The iconic Kate Winslet movie that was supposed to star Winona Ryder: “It was such a brilliant script”
Winona Ryder attained the kind of fame in the 1990s that most actors would kill for. Following her endearingly dark performances in movies like Beetlejuice, Heathers, and Edward Scissorhands, she became one of the most beloved stars of the era, courted by directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
However, as any A-list celebrity will tell you, being famous has its downsides, and Ryder faced a host of them when she was at the peak of her stardom in her twenties. She was working at such a frenetic pace and faced such intense scrutiny from the press about her personal life that she eventually had to check herself into hospital for depression and anxiety. She also clashed with her agents, who were pushing her towards mainstream blockbusters as she was seeking smaller, independent films.
“Studios were getting so much more powerful,” she recalled in a 2024 interview with Esquire. “Suddenly it wasn’t about working with Jim Jarmusch, it was all about numbers, how much things were making. It was like you were under this weird threat all the time, which felt like so much pressure.” She remembered getting screamed at by agents when she turned down major commercial movies.
When it came to the projects she did want to do, however, she sometimes found that her fame was a deterrent for directors. She specifically recalled a meeting she had with Michel Gondry about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which he wanted her to star in. “It was such a brilliant script, and we were at this little restaurant, and people kept coming up to me, and there was a random paparazzi guy outside, which was kind of unusual for me,” she said, “But I just remember [Gondry’s] face, and trying to convince him that this isn’t normal, and I know it’s not normal.”
In the end, Ryder didn’t get the part, which she implied might have had something to do with that hectic meeting. Kate Winslet won the role instead. She was famous too at that point, of course, having starred in Titanic in 1996. However, she shied away from blockbusters for years afterwards, which may have been one of the reasons why Gondry chose her.
In the film, she plays Clementine, a woman who has had her ex-boyfriend (Jim Carrey) erased from her memory. It’s a daring concept given how little it leans into its science fiction elements and how heavily it relies on its central relationships to carry the story, but it was a resounding success that provided Winslet and Carrey with some of their most memorable roles.
Winslet is so excellent in the film that it’s hard to imagine anyone else – including Ryder – as Clementine. Gondry began developing the story in the late ‘90s, and by the time the movie was finally released in 2004, Ryder’s career had suffered a precipitous downturn. It’s tempting to speculate about how things might have been different if she had won the role, but it’s difficult to wish for anyone but Winslet as Clementine.
