The director Winona Ryder has been “obsessed” with for decades: “Always have been”
Winona Ryder is one of the most unique actors in film history.
It might seem like a big statement, but considering her streak for playing interesting and emotionally-wired characters, it’s an easy case to make. After all, most of her best projects have centred around the softer, heartfelt types that anchor the entire story, even if their moral compasses aren’t what you’d call good.
With Ryder, however, most of it comes down to the emotion in her eyes. With a simple look, she can tell you exactly what she’s feeling, whether it’s the pure empathetic pain in the eyes of someone like Kim in Edward Scissorhands or the maternal fight in the face of someone like Joyce from Stranger Things. Often, therefore, Ryder is the difference between a boring role and one with flavour.
After all, on casting her as Joyce in their action-filled epic series, the Duffer brothers once said that she wasn’t an interesting character at all until Ryder came on board. “She’s such a unique actress that we wanted to lean into her skill set,” said Matt Duffer. “So she became Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters [of the Third Kind], and that’s where we came up with all the Christmas light stuff. I don’t know if any of that would have existed had Winona said no to the role.”
In fact, Ryder was more than just an interesting placeholder – she was the emotional anchor of the entire show, a place from which the core took root, and all other character and storytelling nuances followed. And had she not been involved in the start, it’s anyone’s guess whether season five would have taken an even bigger hit, what with most negative reviews criticising the acting as a specific fault.
The point is, Ryder always brings something unique and worthwhile to the table. It’s like she bleeds out an entire world of stories, ones that she’s absorbed into her mind growing up while observing the beauty in cinematography and simple acting choices. Mainly, she’s been drawn to movies that tell stories of the beauty and fragility of human existence, and no one does that better, in her mind, than John Sayles.
“I’m obsessed with John Sayles movies, and I always have been,” Ryder told Interview. She singled out Matewan, Lone Star and Passion Fish as her favourites, saying, “I discovered them in my early teenage years. I specifically remember Matewan because it was such a gorgeously shot movie and also completely devastating… It’s about so many different things that are all haunting and fascinating and terrifying and human. God, I miss that in movies these days.”
It’s no surprise that Ryder is drawn to these kinds of movies – the ones that tackle themes that are often found in her own projects, some of which are her all-time favourites too. For Ryder, it’s about the ones that demonstrate the “contradictions” of humans, and when it’s paired with beautiful cinematography, you can’t really go wrong.
As a woman in film, it’s even more important to Ryder to showcase these perspectives, especially as she’s always thinking about the complexities of female characters whenever she watches something or steps into a new role. And consequently, it’s why we love any character Ryder plays – she has that emotional quality, as well as all of these other elements, that each reflect the multifaceted nature of the human mind.
