Winona Ryder Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Characters

It was freezing.

He wanted to see, like the breath coming out of my mouth.

That was very important.

It was actually real, which is kind of beautiful.

[bright lively music]

We're ghosts. Ooh.

What do you look like under there?

Aren't you scared? I'm not scared of sheets.

Are you gross under there?

Are you Night of the Living Dead under there?

Like all bloody veins and pus?

I met Tim when I was 14, I think maybe 15.

I know we shot the movie when I was 15.

You know, I really wanted to go in by myself.

I remember telling my parents, You have to wait in the car.

Like, I wanna do this by myself.

I walked into this office, Tim came in,

and I did think he was from the art department.

I remember the first thing we started talking about

was Edward Gorey, who I was kind of obsessed with,

an incredible illustrator, which was just pure,

like coincidence.

I didn't know Tim's sort of background.

I just knew I was meeting on this script.

We talked for about a half hour about old movies

and Edward Gorey, before I realized

that he was in fact, the director.

I mean, he was 26, 27, and he looked like someone

I would know, you know?

Like that I would, like see at a show, at a concert,

or like a cool underground gallery or something.

It was such a beautiful first impression,

and it also was the first time I was offered something

on the spot, which I was prepared to read, to audition.

And I remember when, Do you know when

this Tim Burton guy's gonna show up?

He's like, Oh, that's me.

And I was like, Oh, oh, I kind of immediately

went into, Oh, do you want me to, I'm ready to read.

And he was like, No, I'd love you to do it.

It just came so naturally to me.

I feel like it was sort of my baseline,

was like a very, I dressed not to that extreme,

but I like, was always in black, I dyed my hair.

Like six months before I met Tim, I had like dyed

L'Oreal Blue Black hair, and very pale skin.

And so the, aesthetically I was there.

But also, I think tonally, there wasn't a ton of direction.

He was so great at giving me an idea, or he doesn't like,

do line readings for you, but just an idea

of like how to, what part of the line is to yourself,

and what part of it is directed, and who's,

you know like, he was really great at that.

And he was really, it was so beautiful,

and I get emotional, because I love him so much

as a friend and a director and a mentor, and everything.

It's like an intimacy that is profoundly safe.

And speaking for myself, he was so protective of Lydia.

I was at a very tender age, and it's certainly

not lost on me that I've watched the kids

on Stranger Things acting.

I remember what it was like at that age.

You got your wish, we're leaving.

So go pack up your things,

I'm driving you back to school.

Wait, what happened?

You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

I will pay for a fleet of movers

to take everything back to Manhattan, except that model.

We need to chop it up and burn it.

Because we had been talking about it for so many years,

it almost happened, but you kind of realize,

wow, everything really does happen for a reason,

because Jenna Ortega is so crucial to that movie.

And she wasn't, you know, she wasn't born yet.

Like, so we were all sort of,

I think she was a real linchpin.

I was really nervous, 'cause it was sorta like,

suddenly it was happening, it was gonna happen,

and I was so used to like, Okay, but when?

Is it gonna be next year?

You know, it sort of came together,

and I was probably exactly how Lydia would be handling,

like the news, like, Okay, I have a kid now, I'm a mom.

I'm in this weird relationship that doesn't make

a lotta sense, but I'm really just, and I have the show,

which is sort of so not Lydia.

But in working with Tim about it,

these things like happen, they do.

You find yourself at different points of your life

in the weirdest situations, doing things

that you never saw yourself doing.

So all the things that I was sort of nervous

about inhabiting, I was already internalizing as Lydia.

I could like, lean on myself, you know?

As everything, the stuff that's going on around her is,

a lot of it is very puzzling.

It made it weirdly easy to respond to,

as the character would. [bright lively music]

Must have been awful when they told you

whose house it was.

I knew it was Jim's house.

You did? Yes.

Well, then why'd you do it?

Tim, it's so interesting,

because I remember thinking, Really, me?

But there was something actually, I think about Kim,

that was very similar to Lydia, which was what she sees.

There's like a reason Lydia sees, she can see the ghosts.

Like that's a, there's a purity there.

And Kim, if you really watch the movie, she reacts

to Edward in the way, like a normal way,

which is, she's absolutely terrified, and like,

does not understand why everyone's acting

like this is normal, and then she grows to love him.

Whereas everyone else loves him, and then turns on him.

Tim would say, You're like the calm in the storm.

You can get like, hung up on aesthetics.

So what I was in was just like the very opposite of me.

And what was going on inside of her

was actually not dissimilar to Lydia.

Certainly it wasn't out of my comfort zone.

It was actually a brilliant casting choice.

It was a gift, it was such a gift.

I love that she has this sort of inner moral compass

that is correct. [bright gentle music]

We shot most of the movie in Florida,

in this little neighborhood was being developed,

so they let them paint the houses and all of that.

But then we shot the inside of sort of the castle

on sound stages in LA.

I remember for that, it was freezing.

He wanted to see, like the breath coming out of my mouth.

That was very important.

It was actually real, which is kind of beautiful.

Patti Smith, someone that I admire so much,

that I'm a huge fan of, told me that that was

her favorite scene, and I was just like, Oh, what?

That meant so much to me. [bright lively music]

[sighing] Are you alive?

[gasping] Are you safe?

Oh. [soft uneasy music]

I think it took talking into, because I was just given

the pilot, I'd never done a series before.

I didn't know what streaming was, this is 2015,

was when I read it.

And I didn't know where it was going.

I didn't see it as doing what it has done,

because when we started, I didn't really even know

what the end of the season would be.

It's so different, making a series.

It's very different than making a film.

To be just completely honest, it was like a big,

I think leap of faith for everybody.

But I do remember meeting the kids,

and they're all so different.

They were so like authentic, and completely just beguiling.

Like, they had like that unforced, like charm

that you have when you're that age, and you're not like,

over-analyzing things, and you're not seeing anything

through a different lens.

They were themselves, and it was magic.

One of the great, I think, the best thing

about this experience for me has been

watching these kids grow up.

It's very moving, I'm very proud of them,

and I have so much love for them.

[bright lively music]

All JD really did was ruin two pairs of pants.

Maybe not even that, can you bleach out urine stains?

I was given that script by Michael McDowell,

who wrote Beetlejuice, so he was friends with Dan Waters,

who wrote Heathers.

I felt like such a insider, right?

I got slid this script.

I thought it was a masterpiece, which it is.

I remember sitting in my bedroom in Petaluma,

where I lived with my family.

I tracked down Michael Lehmann's phone number,

and I like cold-called him, and I was sort of like,

Michael gave me this script, I love it.

I understand I may not be like physically

what you might be thinking, but you know,

I had this phone call, and he was incredibly sweet.

When the movie got, you know, found funding

and auditions were happening, I went in.

And I did the whole like, You don't have to, I don't care,

you don't have to pay me, almost,

I don't care if it comes out.

I was obsessed with the role, and I wanna say, Please.

Like, I don't think I had wanted anything,

and felt so connected to something.

They took a chance on me, and I am forever grateful.

[Lydia] Dear diary, my teen angst bullshit

has a body count.

The most popular people in school are dead.

Everybody's sad, but it's a weird kind of sad.

Can I say though, I have that monocle.

I have the monocle, I have my Westerberg High ID,

and the clip, but it's like laminated.

And then I have the copies of the Heather Chandler note,

because I had to do all the inserts,

had to be in my writing.

Sorry, I'm like a fanatic about that movie.

There are lines of other people.

I love that, I don't patronize bunny rabbits line.

My teen angst bullshit has a body count.

I mean, I loved her going, Wait, Wicked Witch

of the West, wait East, wait what?

Like it's just like, it's so Eskimo.

Obviously these are very peculiar so I,

but it's just, I think it's a real masterpiece.

The script was initially like, over 300 pages.

It's like, one of my most prized possessions, yeah.

[bright lively music]

[Charlotte] I feel like you're the child

and I'm the grownup.

I can't ever imagine being inside you.

I can't imagine being anywhere you'd let me hang around

for nine straight months.

I loved that I got that part.

That was such a huge moment for me, because I loved

that Charlotte was this mass of like contradictions,

which I think like a lot of teenagers are.

She wants to be a nun,

but she's like madly in love with Joe.

It's exactly what you kind of feel like

when you're going through, it's like you have

conflicting feelings all the time.

You're a mass of contradictions.

Working with Cher, like, are you kidding me?

That was a huge gift.

I'm forever grateful to her, and she really,

she really had an impact on me, her friendship,

her mentorship, her humor.

I felt so close to her.

I mean, I felt like related to her,

and obviously Christina Ricci, who it was her first movie,

and she was fantastic in it.

Like, we really did become like this little family.

Cher was also like pivotal in a lot of,

like just personal ways for me.

She started really when she was like 16,

she had had so much experience.

And nowadays kids say like Mother, it's like a,

and I mean she's sort of the ultimate right?

But also, her friendship was,

just meant a lot to me and still does.

You make mistakes, you're always screwing up,

and we're always paying for it.

Every time you get dumped, every time you dump on somebody.

And it's just, it's not fair Mom, it is not fair.

Richard Benjamin, having been an actor,

it's so interesting.

I would love to like watch him,

like have a different perspective,

like watch him direct that scene, because it felt like

the world went away, and he brought everything up

that we needed to feel and it just worked.

It worked for me, it worked for her.

The way he did it, it was, I don't use this word a lot,

but it was sort of magic.

Mermaids felt very raw, very sort of naked,

and like you're really baring this stuff

that may not be that attractive, you know?

Like it's, I remember shooting the scene with Joe,

oh my gosh, where I, like Richard somehow like gave me,

I think he just sort of like talked to me about like,

little improvised moments that he had done.

And there's like ways that directors can do that,

where they really are planting it in your head,

you think you're just like listening to a story.

But I remember we're getting into the boat,

and I like licked his jacket.

Okay? Yeah I'm fine, thanks.

Which is so weird, but he used that take,

and it did work somehow, and it would be something

that this like very confused 16-year-old girl would do.

Michael Schoeffling, by the way.

We were doing a scene in the car, and when you shoot scenes

in a car, it's just the two of you in the car all day.

Like, the cameras are outside.

So it can be awkward, it can be great.

I was super comfortable with him.

He like predicted the future, 'cause he told me

that one day there's gonna be computers,

and they're gonna like replace us.

And he was totally like playing with me, but I was like,

What do you mean, and I was so like freaked out.

I remember like getting really like, What do you,

like what do you mean computers are, anyway.

He's such a wonderful, wonderful guy.

I loved working with him. [bright lively music]

Revenge is mine, quoth he.

Continued in the following edition.

It was heaven, it truly was heaven.

It was, I remember I read the script,

which I think was just a spec script that was like,

it wasn't set up anywhere.

It was such a gorgeous adaptation.

I wasn't particularly looking to do Little Women,

because I love the previous versions.

But this one, it was written so beautifully.

I was kind of obsessed with Gillian Armstrong,

and I really, really wanted to work with her

ever since My Brilliant Career.

And I remember like, begging her to do it.

She was a little bit reluctant because she felt like

My Brilliant Career was about a woman during that time

who was trying to be a writer.

She was sort of like, I wanted to make the movie with her.

Like, it was very crucial.

I don't know if I would've done it with anyone.

Like it just, it was just like

this perfect, perfect situation.

And then obviously the cast, oh my God.

I mean, how lucky was I? It was like kind of a perfect cast.

It felt like just this sort of warm, like womb

of every part of being a woman, you know?

And because of the sort of the closeness of the sisters,

and the sisters were all like very unique,

and very much their own person.

But living, you know, living together,

and living with this incredible mother,

that I was so, so happy that Susan came on.

It just felt like everyone really, really wanted

to be there, and was really happy.

I loved working with Eric Stoltz.

I loved working with Christian.

I felt like Christian and I had a very similar friendship

to Jo and Laurie, and it was just a really special time.

And I loved Geoffrey Simpson who shot it,

who had worked on all of my favorite Peter Weir films,

since, I got to hear stories.

But I just, every sort of detail,

Colleen Atwood did the costumes.

We shot in Vancouver, but also all the March house stuff

in Victoria, in British Columbia.

And it was, we could take carriages.

It was just really, it was a magical, oh God,

I don't wanna be like, Oh, it was magic.

It was a beautiful, beautiful experience. Really profound.

[bright lively music]

What's money to an artist, to a philosopher?

It's just a green=colored paper

that floats in and out of his life like snow.

It's nothing you actually have to, I don't know work for,

is it Troy?

No, not if you have daddy's little gas card.

You shut up.

I loved the script.

It was like a contemporary story,

and I had been doing period pieces.

And a lot of the stuff that was contemporary

was not that great, that I was being sent anyway.

And there was something about being, I think I was 23, 24,

where you're at an age where you're too young really

to be a district attorney, or a detective or a, you know,

mother of children, whatever.

And, but this script just kind of worked,

and it was just about these people my age

that were trying to just get through life,

and their friendships and relationships.

I really loved Ben Stiller. I loved his show.

I remember I was working in, I believe Portugal,

and I was sent a VHS, and it was like six episodes

of his show, and I was like, God, this guy is so talented.

I really wanted to work with Ethan Hawke.

I loved Ethan Hawke, I still love Ethan Hawke.

We were both like on location, and I remember

I got his number, we talked.

I really, really loved him.

I was so happy that that worked out.

And then Janeane Garofalo, she's so incredibly talented.

She's hilarious, but she's also like

a really talented actress.

And she was also just the epitome of cool.

Like, I felt so close to coolness.

I loved working with all of them. I loved Steve Zahn.

Oh my God, Steve Zahn was such like a little adult already.

I think he had kids. He was hilarious.

I mean, I just, and then like, I remember what, meeting Ben.

I finished the thing in Portugal, and I feel so grateful

that I got to work with him.

And I actually, I found all,

I have all of my old call sheets and scripts and notes,

and everything from each project.

And I told the kids on Stranger Things,

I was telling them, You know, we used to hand write

call sheets, you know?

And they were like, What? And I was like, Yeah.

Anyway, I found this old handwritten call sheet

from Reality Bites, and I took a picture of it

and I sent it to Ben, and we both got

kind of emotional about it. [bright lively music]

[Susanna] Maybe I was just crazy.

Maybe it was the '60s, [siren wailing]

or maybe I was just a girl interrupted.

I remember I read the book when it was in galleys form,

which is like before it's published into a book,

because my parents are writers and they had a connection.

I was very struck by just the way that the book opened,

which is sort of, and I'm paraphrasing here, but like,

People ask me, how did I end up in like,

a mental hospital for this time?

And I don't know how to answer it except that it's easy.

That was very sort of striking to me, because in the past,

if you like look back, mental hospitals have mostly

been depicted as like male,

like Cuckoo's Nest or Asylum.

You know, you don't usually think of women in them.

You know, this was 1969.

Mental health was not really talked about at all.

I thought it was so interesting at the time

that she's talked to a therapist for 20 minutes,

and she ended up unable to leave this facility for a year.

Whereas in 1996 or whenever I read it,

you could go to a place going, I'm like,

I'm really in a bad place, I need help.

And they were like, Well, we can keep you for a few hours,

but then you're on your own.

So, I thought it was a really interesting opportunity

to start a dialogue about mental health.

Even then, it was sort of difficult conversation,

and I remember getting, sort of having to do,

like a very personal interview, and there will always be

like stigma around it.

But I think we have come, we have come quite far.