Winona Ryder
Woman, Uninterrupted
by LAEL LOEWENSTEIN
Even those of us who aren't card-carrying members of Generation X can't help but feel as if we've grown up with Winona Ryder. We've watched her battle high school bullies in "Heathers," write her grad school thesis in "How to Make an American Quilt" and enter the working world in "Reality Bites."
Now Ryder is poised to lead us into new territory. Her latest film, "Girl, Interrupted," is based on Susanna Kaysen's bold and candid memoir of her stay in a psychiatric ward.
The film marks the 28-year-old Ryder's debut as executive producer, an active step in her ongoing agenda to make challenging films for young women.
"It's really an insult, what's out there for young women in America," Ryder told us in a recent interview in Los Angeles. "We give them films like 'Runaway Bride' and say [patronizingly], 'Here's a nice romantic comedy; this will satiate you.' But that doesn't challenge you or raise issues or bring good conversations to the table."
With the release of "Girl, Interrupted," Ryder has been talking openly for the first time about her own history of depression. In 1991, Ryder took a break from shooting "The House of the Spirits" to check herself into a psychiatric clinic for sleep deprivation. At the time, she was feeling the strains of an exhausting work schedule, chronic insomnia and her public breakup with actor Johnny Depp.
After five days in the clinic, feeling no better, Ryder checked herself out.
"Being there didn't help me at all," Ryder recalls. "But what I did get out of it is the knowledge that those places don't give you a pill that fixes you or a sheet of secret answers. You can't pay enough money to have a place cure that feeling of being broken and confused and way too sensitive for this insane world."
What helped eventually were the perspective and self-knowledge that came with time. Ryder also took solace in reading books like "Girl, Interrupted," that made her realize she wasn't alone.
Deeply connected to the material, Ryder began a six-year journey to turn "Girl" into a film. She signed on as executive producer, determined to protect the integrity of the material and to have a role in making key decisions.