How ‘Black Swan’ revived Winona Ryder’s career: “I was blown away”
Being in the spotlight from an early age certainly has its challenges because life works totally differently in the film world. Time moves at another pace, and suddenly, children are made to become adults before they’re old enough, and the normal process of growing up is done under the harsh spotlight of Hollywood.
This is something that Winona Ryder was no stranger to, having landed her first movie role when she was just 15 in the movie Lucas. She subsequently dominated a teen-driven era for movies, although not as a member of the Brat Pack, but instead as an iconic figure in her own right. Appearing in movies like Heathers and Beetlejuice, Ryder became the leading youngster with a taste for darker and more unusual roles, although she still charmed audiences, like when she played the headstrong Jo in the 1994 adaptation of Little Women.
Business was booming for Ryder in the 1990s, and she even landed her first Oscar nomination for her performance in The Age of Innocence. Yet, no-one goes through life flawlessly, and unfortunately for Ryder, a low point in her life was on display for the whole world to see as her shoplifting habits were the subject of plenty of media scrutiny.
Ryder has been name-dropped in many songs over the years because of her naughty habits, although she claimed that this came as a result of being severely depressed, with the drugs she was prescribed causing her to act in ways that she wouldn’t otherwise. Ryder’s taste for designer goods might have got her into hot water in the early 2000s, but this wasn’t a time when something like this could get you ‘cancelled’.
Ryder simply stepped back for a bit, and her run of films from this period are hardly comparable to the previous decade. She needed time to recover, and luckily, this allowed her a chance to return to acting stronger than ever. One role in particular really sealed the deal for Ryder, even though she was initially hesitant to take it on.
In 2010, she was cast alongside Natalie Portman in Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky’s powerful tale of ambition and obsession centring around a ballerina’s intense desire to be cast in the main role for an upcoming production. “The script was so interesting, and kinda weird,” Ryder told The Independent. “It’s one of those movies where you go, ‘Is this gonna work?’ because it’s about the ballet world and she’s hallucinating and all this stuff. And then it worked! When I saw it, I was blown away.”
Ryder’s role as Beth, the dying Black Swan who Portman’s Nina visits in the hospital, acts as a harsh reminder of how easy it is for her to be chewed up and spat out by show business. Beth is unstable, and Ryder delivers a fantastic performance that almost seems to expand on her role as the mentally ill Susanna in Girl, Interrupted (although much more biting).
Following Black Swan, Ryder’s career has bounced back, not only with a voice role in Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, but a prominent part in the Netflix series Stranger Things, which really sealed the deal for the actor’s resurgence. The show has remained popular in the public eye since 2016, and with another series left to go, it seems like Ryder won’t be disappearing anytime soon.
