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At 28, Winona Ryder looks like a teenager — a fragile, waif-like teenager, very much like the 16-year-old mental patient who is at the heart of the film, “Girl, Interrupted,” described by some as an all-girls “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

A few years back there seemed no doubt that Winona Ryder would go on to establish herself as the actress of her generation. Having notched up two Oscar nominations by the time she was 24, as well as being anointed honorary queen of the slacker generation, she had a head start on everyone else. But with the failure of her last three films, to say nothing of the rise of Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, the golden girl of the early 1990s is in danger of looking like yesterday’s icon.

“The devil is an abusive tool used to discipline children,” insists Ryder adding that “adults find it convenient to blame the devil for things they do.”

Ryder exorcised the devil from her life at a young age.

As we write this, with Halloween 2000 approaching and a spate of devil themed movies hitting the big screens, we snatched up the opportunity to speak to the star of one of ‘em, Winona Ryder of Lost Souls. Ryder, born Horowitz — and to some interesting conversation down below — has had a remarkable career that has seen two nominations for an Academy Award (for Supporting Actress in Little Women and The Age of Innocence) and great roles in dramas Reality Bites and Girl, Interrupted (where she stepped back and let Angelina Jolie steal the show, IMHO).

You never know what to expect from Winona Ryder. The actress who practically grew up on screen has been everything from funny and scary, to romantic in movies. Having just recently played a character who falls in love with Richard Gere in Autumn In New York, Ryder is now mixing it up with the devil in order to rid the world of evil in Janusz Kaminski’s Lost Souls. Sitting down with Ryder, I decided to play devil’s advocate and probe along with her the kinds of demons she’d like to exorcise from Hollywood.

One of the things Ms. Ryder is now doing is optioning books suitable to films. The interviewer wondered if this is because she wouldn¹t otherwise be offered good roles? “No, I¹ve been so lucky. I read a lot of good scripts – lots of good scripts do not get financed. I’ve always been this weird actress and get cast younger. I can play different ages, that has been fortunate for me, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”

Un día de la producción de “Inocencia Interrumpida”, el film de las memorias de Susana Kaisen, Winona mandó al director James Mangold: “Ella había estado en pie toda la noche y me dio una pequeña nota que decía “No me dejes por mis típicos ojos marrones”. Cuando nos encontramos en la suite en “The Four Seasons”, en Beverly Hills, sus ojos fueron la primera cosa en la que me fije. No sólo ellos dominaban su rostro – profundo, ruedas marrones sobre perfectos horizontes incluso sin cámaras, ellos tenían la misma intensidad que necesitaba para la película.

TV SPIELFILM: Welche Tipps hat Ihnen Susanna Kaysen (auf ihrem Schicksal beruht die Handlung) geben können? Winona Ryder: Wir hatten schon regen Briefkontakt, bevor wir uns tatsächlich trafen. Sie schrieb so offen und ehrlich über ihre Erfahrungen – seit Salinger (US-Schriftsteller, u.a. “Der Fänger im Roggen”) habe ich nichts so Ehrliches mehr gelesen. TV SPIELFILM: [...]

Winona Ryder is all grown up – she has a new house (with gardeners) and Arthuer Miller’s phone number and is even prepared to discuss her childhood traumas with Jonathan Van Meter.

After Ryder read the book, she contacted producer Douglas Wick who had bought the rights to the film. Six years later, James Mangold came on board to revise the script and direct. This pairing finally brought the film adaptation into fruition.