When Winona Ryder, broken toy and legendwith that rebellious attitude and disenchanted spirit was the greatest exponent of generation X, talking about mental health it was almost a taboo. It was the 90s and she was the Hollywood star that we all wanted to be and they wanted to own. But it was the turn of the century and his life fell apart. Stormy love affairs, parties until dawn and rich-girl shenanigans like stealing high-end clothes from a Beverly Hills department store ended her hot streak. Now that she turns 51, Winona is the example of “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. Because, together with the rebirth of her career as the protagonist of stranger thingsthe eighties series that has us crazy –here everything we know about the fifth season of stranger things–, the actress has intelligently digested her darkest past and now speaks openly about the pain that that life of success meant to her that one day choked on her. “This Interrupted innocence –a 1999 film in which she played a young woman with a personality disorder, along with Angelina Jolie– It was my real life. Am I treating myself like the girl I play? This is what I was doing to myself because I just wasn’t taking care of myself,” she confessed to Harper’s Bazaar a few months ago, where she thanked the services of a wonderful therapist who advised her to be more lenient with the young woman she was. Congratulations twice then, dear Winona! Here is our gift in the form of a gallery with the best youth photos that show that you have barely changed because you are the eternal teenager with whom we are still in love.
Winona Laura Horowitz (Olmsted County, Minnesota, October 29, 1971) was born into a family attached to books, movies, music and art in general because her parents were writers and editors with a bohemian spirit who came to run an old book store for a few years. When the actress turned seven, she moved to live with her family in a hippie commune called Rainbow near California and there she grew up free and without rules along with seven other families. The seventies adventure came to an end in the early 80s, when they moved to Petaluma and enrolled little Winona in school. They say that because of her androgynous appearance – short hair and a doll face – some of her classmates mistook her for an effeminate teenager and unloaded her disgusting homophobia on her, even reaching her aggression. That is why she left school and continued with her studies from home, until in 1983 she returned to the classroom but this time to the theater at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She was 12 years old, her favorite book was The Catcher in the Rye of Salinger and classic black and white cinema was his favorite because his mother projected it at home on a sheet against the wall.
He made his theatrical debut in 1986 with a teenage love dramedy titled Luke. Nothing remarkable, really, but she helped Tim Burton to sign her up to play that taciturn goth girl from Bitelchus (here the 30 best fantasy movies of all time). The movie, a horror comedy with the soul of a comic, was a success and she was simply perfect in a role that already heralded a career (and a life) as an eternal rebel sometimes with a cause. Then came other titles like heathers (1989), together with Christian Slater –impossible that they didn’t fall in love in real life being both young, handsome and successful–; Big ball of fire with Dennis Quaid mermaids with Cher and Christina Ricci (1990) and that same film that marked his life: the magical, strange and moving Edward Scissorhandsdefinitely one of the best movies of the 90’sagain under the orders of Tim Burton, in which he met one of his great loves: Johnny Depp. There was so much chemistry between them that no one was surprised that their feelings came across the screen. Nor that at four years their relationship ended like the rosary of the dawn and Winona took her time to recover. The actress herself remembers that time with one of the most unfortunate of her life, but also with affection. She caught him rolling The Age of Innocence (1993), a period drama directed by Scorsese, opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.
Her portrayal of the sweet May Welland earned her the Golden Globe for best supporting role and her first Oscar nomination. After the drink –of heartbreak, I say–, she said that Pfeiffer was then a great supporter who told her: “Don’t worry, this too shall pass”. In 1994 she was nominated for an Oscar for the second time for little womenbut he didn’t take it either. Winona never went crazy for hoarding awards – she prefers to collect good moments – and even more so having the respect of critics and the industry at this point, as well as the devotion of the public, with titles that are film history: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), along with Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman; The House of Spirits (1993), with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons, or reality bites (1994), with Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller, directed by the latter, who was the hallmark of generation x. In the 2000s his star lost light and he worked on titles that it is better not to remember. Some secondary role he did in Black Swan, Alien: Resurrection Y star trek by JJ Abrams. And then rose like the Phoenix from her ashes with stranger things (2016), the series that has brought her back to us in a big way and without return and that will soon start filming its fifth season. Do not miss it either in its other series Show me a Hero (2015) and The conspiracy against America (2020), two HBO Max gems –here the 70 best HBO Max series– if you haven’t seen them, write them down now. Because it is always a pleasure to see his little porcelain face with eyes of having lived it all and through which you will see that the years do not pass.
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Winona Ryder: the best photos of the eternal teenager