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What the Hell Happened to Winona Ryder?
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Dec 7, 2012, 2:41:28 AM12/7/12
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Posted by lebeau
She was arguably the actress of my generation. Or at least she was
during my late teens and early 20′s. And then, she disappeared from
the big screen in the midst of a bizarre shoplifting scandal.
What the hell happened?
Winona Ryder got her start in the 1986 teen cult classic, Lucas.
Lucas was one of the better coming-of-age dramas from this time. Many
members of its cast of unknowns would go on to be stars.
Lucas was of course played by the late Corey Haim and the film co-
starred the scandal-prone warlock, Charlie Sheen. Ryder played Lucas’
best friend with an unrequited crush. Naturally, Lucas chooses the
lead girl over Ryder. As debut roles go, Lucas was a pretty good
start.
In 1987, Ryder got her first lead role in the low-budget country music
drama, Square Dance which co-starred Jason Robards and Rob Lowe. This
is your basic, “paying your dues” film.
In 1988, Ryder appeared in Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice helped move
Michael Keaton to the A-list and helped make Tim Burton a rising star
(Batman would seal the deal for both of them).
Ryder (along with co-stars Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) didn’t get as
much credit for Beetlejuice‘s success. But it certainly helped get
them noticed. And it was the start of a partnership with Tim Burton.
In 1988, Ryder also appeared in 1969. In the late 80′s, there was a
wave of 60′s nostalgia that elevated hippies to the level of
sainthood. As a result, Hollywood released a handful of movies
starring the 80′s brat pack celebrating the Summer of Love.
1969 starred Ryder, Keiffer Sutherland (who went on to star in the
hippie-comedy Flashback) and Robert Downey Jr. All in all, this movie
is basically a footnote in all of their careers.
1989 was a very big year for Ryder. On paper, Heathers was a small
movie. But it quickly developed a cult following. And all the cool
kids belonged to it. The movie made Ryder and Christian Slater into
bankable stars and helped launch the career of Shannen Doherty.
More important that the film’s box office performance (which wasn’t
great) was the cultural impact. Hollywood has been trying (and mostly
failing) to make the next Heathers ever since.
Ryder has been talking up a sequel in recent years. But both writer
Daniel Waters and director Michael Lehmann have denied it. Says
Lehman, “Winona’s been talking about this for years — she brings it up
every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as
far as I know there’s no script and no plans to do the sequel.”
Thank goodness! Leave Heathers alone!
In 1989, Ryder also starred alongside Dennis Quaid in the Jerry Lee
Lewis biopic, Great Balls of Fire. Ryder played Myra Gale Lewis,
Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin whom he married when she was only 13. Yikes!
The movie got mostly negative reviews and performed poorly at the box
office.
1990 was yet another big year for Winona Ryder. She started off
starring in another small teenage drama, Welcome Home Roxie
Carmichael. The movie co-starred Jeff Daniels. While it didn’t get
great reviews or do especially well at the box office, it helped to
show that Ryder could play a lead role.
Ryder re-teamed with Tim Burton for Edward Scissorhands. Burton used
his post-Batman box office clout to make a dark fable about a troubled
outsider with scissors for hands.
The title role was played by Johnny Depp who would go on to
collaborate with Tim Burton 100 million times. At the time, Ryder
wand Depp were engaged. Depp actually got a tattoo which read “Winona
forever.” However, when the relationship ended, he had it altered to
read “Wino forever.”
Edward Scissorhands got mostly positive reviews and was a hit at the
box office. It is also the final movie to feature the legendary
Vincent Price.
One week after the release of Edward Scissorhands (and the same day it
went into wide release) Ryder also appeared in Mermaids.
Mermaids starred Cher as a single mother of two. The daughters were
played by Ryder and Christina Ricci in her first film role. Mermaids
got mostly positive reviews and was a sleeper hit at the box office.
Ryder received a Golden Globe nomination for the film.
Ryder’s next major role was Mina Harker in Francis Ford Coppola’s
update of Dracula. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was Ryder’s official
entrance to the big time. Not only was it a lead role in a big budget
movie, but it allowed Ryder to make the transition from playing high
school girls to playing more adult roles.
Dracula received mixed to postive reviews and was a hit at the box
office. Although, to my mind, it is best remembered for Keanu Reeves’
attempts not to say “dude” while playing Jonathan Harker. Most
heinous, dude!
In 1993, Ryder appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Age of Innocence
alongside Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. Age of Innocence
was a rare period piece for Scorsese and audiences weren’t especially
interested. However, the movie got great reviews and Ryder was
nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Ryder actually won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
I haven’t seen Age of Innocence since it was released. I remember
that it moved slowly. But the ending blew my mind. I can’t remember
what the big reveal was, but I remember it showed the true depth of
Ryder’s character.
At the risk of repeating myself, 1994 was (you guessed it) another big
year for Winona Ryder. Reality Bites was THE Generation X movie. And
what a cast! Ryder co-starred opposite Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller (who
also directed), Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Andy Dick and apparently
Renee Zelleweger (although I do not remember her at all).
Appropriately enough, the slacker comedy was only a modest hit and got
mixed to positive reviews. Frankly, the soundtrack was a bigger deal
than the movie itself. But the movie (and the soundtrack) cemented
Ryder’s iconic status as the premiere actress of Gen X. Which was
probably at least partially responsible for the career trouble she
would have in the future…
I loved Reality Bites when it came out. I saw it severals times. I
have not watched it since. If it hasn’t aged well, I don’t want to
know. The part that annoyed me the most was that Ethan Hawke’s
character was a real asshole. And yet we were supposed to root for
Hawke and Ryder to get together. I wanted Ryder to kick Hawke off her
couch and either hook up with Ben Stiller’s character or go her own
way.
In 1994, Ryder also starred in a remake of Little Women. Expectations
were not high for the Little Women remake, but surprisingly the
reviews were mostly positive and the film was a hit – albeit a modest
one. Ryder received another Oscar nomination for the film.
In 1995, Ryder starred in How to Make an American Quilt. The movie
based on the novel of the same name told the stories of several women
in a quilting bee. But Ryder’s character was front and center. The
movie got middling reviews and did so-so box office.
Quilt may seem like a mild career mis-step. But it began a string of
well-intentioned misses for Ryder that would ultimately lead to her
irrelevance.
Ryder’s next film was Boys with Lukas Haas. And boy, was it a sign of
the hard times to come.
Roger Ebert said, “Boys is a low-rent, dumbed-down version of Before
Sunrise, with a rent-a-plot substituting for clever dialogue.” Ouch.
The movie bombed at the box office earning about a half a million
dollars. Double ouch!
In 1996, Ryder also appeared in an adaptation of The Crucible. I see
the thinking here. If Ryder can make a hit out of Little Women, maybe
she can do the same with a period piece like The Crucible. However,
this one went more along the lines of Ryder’s previous film with
Daniel Day-Lewis, Age of Innocence.
The reviews were decent. But the movie tanked at the box office.
In 1997, Ryder tried to score another box office hit by ditching the
period pieces and going the sci fi route with Alien Resurrection. The
fourth film in the franchise was actually the least successful of the
four domestically.
The movie got mixed to negative reviews but did well enough overseas
to be considered a hit.
Writer Joss Whedon had this to say about Alien 4:
“It wasn’t a question of doing everything differently…it was mostly a
matter of doing everything wrong…They did everything wrong that they
could possibly do…it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script;
it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render
it almost unwatchable.”
Making a Woody Allen movie is kind of a rite of passage for Hollywood
celebrities. It’s a sign that you’ve made it. Allen has a pretty
good track record of winning awards for his supporting actresses.
Unfortunately for Ryder, the Allen movie she appeared in, Celebrity,
was one of the worst reviewed movies of Allen’s career.
Like most Woody Allen movies, it didn’t attract much of an audience
either.
Ryder didn’t release a movie in 1998. But she did begin a high
profile romantic relationship with Matt Damon. At the time, Damon’s
best bud, Ben Affleck was dating Brad Pitt’s ex, Gweneth Paltrow.
Paltrow and Ryder were besties, so she hooked her up with Damon. For
a time, the four of them seemed inseparable.
Ryder and Paltrow eventually had a falling out over the film,
Shakespeare in Love. There was a rumor going around that Paltrow
found the script for Shakespeare sitting on a coffee table at Ryder’s
place. Supposedly, Paltrow stole the plum role from her best friend
and went on to win an Oscar for it.
This rumor has largely been debunked. However, it drove a wedge
between Paltrow and Ryder. Apparently, Paltrow believed that Ryder
leaked the rumor out of jealousy. Years later, Paltrow crowed about
Ryder’s downfall on her blog.
In 1999, Ryder appeared in the melodrama Girl, Interrupted. The movie
co-starred Brittnay Murphey, Whoopi Goldberg and newcomer Angelina
Jolie.
The reviews were pretty mixed, but Girl, Interrupted was a modest
hit. Unfortunately, Jolie pretty much stole the movie from Ryder and
was rewarded with an Oscar for doing so.
It seemed like everyone who stood near Ryder in the late 90′s ended up
with an Oscar.
2000 was a bust for Ryder. She released two critically reviled
bombs. The first, Autumn in New York (pictured) was a May-December
romance co-starring Richard Gere. Ick!
Spoiler alert: She dies. No one sheds a tear.
Ryder also bombed with the Satan-themed horror film, Lost Souls which
was delayed several times before being released in 2000.
In 2001, Ryder made a cameo in Zoolander and she also got arrested for
shoplifting. I guess I buried the lead there. Ryder reportedly stole
over $5,000 in merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue and (to make a long
story short) they threw the book at her.
I’m not too interested in digging up the details of a 10-year-old
scandal. If you’re interested, odds are you already know the story.
Otherwise, it’s out there for you to research. The question that
interests me is how much the scandal impacted Ryder’s career.
I think it’s undeniable that it put a pretty big dent in Ryder’s
career. Much like Meg Ryan, Ryder had a “girl next door” image. And
the shoplifting incident tarnished that if not outright destroyed it.
But Ryder’s career was already cooling off before the arrest. I think
she was probably slipping anyway. Her Gen X fans had moved on. The
prestgious roles with directors like Coppola and Scorsese were going
to other actresses.
Essentially, the scandal didn’t ruin her career. But it accelerated a
slide that was already happening.
Ryder attempted a comeback in 2002 with the Adam Sandler film Mr.
Deeds. Like most Sandler films, the reviews were terrible. The movie
was a hit for reasons only Sandler’s fans understand.
Co-starring in a Sandler film usually adds a hit movie to your
resume. But his co-stars don’t get any credit since almost all of
Sandler’s films are hits (a phenomenon I do not comprehend in the
least).
While Mr. Deeds was a hit at the box office, it wasn’t a Sandler-sized
smash. So if anything, Ryder took the blame for the movie
underperforming.
Ryder also had a small part in the Al Paccino dud, Simone. Ryder
played a difficult starlet who walked out on Paccino’s movie. Rather
than reshoot the movie, Paccino’s character replaced Ryder’s character
with a virtual actress.
Ryder’s part was a small one. But ultimately it didn’t matter much.
Simone got poor reviews and was ignored at the box office.
After this, Ryder went into semi-exile. She popped up from time to
time as she did in Richard Linklater’s 2006 roto-scoped film, A
Scanner Darkly. She reteamed with Heathers writer Daniel Waters for
the 2007 bomb, Sex and Death 101. But her comeback wouldn’t begin
until 2009.
In 2009, Ryder appeared in what is really a cameo role as Mr. Spock’s
mom in the Star Trek reboot. The role is so small, you wouldn’t
really expect much to come from it. But it seemed to remind Hollywood
that Ryder was out there. And free from her scandal, she was ready to
get back to work.
In 2010, Ryder was perfectly cast as a washed-up dancer Natalie
Portman would replace in The Black Swan. Again, it was a small role.
But it sent a message. Ryder was hireable again.
The Black Swan was huge. It made Natalie Portman an A-list star. It
proved that Mila Kunis was more than just a TV actor with a pretty
face (in other words, more than Ashton Kutcher). I have to think it
gave the great Barbara Hershey a career bump. And it gave Ryder’s
burgeoning come-back traction.
Unfortunately, Ryder’s next movie was the Vince Vaughn/Kevin James
comedy, The Dilemma. It must have looked good on paper. Vaughn and
James have good comedy track records. Ron Howard is an A-list
director. But the movie was an embarrassment to the studio before it
even opened due to a trailer that featured Vaughn making homophobic
comments. The studio barely promoted the film (which got bad reviews
anyway) and it flopped.
Luckily for Ryder, I don’t think anyone even realized she was in it.
Ryder’s next film was the Tim Burton stop-motion feature,
Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie bombed at the box office in spite of
mostly positive reviews. You can probably chalk this up to bad
timing. It was the third spooky kid’s film to be released in the fall
of 2012. And it ended up being completely over-shadowed by Adam
Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania which was released the week before
Frankenweenie opened.
So, what the hell happened to Winona Ryder? Ryder never really made
the transition from teenager to adult roles. Even now in her 40′s,
she still looks like an elfish princess. Unlike a lot of actresses
who are undone by their age, Ryder’s career was hindered by looking
eternally young.
Her bizarre off-screen behavior certainly didn’t help matters. But at
the end of the day, I think Ryder was limited by her range and picked
the wrong projects. Once her fans outgrew their boyhood crushes, she
couldn’t deliver at the box office any more.
Posted by lebeau
She was arguably the actress of my generation. Or at least she was
during my late teens and early 20′s. And then, she disappeared from
the big screen in the midst of a bizarre shoplifting scandal.
What the hell happened?
Winona Ryder got her start in the 1986 teen cult classic, Lucas.
Lucas was one of the better coming-of-age dramas from this time. Many
members of its cast of unknowns would go on to be stars.
Lucas was of course played by the late Corey Haim and the film co-
starred the scandal-prone warlock, Charlie Sheen. Ryder played Lucas’
best friend with an unrequited crush. Naturally, Lucas chooses the
lead girl over Ryder. As debut roles go, Lucas was a pretty good
start.
In 1987, Ryder got her first lead role in the low-budget country music
drama, Square Dance which co-starred Jason Robards and Rob Lowe. This
is your basic, “paying your dues” film.
In 1988, Ryder appeared in Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice helped move
Michael Keaton to the A-list and helped make Tim Burton a rising star
(Batman would seal the deal for both of them).
Ryder (along with co-stars Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) didn’t get as
much credit for Beetlejuice‘s success. But it certainly helped get
them noticed. And it was the start of a partnership with Tim Burton.
In 1988, Ryder also appeared in 1969. In the late 80′s, there was a
wave of 60′s nostalgia that elevated hippies to the level of
sainthood. As a result, Hollywood released a handful of movies
starring the 80′s brat pack celebrating the Summer of Love.
1969 starred Ryder, Keiffer Sutherland (who went on to star in the
hippie-comedy Flashback) and Robert Downey Jr. All in all, this movie
is basically a footnote in all of their careers.
1989 was a very big year for Ryder. On paper, Heathers was a small
movie. But it quickly developed a cult following. And all the cool
kids belonged to it. The movie made Ryder and Christian Slater into
bankable stars and helped launch the career of Shannen Doherty.
More important that the film’s box office performance (which wasn’t
great) was the cultural impact. Hollywood has been trying (and mostly
failing) to make the next Heathers ever since.
Ryder has been talking up a sequel in recent years. But both writer
Daniel Waters and director Michael Lehmann have denied it. Says
Lehman, “Winona’s been talking about this for years — she brings it up
every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as
far as I know there’s no script and no plans to do the sequel.”
Thank goodness! Leave Heathers alone!
In 1989, Ryder also starred alongside Dennis Quaid in the Jerry Lee
Lewis biopic, Great Balls of Fire. Ryder played Myra Gale Lewis,
Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin whom he married when she was only 13. Yikes!
The movie got mostly negative reviews and performed poorly at the box
office.
1990 was yet another big year for Winona Ryder. She started off
starring in another small teenage drama, Welcome Home Roxie
Carmichael. The movie co-starred Jeff Daniels. While it didn’t get
great reviews or do especially well at the box office, it helped to
show that Ryder could play a lead role.
Ryder re-teamed with Tim Burton for Edward Scissorhands. Burton used
his post-Batman box office clout to make a dark fable about a troubled
outsider with scissors for hands.
The title role was played by Johnny Depp who would go on to
collaborate with Tim Burton 100 million times. At the time, Ryder
wand Depp were engaged. Depp actually got a tattoo which read “Winona
forever.” However, when the relationship ended, he had it altered to
read “Wino forever.”
Edward Scissorhands got mostly positive reviews and was a hit at the
box office. It is also the final movie to feature the legendary
Vincent Price.
One week after the release of Edward Scissorhands (and the same day it
went into wide release) Ryder also appeared in Mermaids.
Mermaids starred Cher as a single mother of two. The daughters were
played by Ryder and Christina Ricci in her first film role. Mermaids
got mostly positive reviews and was a sleeper hit at the box office.
Ryder received a Golden Globe nomination for the film.
Ryder’s next major role was Mina Harker in Francis Ford Coppola’s
update of Dracula. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was Ryder’s official
entrance to the big time. Not only was it a lead role in a big budget
movie, but it allowed Ryder to make the transition from playing high
school girls to playing more adult roles.
Dracula received mixed to postive reviews and was a hit at the box
office. Although, to my mind, it is best remembered for Keanu Reeves’
attempts not to say “dude” while playing Jonathan Harker. Most
heinous, dude!
In 1993, Ryder appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Age of Innocence
alongside Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. Age of Innocence
was a rare period piece for Scorsese and audiences weren’t especially
interested. However, the movie got great reviews and Ryder was
nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Ryder actually won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
I haven’t seen Age of Innocence since it was released. I remember
that it moved slowly. But the ending blew my mind. I can’t remember
what the big reveal was, but I remember it showed the true depth of
Ryder’s character.
At the risk of repeating myself, 1994 was (you guessed it) another big
year for Winona Ryder. Reality Bites was THE Generation X movie. And
what a cast! Ryder co-starred opposite Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller (who
also directed), Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Andy Dick and apparently
Renee Zelleweger (although I do not remember her at all).
Appropriately enough, the slacker comedy was only a modest hit and got
mixed to positive reviews. Frankly, the soundtrack was a bigger deal
than the movie itself. But the movie (and the soundtrack) cemented
Ryder’s iconic status as the premiere actress of Gen X. Which was
probably at least partially responsible for the career trouble she
would have in the future…
I loved Reality Bites when it came out. I saw it severals times. I
have not watched it since. If it hasn’t aged well, I don’t want to
know. The part that annoyed me the most was that Ethan Hawke’s
character was a real asshole. And yet we were supposed to root for
Hawke and Ryder to get together. I wanted Ryder to kick Hawke off her
couch and either hook up with Ben Stiller’s character or go her own
way.
In 1994, Ryder also starred in a remake of Little Women. Expectations
were not high for the Little Women remake, but surprisingly the
reviews were mostly positive and the film was a hit – albeit a modest
one. Ryder received another Oscar nomination for the film.
In 1995, Ryder starred in How to Make an American Quilt. The movie
based on the novel of the same name told the stories of several women
in a quilting bee. But Ryder’s character was front and center. The
movie got middling reviews and did so-so box office.
Quilt may seem like a mild career mis-step. But it began a string of
well-intentioned misses for Ryder that would ultimately lead to her
irrelevance.
Ryder’s next film was Boys with Lukas Haas. And boy, was it a sign of
the hard times to come.
Roger Ebert said, “Boys is a low-rent, dumbed-down version of Before
Sunrise, with a rent-a-plot substituting for clever dialogue.” Ouch.
The movie bombed at the box office earning about a half a million
dollars. Double ouch!
In 1996, Ryder also appeared in an adaptation of The Crucible. I see
the thinking here. If Ryder can make a hit out of Little Women, maybe
she can do the same with a period piece like The Crucible. However,
this one went more along the lines of Ryder’s previous film with
Daniel Day-Lewis, Age of Innocence.
The reviews were decent. But the movie tanked at the box office.
In 1997, Ryder tried to score another box office hit by ditching the
period pieces and going the sci fi route with Alien Resurrection. The
fourth film in the franchise was actually the least successful of the
four domestically.
The movie got mixed to negative reviews but did well enough overseas
to be considered a hit.
Writer Joss Whedon had this to say about Alien 4:
“It wasn’t a question of doing everything differently…it was mostly a
matter of doing everything wrong…They did everything wrong that they
could possibly do…it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script;
it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render
it almost unwatchable.”
Making a Woody Allen movie is kind of a rite of passage for Hollywood
celebrities. It’s a sign that you’ve made it. Allen has a pretty
good track record of winning awards for his supporting actresses.
Unfortunately for Ryder, the Allen movie she appeared in, Celebrity,
was one of the worst reviewed movies of Allen’s career.
Like most Woody Allen movies, it didn’t attract much of an audience
either.
Ryder didn’t release a movie in 1998. But she did begin a high
profile romantic relationship with Matt Damon. At the time, Damon’s
best bud, Ben Affleck was dating Brad Pitt’s ex, Gweneth Paltrow.
Paltrow and Ryder were besties, so she hooked her up with Damon. For
a time, the four of them seemed inseparable.
Ryder and Paltrow eventually had a falling out over the film,
Shakespeare in Love. There was a rumor going around that Paltrow
found the script for Shakespeare sitting on a coffee table at Ryder’s
place. Supposedly, Paltrow stole the plum role from her best friend
and went on to win an Oscar for it.
This rumor has largely been debunked. However, it drove a wedge
between Paltrow and Ryder. Apparently, Paltrow believed that Ryder
leaked the rumor out of jealousy. Years later, Paltrow crowed about
Ryder’s downfall on her blog.
In 1999, Ryder appeared in the melodrama Girl, Interrupted. The movie
co-starred Brittnay Murphey, Whoopi Goldberg and newcomer Angelina
Jolie.
The reviews were pretty mixed, but Girl, Interrupted was a modest
hit. Unfortunately, Jolie pretty much stole the movie from Ryder and
was rewarded with an Oscar for doing so.
It seemed like everyone who stood near Ryder in the late 90′s ended up
with an Oscar.
2000 was a bust for Ryder. She released two critically reviled
bombs. The first, Autumn in New York (pictured) was a May-December
romance co-starring Richard Gere. Ick!
Spoiler alert: She dies. No one sheds a tear.
Ryder also bombed with the Satan-themed horror film, Lost Souls which
was delayed several times before being released in 2000.
In 2001, Ryder made a cameo in Zoolander and she also got arrested for
shoplifting. I guess I buried the lead there. Ryder reportedly stole
over $5,000 in merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue and (to make a long
story short) they threw the book at her.
I’m not too interested in digging up the details of a 10-year-old
scandal. If you’re interested, odds are you already know the story.
Otherwise, it’s out there for you to research. The question that
interests me is how much the scandal impacted Ryder’s career.
I think it’s undeniable that it put a pretty big dent in Ryder’s
career. Much like Meg Ryan, Ryder had a “girl next door” image. And
the shoplifting incident tarnished that if not outright destroyed it.
But Ryder’s career was already cooling off before the arrest. I think
she was probably slipping anyway. Her Gen X fans had moved on. The
prestgious roles with directors like Coppola and Scorsese were going
to other actresses.
Essentially, the scandal didn’t ruin her career. But it accelerated a
slide that was already happening.
Ryder attempted a comeback in 2002 with the Adam Sandler film Mr.
Deeds. Like most Sandler films, the reviews were terrible. The movie
was a hit for reasons only Sandler’s fans understand.
Co-starring in a Sandler film usually adds a hit movie to your
resume. But his co-stars don’t get any credit since almost all of
Sandler’s films are hits (a phenomenon I do not comprehend in the
least).
While Mr. Deeds was a hit at the box office, it wasn’t a Sandler-sized
smash. So if anything, Ryder took the blame for the movie
underperforming.
Ryder also had a small part in the Al Paccino dud, Simone. Ryder
played a difficult starlet who walked out on Paccino’s movie. Rather
than reshoot the movie, Paccino’s character replaced Ryder’s character
with a virtual actress.
Ryder’s part was a small one. But ultimately it didn’t matter much.
Simone got poor reviews and was ignored at the box office.
After this, Ryder went into semi-exile. She popped up from time to
time as she did in Richard Linklater’s 2006 roto-scoped film, A
Scanner Darkly. She reteamed with Heathers writer Daniel Waters for
the 2007 bomb, Sex and Death 101. But her comeback wouldn’t begin
until 2009.
In 2009, Ryder appeared in what is really a cameo role as Mr. Spock’s
mom in the Star Trek reboot. The role is so small, you wouldn’t
really expect much to come from it. But it seemed to remind Hollywood
that Ryder was out there. And free from her scandal, she was ready to
get back to work.
In 2010, Ryder was perfectly cast as a washed-up dancer Natalie
Portman would replace in The Black Swan. Again, it was a small role.
But it sent a message. Ryder was hireable again.
The Black Swan was huge. It made Natalie Portman an A-list star. It
proved that Mila Kunis was more than just a TV actor with a pretty
face (in other words, more than Ashton Kutcher). I have to think it
gave the great Barbara Hershey a career bump. And it gave Ryder’s
burgeoning come-back traction.
Unfortunately, Ryder’s next movie was the Vince Vaughn/Kevin James
comedy, The Dilemma. It must have looked good on paper. Vaughn and
James have good comedy track records. Ron Howard is an A-list
director. But the movie was an embarrassment to the studio before it
even opened due to a trailer that featured Vaughn making homophobic
comments. The studio barely promoted the film (which got bad reviews
anyway) and it flopped.
Luckily for Ryder, I don’t think anyone even realized she was in it.
Ryder’s next film was the Tim Burton stop-motion feature,
Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie bombed at the box office in spite of
mostly positive reviews. You can probably chalk this up to bad
timing. It was the third spooky kid’s film to be released in the fall
of 2012. And it ended up being completely over-shadowed by Adam
Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania which was released the week before
Frankenweenie opened.
So, what the hell happened to Winona Ryder? Ryder never really made
the transition from teenager to adult roles. Even now in her 40′s,
she still looks like an elfish princess. Unlike a lot of actresses
who are undone by their age, Ryder’s career was hindered by looking
eternally young.
Her bizarre off-screen behavior certainly didn’t help matters. But at
the end of the day, I think Ryder was limited by her range and picked
the wrong projects. Once her fans outgrew their boyhood crushes, she
couldn’t deliver at the box office any more.
MITO MINISTER
Dec 7, 2012, 2:58:41 AM12/7/12
to
On Dec 7, 4:41 pm, TMC <tmc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://lebeauleblog.com/2011/07/21/what-the-hell-happened-to-winona-r...
She was never an A-list actress, so shut up and get over it. Not every
career pans out.
> http://lebeauleblog.com/2011/07/21/what-the-hell-happened-to-winona-r...
career pans out.
Your Name
Dec 7, 2012, 3:47:43 PM12/7/12
to
In article
<cae3897f-6bc8-4069...@r6g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, TMC
drugs, money drove her weirdo. :-\
<cae3897f-6bc8-4069...@r6g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, TMC
<tmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://lebeauleblog.com/2011/07/21/what-the-hell-happened-to-winona-ryder/
>
> Posted by lebeau
>
> She was arguably the actress of my generation. Or at least she was
> during my late teens and early 20=E2=80=B2s. And then, she disappeared
>
> http://lebeauleblog.com/2011/07/21/what-the-hell-happened-to-winona-ryder/
>
> Posted by lebeau
>
> She was arguably the actress of my generation. Or at least she was
> from the big screen in the midst of a bizarre shoplifting scandal.
>
> What the hell happened?
The same as far too many other child / teen actors - too much booze,
>
> What the hell happened?
drugs, money drove her weirdo. :-\
Sol L. Siegel
Dec 7, 2012, 11:40:09 PM12/7/12
to
Your...@YourISP.com (Your Name) wrote in news:YourName-0812120947430001@
203-118-187-180.dsl.dyn.ihug.co.nz:
>> What the hell happened?
>
I recall reading that Woody Allen wanted to cast her in a pic and was
told that she was uninsurable. So there may be something that's never
been publicized.
- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA USA
203-118-187-180.dsl.dyn.ihug.co.nz:
>> What the hell happened?
>
I recall reading that Woody Allen wanted to cast her in a pic and was
told that she was uninsurable. So there may be something that's never
been publicized.
- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA USA
OddBALL
Dec 21, 2012, 4:15:06 PM12/21/12
to
From a family member I heard that she was a heroin addict. She just
partied with young rocker boys and got high all the time.
Her family did an intervention where they controlled all her money so
she didn't even have a dime to buy drugs. That's why she was stealing
clothes. She would steal them and sell them for cash and use that to
buy drugs. She got prescriptions under different names so they were
paid for somehow without the family knowing but they found out about
that when she was arrested for shoplifting with different
prescrripitons bottles in her purse.
It was a joke to watch her in court pleading not guilty and then
acting shocked when they found her guilty. She's on video for Christ's
sake !
She was then shipped off to an addict farm to get her off drugs.
Now, she walks around like a damaged zombie. She's really out of it.
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