Winona Ryder in Heathers

First of all, the precocious Winona Ryder of four years ago gets credit for having the nerve and intelligence to go after this role to begin with. She knew that the subversive, satirical and blackly humorous script for this film would indeed play on-screen and that she could play in it. So far, it’s the best of the movies she’s been in—and that includes Bram Stoker’s Dracula, folks.

As the disgruntled Veronica in a band of hilariously vicious high-school cliquettes, the other three of whom are all named Heather, Ryder gave a performance that took her out of the screen corps of resonant, prepubescent ducklings and put her in a league of her own, as a smart, unexpectedly beautiful young woman sporting an unearned but charming irony. Hitting upon the perfect strategy for carrying an ultrasurreal girl-coming-of-age story, she plays Veronica as if she were just your average popular girl in a fairly realistic story about the vicissitudes of teen life. Ryder was perfectly aware of the filmmakers’ concept, which was that only the blackest surrealism could get at the reality of teenage humiliation and despair. She knew that if she brought only a normal quantity of sneering, eye-rolling and glaring to the plot points it would all come off as fabulously weird and true. So, as Veronica gets happily seduced by the literally devilish Jason Dean (Christian Slater) and turns semi-wittingly homicidal, Ryder becomes increasingly believable within a revenge fantasy of deliberately increasing unbelievability.

The more outrageous the proceedings (Veronica and Jason knocking off one of the Heathers and two jocks), the more crucial Ryder’s grounded performance becomes, and the more consistently she keeps us involved in Veronica’s confusion and emerging strength of character. None of the actors in this film plays for laughs, which is why it succeeds in making us laugh, but the underlying sincerity in Ryder’s performance is especially important because it is the key to the film’s moral center (and, while making jokes about teen suicide, it does have one). Heathers sets out to redeem teen mentality in the only way possible, by mercilessly eradicating the sentimentality with which its fucked-up cruelties and quests are habitually viewed. Ryder’s vanity-free, dignified take on her ridiculous, conflicted character—whose moment of triumph is to watch her ex-lover blow himself up—serves this purpose well and raises Heathers to the level of a minor classic.

Source

Old photos, old magazine, but new addition to the gallery. Thanks to GinAndTonica we have scans of July 1994 issue of “The Face”.

Enjoy!

Winona is in the latest issue (5-11 november 2009) of “L’express Styles”, the supplement of L’Express, a very well known magazine in France.
Michael Futura has translated the article for us, so take a minute, click on “read more” to read it.

A big thanks to Mel for scanning it for us.

3 reasons to (re) discover Winona Ryder

At 37 years, the actress made her comeback in The Private Lives of Pippa LeeA moving film by Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller. Exclusive for L’Express Styles, it is revealed in privacy. (more…)

A huge thanks to Craig, who scanned and sent the most recent issue of California Style to us. And I need to say, the editorial is BEAUTIFUL! Someone comented on forums that photographers always try to make her look ugly on pictures (and always fail) with their weird production. Thank you, Sheryl Nields!

You can find scans in our gallery. If reposting, DO NOT DIRECT LINK, please. I found the Blackbook scans being reposted using the direct link of our gallery, it ruins our monthly bandwidth. If you want to repost, use imageshack.us or something like that to host the images.

Winona is cover of November issue of C Magazine, in an absurd stunning picture. The cover is part of her come back, since Pippa Lee is being released on November 27. Click on the thumbnail to see the full cover, and if you’re on USA and have access to this magazine and can scan it to us, PLEASE! I don’t have access to it here in Brazil. Thank you.

Winona Ryder is on current anniversary issue of Interview Magazine, in an interview done by the editor in chief Stephen Moallen. I didn’t had the chance to get the magazine in hands, but here’s the interview so you can read it.
Thanks for Lunis for the heads up.

How Winona Ryder overcame junior high school bullies, teenage rebellion, the controversy surronding Heathers, overwhelming stardom, tabloid harassment, her breakup with Johnny Depp, suffocating mega-fame, wearing a corset, gen x angst, the Hollywood machine, J.D. Salinger’s cone of silence, the late ’90′s malaise, her fear of series television, and that time she got arrested and found a way to be free at last.

(more…)

Thanks to Thx313 for the heads up, Winona is featured on current Another Magazine issue, “Celebrating a decade in style”. The picture is amazing but can I call it a “photoshop disaster” since the lot of airbrush?
Let’s hope we can get access to more pictures of this shoot.

For the past seven years, Winona Ryder has lived mostly out of the spotlight.

Now, with a role in Star Trek and the release of another movie – The Private Lives of Pippa Lee – opening in Europe soon and in the U.S. in the fall, the actress, 37, is talking about the strain of being in the public eye.

Ryder, who was engaged to Johnny Depp after co-starring with him in 1990′s Edward Scissorhands (they split when she was 19), says one of her first big challenges was dealing heartache during the height of her fame.

“I had just done Dracula and Edward Scissorhands. I had just had my first real break-up, the first heartbreak,” she tells Pippa Lee director Rebecca Miller, who interviewed her for the U.K. edition of Elle, out Wednesday.

“And I think it was really ironic because, like, everybody else just thought I had everything in the world, you know, I had no reason to be depressed, everything was sort of at its peak, but inside I was completely lost. (more…)

Winona Ryder talks breakdowns and break-ups with ELLE.

‘Everybody has a disorder of some sort!’ Declares Winona Ryder, the Oscar nominated star who herself admits to having had an ‘extra-large breakdown’ just after completing Dracula and Edward Scissorhands when she was just 20.

‘I had just had my first real break-up, the first heartbreak. Everybody else just thought I had everything in the world but inside I was completely lost’ reveals the actress, now 37, to Rebecca Miller, the writer and Director Winona’s latest film, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (She’s also daughter of playwright Arthur Miller).

‘I remember feeling I can’t complain about anything because I’m so lucky’ she tells Miller, who interviews her in the June issue of ELLE, which hits news stands today.

‘I can’t pretend to know Winona well.’ admits Miller, ‘I don’t. I don’t think it’s easy to get to know her – but it’s easy to love her.’

Read her, with pictures

There was an article on Winona at May 25 issue of People Magazine, and Simon was kind enough to scan it and let us post here. Thanks!

I had so great feelings about the article, it looks like the old days, when we could find her pictures in magazines and be happy for her.

“Everyone has their up and downs in life, and hers were in the public eye. But she is in a good place in her life, now” – Mark Polish

• Magazines » 2009 – People, May 25, 2009