Holocaust horrors

When she was ten, her family relocated to California. While she didn’t grow up in the public eye like many child actors of the era, her childhood was far from typical.

The pixieish brunette was raised on a sprawling property in Northern California alongside her author parents, a younger brother, and two older half-siblings. Despite the comfort her upbringing provided, she was deeply affected by the horrors her family had endured during the Holocaust, sometimes even sleeping in her parents’ doorway out of fear that history might somehow repeat itself.

Speaking to the Mirror in July 2020, she reflected, ”I think it came from overhearing stories of what happened in the camps. I was terrified of being separated from them. In World War II, my mom’s father died fighting the Nazis in the Pacific and, on my father’s side, family members died in the camps. I am grateful my parents told me the truth, though they had to pick the right age to tell me because it is so horrific.”

Fascinated by her family’s tragic past, she spent countless hours in the library reading about the Holocaust. ”I realized maybe I was looking for my family, for someone I recognized,” she explained.

Inside her aquaphobia

In 1983, at just 12 years old, she enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco and took her first acting lessons. That same year, she nearly died during a terrifying experience that left her with a lifelong fear of water.

”I was about 12 years old, and I nearly drowned. I had to be resuscitated and everything. So, I hadn’t gone underwater since then,” she recalled.

Her aquaphobia became a major challenge in 1997, while filming one of her most beloved movies. She and her castmates had to shoot multiple scenes in a massive water tank, which required intense training.

For months, she practiced swimming underwater in a pool to prepare, but even with the preparation, filming scenes 30 feet deep without a mask or goggles was extremely difficult.

”I was pretty close to wishing I were on a different planet then — I mean that was really hard. That tank stuff was some of the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to do in my life. I mean [there] was a couple of near-death experiences, definitely, for many of us,” she explained in an interview with Bobbie Wygant.

Her innocence was cut short

Sadly, the near-drowning wasn’t the only trauma she faced as a child. Although she would later become a ’90s icon and date some of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors, her early years were far from glamorous.

Her innocence was cut short by bullying and prejudice. She faced violence in school simply because she looked a little boyish to her classmates.

”I was beat up pretty badly on the third day of school because three guys thought I was a gay boy. They slammed my head into a locker. I fell to the ground and they started to kick the s** out of me. I got six stitches in my head, was slammed into a locker, got a fractured rib,” she told The Tennessean in 1996.

”I insisted I was a girl. I had really short hair and stuff, and so they beat me up,” she added. Tragically, the school punished her instead of the bullies.

She continued to be bullied in high school, even when she achieved early film success with Beetlejuice (1988).

”I remember thinking, ‘Ooh, it’s like the number one movie. This is going to make things great at school.’ But it made things worse. They called me a witch.”

Years later, however, one of her tormentors got a dose of karma. After she became a major star, she ran into one of the girls who had attacked her. Her former classmate begged the actress to sign an autograph for her.

”I said, ‘Do you remember me? … Remember how, in seventh grade, you beat up that kid?’ and she said, ‘Kind of,’ and I said, ‘That was me,’” she recalled, adding that she told the former bully to buzz off.

Breaking through

The actress was just 15 when she worked on Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. After that, she landed a major role in Heathers, a dark comedy about a high school’s popular clique of three girls.

”I went in and I met and they didn’t think I was pretty enough. I was sort of the weird girl from ‘Beetlejuice.’ It was very fair because on screen I’d only played very weird characters. I went across the street to the Beverly Center and I went to Macy’s and I had them do a makeover on me. And then I went back and I was like, ‘You don’t have to pay me, I just want to say these words,’” she recalled.

Although the film initially flopped and she earned very little from it, Heathers became a breakthrough role, eventually achieving cult classic status.

Following that success, she starred in Edward Scissorhands. The film was a major box office hit, earning $86 million and garnering widespread critical acclaim.

Her performances in The Age of Innocence (1993) as a socialite and Little Women (1994) as Jo March earned her back-to-back Oscar nominations — for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively.

And now, can you guess which star we’ve been talking about?

That’s right — it’s Winona Ryder.

Named after Winona, Minnesota, the closest town to the rural farmhouse where she was born, this talented and captivating actress evolved from a bullied child into one of the most iconic film stars of the ’90s.

Why her fame faded

After the height of her fame, Winona Ryder gradually faded from the spotlight amid a string of unfortunate events. In 2001, she began a four-year career hiatus.

Despite working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, her experiences on set weren’t always easy. She has, for instance, spoken about the difficulties she faced while filming Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992.

In a 2020 interview with The Times, Ryder recalled a particularly tough scene where she had to cry. To get her in the right headspace, Coppola reportedly began yelling at her behind the scenes. “To put it in context, I’m supposed to be crying. Literally, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu … Francis was trying to get all of them to yell things that would make me cry. But Keanu wouldn’t, Anthony wouldn’t … It just didn’t work,” she explained. Ryder was quick to clarify that she and Coppola have since buried the hatchet.

Although what she endured on set was unfair—and wouldn’t fly today—Ryder had support from her longtime friend Keanu Reeves. It’s no wonder so many people regard the John Wick star as such a kind and supportive person.

Winona and Johnny Depp

Another defining chapter of the ’90s for Ryder was her high-profile relationship with Johnny Depp. They first met at a movie premiere in 1989 and began dating a few months later.

Within five months, the 18-year-old Ryder and 27-year-old Depp were engaged and co-starred in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. Depp even famously got a tattoo on his arm that read “Winona Forever.”

The Hollywood couple seemed destined for each other, until they split in June 1993, partly due to their age gap and partly because of the relentless media frenzy surrounding them. Depp later altered the tattoo to read “Wino Forever.”

Ryder had largely kept the breakup private, but in June 2022 she told Harper’s Bazaar how hard it had been. “I remember looking at myself and saying, ‘This is what I’m doing to myself inside.’ Because I just wasn’t taking care of myself,” she revealed.

Stalkers

Fame also came with frightening downsides. Many celebrities, including Ryder, have dealt with obsessive fans. In August 2016, the Beetlejuice star told New York Magazine that she had experienced stalking on more than one occasion.

“I had a few [stalkers],” Ryder shared via The Cut. “One was really nice. He kept showing up as an extra on movies, and you don’t know. You have to be careful. So I told the director, because he was kinda creepy. And I got this letter in my trailer the next day that was like, ‘I was just trying to get work as an extra! Just so you know, I’m not even obsessed with you anymore, I’m obsessed with Alyssa Milano now!’ So he kind of left me for Alyssa Milano.” Ryder was able to reflect on the experience with humor, though she acknowledged that not all stalking incidents end so cleanly.

Ryder has also been open about her lifelong mental health struggles. In addition to her aquaphobia, she has spoken candidly about anxiety attacks and even had to leave The Godfather Part III in 1990 after checking herself into a psychiatric hospital.

Fear and anxiety

Her role in 1999’s Girl, Interrupted, which focused on a young woman in a 1960s mental institution, brought attention to these issues.

“I was terrified to play a character who was full of fear and anxiety knowing that I have been full of fear and anxiety. … It’s something you battle with your whole life,” she told Entertainment Weekly.

That same year, Ryder also opened up about depression during an interview with Diane Sawyer on 20/20.

“I saw myself on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and it said something like ‘Winona Ryder: the luckiest girl in the world.’ And it broke my heart because there I was, you know, in so much pain and feeling so confused, feeling so lost in my life,” she said.

In recent years, Winona Ryder has made a triumphant return to the spotlight, revitalizing her career. Many argue she’s better than ever, particularly for her role as Joyce Byers on Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Fans have claimed that “Joyce Byers is one of the greatest casting decisions of all time. I couldn’t picture anybody else in this role.”

Today, Ryder serves as an inspiration to countless people, and she remains deeply grateful for the opportunities her career has given her.

”I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to live this life — however intense and overwhelming it got, it’s NOTHING compared to what it is now with the internet and social media. I just find myself feeling tremendous empathy toward people who have sacrificed so much,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in a July 2024 interview.

Young audiences today might not realize just how massive Winona Ryder was back in the day, even long before Stranger Things brought her back into the spotlight. In my opinion, she’s been brilliant in every role she’s taken on.

I hope we’ll see plenty more of Winona in the years to come — she’s only 54, so there are hopefully many exciting roles still ahead!