17 Reasons To Be Obsessed With Winona Ryder
A poster child for nineties cult classics, with a rep for playing goths, quirks, and outsiders, Winona Ryder is the epitome of underplayed cool. Winona plays it cool too, which is why she might not pop into your mind when you think of the coolest celebrities walking the planet. She's not on social media because she rather avoid a "self-obsession", saying "it's so important to look outward". But be assured, she is intergalactically cool (literally as the star of Alien). Ryder defined the nineties grunge aesthetic with her waiflike looks and up-rolled eyes in her big break roles in Beetlejuice and Heathers. Making eclecticism cool, one thing that unites Ryder's entire career is her success in low-key indie and cult classics and a charmingly nigh-imperceptible quirkiness that sees her carry films time and again. Besides being brought up among America's intellectual elite, including Aldous Huxley and Allen Ginsberg (cool is an understatement), she was the original Mean Girl before we knew what they were and Johnny Depp got her name tattooed on his arm while the two were a couple in the nineties. On top of this, she persuaded Francis Lord Coppola to undertake an Oscar-winning remake of Dracula in which she starred, and has even collaborated with indie cinema legend actor Tim Robbins on her own documentary film. Besides a run in with the law and her recent role in the chronically addictive Netflix series Stranger Things, Winona Ryder is the definition of cool. So let's take a look at what we can learn about being effortlessly cool (and also why you are obsessed with) the maestro herself.
17 Growing up in a commune with Aldous Huxley and Allen Ginsberg
If you could invent a fictional upbringing for this off-beat heroine of the big, (and recently, little) screen, you might only in your wackiest dreams come up with "a Californian commune with Alan Ginsberg and Aldous Huxley". But you'd be right. Spending your formative years surrounded by bohemians frolicking in the woods at 'Rainbow Commune' California is compulsory for your ultra cool personal development. As is being influenced in your tender years by the celebrated thinker and writer that gave us America's most famous dystopian novel, "Brave New World", and one of the most influential of the beat poets, Ginsberg. Supercool supermodel Kate Moss has been spotted wearing a T-shirt (designed my Bella Freud, granddaughter of the painter and great-granddaughter of the Viennese father of psychology), so you know it's cool. Amongst other things, Ginsberg was a practicing Buddhist who studied Eastern religious disciplines extensively and later moved to New York's trendy East Village where he lived frugally, having founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. You'll need to draw on these cool influences later, so start strong, a la Winona.
16 Big Break in Beetlejuice
Ryder was only 16 when she starred in cult classic Beetlejuice, Tim Burton's Oscar-winning 1988 supernatural fantasy. Be sure to break out with an Oscar-winning Tim Burton movie (you may as well start as cool as you mean to go on). Although doing the film alienated her from her high school peers at the time, but the movie sealed her arrival on the scene and showed the queen of cool knows how to make an entrance. “I did Beetlejuice, and it was a big movie, but it didn't help my high-school experience. In fact, it made it worse. I was a freak and a witch", Winona has said. Well, her performance of Harry Belafonte's 'Jump in the Line' while levitating has definitely outlasted her momentary lack of popularity at school, making her a hit with millions. Rumors of a sequel have been confirmed by both Winona and Tim Burton, so stay tuned.
15 a nineties cult classic poster child
Winona's next move was starring in Heathers, a smart, sassy film that pretty much set up the level of cool that kids aimed at attaining for the rest of the nineties. In a parallel with her own autobiography, Ryder starred alongside Christian Slater as a pair of high school outcasts who end up taking out a few of the most popular kids in school. The role landed her iconic status among the Generation once known as X. The image of early Ryder is etched irrevocably in our memories - brunette, porcelain skinned and doe-eyed, she had acres of attitude which left us riveted and desperate to achieve such heights of hauteur. Her upward rolled eyes have been deployed throughout her career as a kind of calling card of Ryder cool we all wish we could perfect ourselves. The Killers also cast Winona in this music video, a dark adolescent fantasy that (as usual) Winona played with a pretty huge twist on the typical one-dimensional love interest. Pretty cool.
14 Mean Girls was modeled around her
And that isn't all, Heathers was literally the direct precursor to Mean Girls (to get technical) and was even directed by the brother of Dan Waters, who directed Mean Girls. Winona starred next to feisty original mean girl Shannon Doherty, who is another actress known for doing things her way. And pretty cool too. Their clothes may be in need of an update, but their attitude is every bit as killer as everyone's favorite Mean movie. Winona has been quoted saying: "That movie probably did a lot more for me than I even knew at the time. It never made any money when it came out-it made like a couple million dollars-but I felt like everyone saw it. Some people were even offended by it. I mean, it is very '80s, but I think it totally holds up. We really wanted to make the teen film to end all teen films… I remember feeling like I wanted them [the makers of Mean Girls] to say that there was some influence, and they kind of deliberately didn't say that." We know Winona, we know.
13 Do what you want way of life
Winona isn't afraid of doing things her way, which is maybe the most major attribute of cool she has lessoned us in. Hearkening back to her hippie-intellectual roots, she's confident in steering a different path from the norm, and isn't defined by what others think of her. But we all just think she's really cool. Of her cool parents, she has said: "I really lucked out in terms of how they encouraged me to develop my own personality so I didn't just feel incredibly insecure and like I didn't fit in. I just felt, like, well, you know, it's good to be different. So I never really modeled myself on anyone. I was inspired by lots of people, certainly in acting and in writing and stuff, but I never wanted to be somebody else. My parents really instilled this idea in me of being your own person-almost to the extent that I couldn't do wrong. I'd get a bad grade and they'd be like, “No! What you did was great!” [laughs]".
12 Turns down killer roles and takes chances
It's part of your prerogative as a seriously cool person to make decisions that reflect your authentic self, even when others think they're career-limiting, you can see beyond that, and have the ability to back yourself later and prove them all wrong. Winona has turned down some huge roles, including Sleepy Hollow, a part that was taken by Christina Ricci instead. She was considered for Helena Bonham Carter's role in Fight Club and auditioned for Rose in Titanic (what a movie that would've been). She had to drop out of her role as Michael's daughter, Mary Corleone in the Godfather III due to illness and was memorably replaced by Coppola's daughter, Sofia. On her career choices, Winona confesses: "I don't really understand the business part of it-I don't really follow it-but you certainly feel the repercussions… I've just wanted to do more interesting things. Some of the [films] I've done were actually good experiences where the movie just didn't really come together in the end, but the important thing for me is that I wanted to go back to how things were when I started, where there was always this feeling that I was taking a chance."
11 Get arrested (well, maybe not)
OK so this is not advisable, but we have to admit it is slightly cool, even if Winona was arrested for a fairly uncool misdemeanor: shoplifting. In 2001, she was accused of stealing thousands of dollars of designer clothes from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, California. Her conviction had a pretty detrimental impact on her career, and it has only been recently that she has opened up about the incident explaining about her mental health struggles in the lead up to it. We'll allow that there is potentially a more complex situation than the tabloids portrayed, and as Ryder has pointed out (even if she does say so herself), it was hardly the "crime of the century". Now we think of it, Winona does have a proclivity towards wearing stripes, from Beetlejuice to Girl, Interrupted, (in which she checks herself into a detainment center for the mentally ill - a case of art paralleling life)… at least she knows she looks great in jail stripes.
10 Be modest about having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Once you receive your (inevitable) star on Hollywood's famous promenade of even more famous stars, remember that no pavement can compare to the cool factor of not needing to prop up your ego. Despite her continued successes, Winona was cool as a cucumber when she spoke to the press during her star ceremony, jesting “When I hear about this, I thought it was a joke… [it] gives me a chance to say you can walk all over me.” Staying light-hearted about your triumphs and not forcing them down everyone's throats is definitely one of the components of Winona's cool, and one that a lot of stars, despite their success, fail to recognize. Maybe it all goes back to that Ginsberg-all natural upbringing, but Winona kept her feet firmly planted on the ground, even in the swirling mists of glamor that surrounds Hollywood fame and stardom. So in the famous words of the also-cool brunette Mia from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, "don't be a [square]", when you get yours.
9 Keeps it low key
On the same point, one of the classic mistakes of celebrities is to court attention, but if you want to stay true to your cool roots, it's important that you don't get drawn into all that. As Lady Gaga has recently said, "All the awards in the world [can get you] into all the night clubs [and designers] send you the nicest clothes,” she mused. “[But there's] nothing better than walking into your dad's restaurant and seeing a smile on his face, knowing that your mom, your dad, and your sister are real proud of you and that you haven't lost touch with who you are. That, for me, is real success.” Winona, the original thermometer of cool, feels a similar way: "It's like, sometimes I'll watch a movie, and it's got some big star in it playing a working-class person, and the character is in a grocery store, and you can kind of tell, from just watching the scene, that this actor doesn't do their own shopping. So you have to have some sense of reality. That's why, at the height of everything, I used to go to the Laundromat to do my laundry-just because I had to sort of maintain."
8 Shares a godfather with the godfather of 60's counterculture
We're definitely not advocating the dangerous hippy drug, but it's still pretty cool that Winona's godfather is also the godfather of LSD. Her father, Michael Horowitz, was an archivist for Dr. Timothy Leary, a psychologist, and proponent of the therapeutic uses of the drug as medicine, who became a hero figure for 60's counterculture. Although it's pretty clear it's a good thing that the drug was never legalized, and isn't prescribed for medicinal use, the sixties were definitely a cool time, and not just because communes were all the rage. Flowerings of peaceful politics, art and music have influenced us even afterward. A time of naive youthful rebellion when everyone really believed that they could change the world, the enduring impact of the sixties flower power phase prefigured what it means to be cool today. But it's all subjective, some would argue that hippyism is distinctly UNcool. All we know is, drugs are dangerous and cool is a state of mind.
7 Johnny Depp's love interest in a Tim Burton movie
One of the other items on your 2017 'to-do' list of cool is starring as the love interest to Johnny Depp (ideally in a Tim Burton movie). The dark romcom featured the immortally funny yet poignant lines "hold me" / "I can't". We loved everything about this surreal film about an "uncommonly gentle man" with scissors for hands, who finds his way in a traditional American town despite his abnormality. Perhaps the best-loved Burton film, it was greeted with rapturous critical acclaim and numerous awards and nominations. Naturally, Johnny Depp remains the obvious choice to be cast alongside in terms of his coolness factor. The actor has serially resisted being pigeonholed as the stereotypical pretty boy and sought out edgier roles. Known for his tattoos and epically cool attitude and attire, Johnny is probably the coolest co-star Ryder could have chosen. A fun fact about the film is that an extinct lobster-like sea creature has been named 'Kootenichela deppi' after Depp because of its scissor-like claws. Good to know.
6 Winona Forever
As often happens it would seem, romance blossomed on set for these super cool lovebirds, and the Ryder and Depp duo ruled the world for four years, for three of which they were engaged. The media furor that surrounded the couple probably had something to do with the unparalleled cosmic event of these two giants of cool coming into alignment for a period of the nineties. Depp even had Winona's name tattooed on his arm during the relationship. This is another ultimate badge of cool that Winona can add to her distinguished achievements in this department. When the relationship ended, Johnny had the tattoo, which said "Winona Forever", altered to the phrase "Wino Forever". A sad turn of events, as we thought that the deliciously dark and Burtonesque duo had so much going for them, not least their similarly galactic-level status as established ambassadors of cool. They have continued to represent, but we loved it when they were the ultimate cool couple.
5 She Convinced Francis Lord Coppola to let her star in his Dracula remake
Maker of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Rainmaker and father to Sofia Coppola, who directed The Virgin Suicides, directorial master Francis Lord Coppola is probably the biggest heavyweight in the biz. So it was pretty cool when Winona convinced him to remake Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992. It was even cooler that Winona got to star in the movie, which remains the closest ever made to the novel. Ryder played the double-edged sword of the ethereal love interest Mina Murray, a reincarnation of Elizabeta, one of Dracula's previous lovers. Bonus cool points were earned in the form of not one but three Oscars. The film was narrated by Anthony Hopkins and also starred Richard Grant, Sadie Frost, Monica Bellucci and Keanu Reeves. Apparently, Coppola storyboarded the entire film to craft each shot perfectly, splicing in scenes from Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast and paintings by Gustav Klimt and other symbolist artists. Pretty cool, eh?
4 Collaborated with Tim Robbins on a series of indie short films
Not satisfied with her career in front of the lens, Ryder showed us that she has the vision, smarts, and integrity to both produce and narrate several works of independent cinema. The cool cache of working on her own short films was matched by the hard-hitting nature of the subject matter. The Day God Died documented the international child trade and though harrowing, it is definitely worth a watch. Despite its upsetting subject matter, the film is beautifully produced and definitely helped along in its watchability by co-producer and narrator Tim Robbins. Independent Lens on US television shows a selection of documentary and short films and in 2001 ran Ryder's movie, which made waves with audiences and brought attention to a global but under publicized human rights issue. Winning her definite cool points for caring, and having a separate career in independent cinema, Ryder once again showed us how it's done.
3 Starred in a movie about girls who play by their own rules
Girl, Interrupted saw Ryder star alongside Brittany Murphy, Elizabeth Ross, and Angelina Jolie in a film about femininity and what it means to be mentally ill. Unsure whether her character is indeed sick or simply seeking escapism, we were riveted by the film's cast of girls with attitude and a passion for life, psychiatric hospital or not. Asking questions about a still cloudy but increasingly popular topic of debate in contemporary consciousness, the film refused to succumb to stereotypes of either women or mental illness. Angelina Jolie earned an Academy Award, wide eyed a SAG Award, and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of a charming but unhinged character who takes it upon herself to teach Ryder's character how to live life to the fullest. Despite their flaws, their characters' sass and sense of fun definitely gave them cool points. This was a seriously cool movie for destabilizing stereotypes of women and liberating them to be OK with themselves.
2 Was nominated for an Oscar
Some might say that it's cooler to be nominated for an Oscar than it is to win one. It lets you maintain your under-the-radar cool status while achieving just enough notoriety to validate your talent. Ryder received a nomination for her portrayal of the tomboy, Jo, in the most recent remake of the famous post civil war novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Cool co-stars included Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon, and Christian Bale. Wide-eyed lead, Ryder, had us mesmerized with her intensity, ability to speak with those wide eyes, and spirited characterization. Although it seems absurd, early in her career Ryder had to fight for her role in Heathers as she was not initially considered pretty enough, but despite this, she showed with her portrayal of Jo that she's not just a pretty face either. There is something simmering under the surface that makes this cool girl totally absorbing on screen.
1 Stars in your favorite hit Netflix series Stranger Things
If you haven't binge-watched the entire series of Stranger Things yet, you're probably being detained in a high-security government testing facility, or Girl Interrupted-style psychiatric hospital. In the addicting and mysterious Stranger Things series, we watch Ryder as an emotionally charged mother desperately searching for a missing son. Hearkening back to the seventies-style horror/thriller genres, it rounds out her career evolution from gamine teen to mother figure and we are unbelievably impatient to see the latest series. Naturally, the ultimate cool girl is part of the biggest deal on Netflix since Orange is the New Black. We love the fact that the queen of cool has shown she can move with the times and manages to position herself effortlessly in the heart of all things that are cool. This agility is the last quality in our breakdown of coolness, as illustrated by the great Winona Ryder herself. Stay cool.