She also opened up about her ‘hiatus’ from acting.
The Winonaissance is here! Winona Ryder opened up to Marie Claire UK about her recent return to acting after being one of the biggest stars of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
“It’s so overwhelming,” she told the magazine of the fan response to her Netflix hit, Stranger Things. “I don’t know what it’s like for really famous people… I keep hearing that people are dressing up like me [as her character Joyce]. I’m like, ‘What?’”
Ryder said that not being a parent herself, she asked her mom for help with connecting with her character, Joyce, a single mom, frantic to find her missing son.
“I said, ‘Mom, if every bit of logic is telling you your kid is gone, would you still [refuse to believe it]?’ And she said, ‘Absolutely.’ I said, ‘What if they show you a body?’ She said, ‘If you don’t see it happen, you don’t believe it.’ It’s a weird, primal thing,” she said, adding, “But I may have gone too far: it seemed like every day I was crying or freaking out.”
Ryder, who is returning for season two of the beloved show, said that she’s now considered the old lady on set after growing up in the industry.
“Millie [Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven] teases me. I’m like the old grandma,” she said. “‘What are you kids doing?’”
She recalled learning about Snapchat for the first time, and noted that she thought it had something to do with snacks. “’Snack chat? Give me a piece of that!’ I’m like the confused older person [on the set].”
Ryder has always lived life on the outside. She revealed that when she first got her role in 1988’s Beetlejuice she thought it would help with some of the bullying she’d been getting at school.
“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,” she said.
She also explained taking time off from her career in the early ‘00s.
“My hiatus,” she said. “Whatever they want to call it – I did take time off. It was mutual, I think. I just went through a tough time.”
For more on Stranger Things, which returns to Netflix on Oct. 31, watch below: