Under the Spotlight: Winona Ryder’s perfect performance as Veronica in ‘Heathers’
During the 1980s, the Brat Pack dominated Hollywood, with movies like Sixteen Candles, Rumblefish, St Elmo’s Fire, and The Breakfast Club earning acclaim among adults and teens alike. These adolescent-oriented movies were a hit, marking a new wave of accessible (and often slightly risqué) movies about teenagers for teenagers. Proving to be a hugely profitable group, more teen movies began to emerge, although some had a slightly darker edge, like Heathers.
Released in 1988, the film was, in many ways, an antidote to the Brat Pack era’s take on teen culture, using themes of murder and a Bonnie and Clyde-esque relationship to satirise high school hierarchies and popularity. Leading the film was Winona Ryder, whose penchant for moodier roles, as demonstrated by her initial breakthrough in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, allowed her to portray protagonist Veronica Sawyer perfectly. The actor was still a teenager when she joined the cast of Heathers, but she delivered a career-defining performance as the high-schooler unsure of her identity and place in the world.
When we first meet Veronica, she has recently joined a popular clique, although she’s the only one without the first name Heather. It’s clear that Veronica doesn’t really fit in here, but her inclusion in the group is believable enough due to Ryder’s portrayal of Veronica as a witty and no-nonsense type. She might be unsure of her place in the world, but Veronica certainly isn’t one of the nerds, even if her hatred of her friends is much more akin to the mindset of a high school loner.
She expresses her hatred for her friends in her diary, and Ryder embodies the moody, troubled teen well, making herself endlessly likeable due to her tendency to be a little over dramatic and straight to the point. Veronica knows that being part of the school’s highest ranks is the easiest way to make it out alive – she’s not stupid – but when she takes an interest in the new boy at school, the charmingly bad JD (played by Christian Slater), death becomes a recurring theme in her life.
Desperate to find some sense of genuine companionship, Veronica soon begins spending all of her time with JD instead. In these scenes where JD and Veronica hang out together, the strong chemistry between the actors serves to create a fascinating dynamic that only emphasises why Heathers is such an intrinsically hilarious film. Sometimes you’re rooting for the pair as a Bonnie and Clyde, us-against-the-world kind of couple, and in other moments you’re wondering what else could possibly go wrong. The car argument scene is a great example of the pair’s tempestuous relationship, with Ryder giving a performance full of subtleties to communicate the growing tension between them.
After Veronica wakes up from sleeping on JD’s lap, she reaches into his pocket for a cigarette, and in his half-asleep state, he grabs her hand rather violently, only to relax when he realises what she’s doing. As they sit and smoke, they discuss the murder they’ve just committed, resulting in Ryder’s character purposefully burning herself in an act of punishment and guilt. As she screams at the self-inflicted pain, the weight of her moral dilemma becomes evidently clear, but in that moment, JD simply decides to use her burn to light his own cigarette.
The pair descend into an argument, and Ryder demonstrates Veronica’s propensity for confrontation, yet at the same time, she emphasises the fact that, at the end of the day, she is just a confused teenager. As the film descends into chaos and Veronica comes to acknowledge that JD has gone too far, Ryder maintains her character’s sense of cool, even in the face of danger. Near the end of the film, covered in smoke and blood, her hair frazzled, Veronica lights a cigarette and sighs like someone who has simply seen it all. Her poise is admirable, but you can’t help but laugh when she manages to deliver comedic lines regardless of her terrible situation.
The role of Veronica was also offered to actors like Jennifer Connelly and Heather Graham, but could anyone else besides Ryder, with her innate wittiness, have played the character so perfectly? While Heathers had all the components of a great film, such as its witty screenplay and a sharp, satirical angle, it was Ryder’s performance that proved to be the key to its success.
