance of the film is how it suggests, without bombast
or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark
world of comic books." Matthew Turner of View London, believing the film
to be "engaging" and "beautifully animated", praised the film for its
"superb performances" and original, thought-provoking screenplay." Ryder
appeared in the comedy The Darwin Awards with Joseph Fiennes. The film
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2006.
Ryder reunited with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters for the surreal
black comedy Sex and Death 101 (2007). The story follows the sexual
odysseys of successful businessman Roderick Blank, played by Simon Baker,
who receives a mysterious e-mail on the eve of his wedding, listing all of
his past and future sex partners. "We will be doing a sequel to Heathers
next." Ryder stated. "There's Heathers in the real world! We have to keep
going!" In a more recent interview Ryder was quoted as saying on the
speculation of a Heathers sequel: "I don't know how much of the movie is
official; it's a ways away. But it takes place in Washington and Christian
Slater agreed to come back and make an Obi-Wan-type appearance. It's very
funny."
Ryder appeared in David Wain's comedy The Ten. The film centers around ten
stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. The film debuted at
the Sundance Film Festival 2007 on January 10, 2007, with a theatrical
release on August 3, 2007. Ryder played the female lead opposite Wes
Bentley and Ray Romano in Geoffrey Haley's 2008 offbeat romantic drama The
Last Word. In 2009, she starred as a newscaster in the movie version of
The Informers. Ryder appeared in a cameo role for director J. J. Abrams's
film adaptation of Star Trek, as Spock's mother Amanda Grayson, a role
originally played by Jane Wyatt. The film was released in May 2009 and
grossed over $200 million during its first week in theaters. Several media
outlets have noted her return to the box office and upcoming roles as a
remarkable "comeback". She starred alongside Robin Wright and Julianne
Moore in Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, released on
February 9, 2009 at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, with a
limited US release scheduled for November 2009. On 2 June 2009,
Entertainment Weekly reported that in an interview with Ryder in Empire
magazine, she revealed that she and Christian Slater will reprise their
roles in a sequel to Heathers. A November 2009 article in Fangoria
magazine says she will star in the Darren Aronofsky thriller Black Swan.
Ryder has had many high-profile relationships with actors. She was engaged
to actor Johnny Depp for three years beginning in July 1990. She met Depp
at the Great Balls of Fire! premiere in June 1989; two months later they
began dating. During their relationship, Depp had a tattoo placed on his
arm reading "Winona Forever", which he had altered to "Wino Forever" after
their separation. She also dated actor Matt Damon for two years. Ryder is
close friends with actor Jimmy Fallon. She was close friends with actress
Gwyneth Paltrow until they reportedly "grew apart" in the late 1990s.
In 1993, Ryder offered a reward in the hopes that it would lead to the
return of a kidnapped child named Polly Klaas. Klaas lived in Petaluma,
the same town where Ryder grew up. Ryder offered a $200,000 reward for the
12-year-old kidnap victim's safe return. After the girl's death, Ryder
starred in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
and dedicated it to her memory. Little Women was one of Klaas's favorite
novels. During a sentencing hearing related to the 2001 shoplifting
incident (see below), Ryder's attorney, Mark Geragos, referred to her work
with the Polly Klaas Foundation and other charitable causes. In response,
Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle said: "What's offensive to me is to
trot out the body of a dead child." Ryder was visibly upset at the
accusation and Rundle was admonished by the judge. Outside the courthouse,
Polly's father Marc Klaas defended Ryder and expressed outrage at the
prosecutor's comments.
On December 12, 2001, Ryder was arrested on shoplifting charges in Beverly
Hills, California. She was accused of stealing $5,500 worth of designer
clothes and accessories at a Saks Fifth Avenue department store. Los
Angeles District Attorney Stephen Cooley produced a team of eight
prosecutors. Cooley filed four felony charges against her in what was
described by British newspaper The Guardian as a "show-trial". Ryder hired
noted celebrity defense attorney Mark Geragos. Negotiations for a plea
bargain failed at the end of summer 2002. As noted by Joel Mowbray from
the National Review, the prosecution was not ready to offer the actress
what was given to 5,000 other defendants in similar cases, an open door to
a no-contest plea on misdemeanor charges. Ryder agreed under signature to
pay two Civil Demands, as permitted under California's Statute for Civil
Recovery for Shoplifting, from Saks Fifth Avenue that would completely
reimburse Saks Fifth Avenue for the stolen and surrendered merchandise
while detained in the Security Offices of the Saks Fifth Avenue store, and
before she was read her Miranda rights and arrested by the Los Angeles
Police Department.
During the trial, she was accused of using drugs without valid
prescriptions. Ryder was convicted of grand theft and vandalism, but was
acquitted on the third felony charge, burglary. In December 2002, she was
sentenced to three years' probation, 480 hours of community service,
$3,700 in fines, and $6,355 in restitution to the Saks Fifth Avenue store
– and was ordered to attend psychological and drug counseling. After
reviewing Ryder's probation report, Superior Court Judge Elden Fox noted
that Ryder served 480 hours of community service and on June 18, 2004, the
felonies were reduced to misdemeanors. Ryder remained on probation until
December 2005. |
