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.

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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.

Looking ingenuous, with a smile of Mona Lisa,, Winona has cracked Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Francis Ford Coppola … The “Bride of Hollywood” has also ignited Matt Damon and Johnny Depp. In 2002, after 24 films in chains, Winona eclipsed the summit of glory: “I became depressed, my second … I had to return,” says the actress of her bohemian apartment in San Francisco , where she lives surrounded by a mountain of DVD movies and 12 guitars, including 2 offered by Bob Dylan.

1 She has character.

Behind its apparent fragility, Winona Ryder is a pasionaria with a child who is not exactly a “girl next door”: “I grew up in a hippie community in San Francisco.” His parents, writers, had a library in town and attended the elite of Beat Generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti … At school, she is regarded as a strange girl: “I wore clothes I unearthed in the Army hello. At 12, I was beaten by a gang of boys who thought I was lesbian. I left the course and I joined the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. ” At 16, after turning in Beetlejuice, By Tim Burton, Johnny Depp met Winona. She was 17 when she moves in with him. He is tattooed “Winona For Ever” on the shoulder. A couple kiss is immortalized by the objective of Helmut Newton.

Their failure is left on the floor: “I started to suffer panic attacks. For fear of losing her head, at 19, I interned in a psychiatric hospital.” Then, she takes refuge in work, goes on shooting. In addition, she leads a secret life. She attended Tom Waits and plays the guitar and drums. Insomniac, she spends her nights reading, is forging an impressive culture. Activist as his parents, actress sided with Amnesty International at the age of 18. Today, she supports the cause of children abused and exploited. “I made my own slogan for my godfather, Timothy Leary, poet and psychiatrist:” Ask the authority! “I walked with Patti Smith in demonstrations against nuclear power and the war in Iraq. Now, after living for three months on Indian reserves, I am a member of a committee that supports access to the Indian university. ”

2 is a creative actress.

In Hollywood, they call “the charming troublemaker” … It assumes: “I’m tired of being described as an elf or a little cute. When I shot my first film at age 14 years (Lucas, David Seltzer), had already very clear idea of scenarios that I liked. I was rather snobbish, but I am pleased today to have been difficult so soon. ” She agreed to play in Beetlejuice, Burton, “because this movie was unlike anything that was done in Hollywood. Her character, a gothic teenager rebelling against her parents yuppies, it sticks to the skin. The actress has always loved the project “difficult”. As The Age of Innocence, Martin Scorsese, based on the novel by Edith Wharton: “The fact that Martin would be captured aroused widespread skepticism. Producers characters were too anxious.” The film earned Scorsese a Golden Globe for best director.

Winona lists of filmmakers with whom she wants to turn and writing. Among these, Jim Jarmusch. In 1991, the latter invited him to lunch: “I introduced myself dressed all in black, with hair firecracker, to have a look underground.” Jarmusch shakes his hand, then launches “I love your outfit schoolboy!” She plays in his film A night on earthe, alongside Gena Rowlands: “Originally, my character, a taxi driver, was for John Turturro!” In 1996 with partner Daniel Day-Lewis, it plays in The CrucibleAdapted from the play by Arthur Miller, who is present throughout the film: “Before the film, Miller was asked to take part in the theater with him was terrifying in the role of Judge Danforth. In a scene, I had to spit in the face … I still wonder how I made it! ”

Thirteen years later, in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Winona before the camera is the daughter of the playwright. Alongside Keanu Reeves and Robin Wright Penn, the actor Rita, a poet and self-absorbed neurotic, vaguely suicidal and very funny despite itself.

3 is a smart girl.

Miss is so small (1.57 m), so small (45 kg) it was hard to get noticed at his first audition: “If I showed you the scripts I received when I started … The description of my characters comes down to this: “ugly girl”. ” A pair of jeans and flip flops at home, sneakers to the city. Winona did not return: “I grew up in an environment where the physics does not matter: the important thing was to be interesting. But to be interesting, we must forge a style! Often, j ‘arrives on set with suitcases full of clothes and I propose held in accordance with the way I see the character. This was the case for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. The actress also has an impressive collection of costumes of the stars of Hollywood: “I wore the shirt that Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the WindThe robe of Leslie Caron in An American in Paris, jacket Claudette Colbert in New York-MiamiA bikini Sandra Dee … Sometimes I put them: in 2000, the Oscars, I had a dress Ava Gardner. ”

On plateaus, Winona loves makeup alone. The signs of time on its face does not frighten him: “I find it terrible that in the movie business, birthdays are experienced as a funeral,” she said, adding that she never inject Botox. Addict of used clothing, especially the Vendim Vintage shop in San Francisco, it does not mean snubs haute couture. Muse and close friend of Marc Jacobs, it was one of the first to wear his creations. To him, she agreed to appear topless, her breasts covered with a skateboard, on t-shirts calling for supporting the fight against melanoma due to overexposure to the sun. “I like the phrase written under the photo: Protect the skin where you are.”

Thanks Michael!

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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.

There was a time when Winona Ryder changed everything. She was like the new prom queen–the one who millions of brainy, brunette girls who’d long since disavowed their interest in prom queens had secretlybeen waiting for. (Some guys, too.) It was Heathers (1988), a groundbreaking, unsentimental (and very smart and funny) film about a pair of high school outcasts (Ryder and Christian Slater) who wind up taking out a handful of the most popular kids at school, that first earned Ryder favored-actress status amongst those of the Generation Formerly Known as X. That early Ryder image–the dark hair, the porcelain skin, the doe-like, knowing eyes, forever threatening to roll upward–very quickly became burned into peoples’ brains. It’s a singular, powerful image, and one that many directors have deployed in its variations to great effect, from Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, 1988, and Edward Scissorhands, 1990) to Francis Ford Coppola (Brain Stoker’s Dracula, 1992) to Martin Scorsese (The Age of Innocence, 1993) to Ben Stiller (Reality Bites, 1994) to James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted, 1999
The headlines offscreen for Ryder are by now well-known. Her real last name is Horowitz, and she grew up on a commune north of San Francisco. Her parents are intellectuals and writers who ran with a counterculture coterie that at various points included Allen Ginsberg and Ryder’s godfather, Timothy Leary. (If it’s any indication of their political leanings, after George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, the Horowitzes moved to Canada.) There’s her relationship with Johnny Depp in the very early ’90s, and her shoplifting arrest in the very early ’00s. But ever since the latter incident–which was followed by a five-year semisabbatical–Ryder, now 38, has led a lower profile in the tabloids, investing herself in other interests, such as writing, and acting mostly in smaller, more independent film/s. We spoke late one Friday night in September.

STEPHEN MOOALLEM: I was going back and reading through some of your old interviews, and one of the things that I found interesting is that you seemed so self-possessed at such a young age–and very sure of who you were, in a sense. Where do you think that came from?

WINONA RYDER: Well, I think I really scored with my parents. All of my friends pretty much came from broken homes, and my parents are still together, but not only that, they’re still in love and still write together. I really lucked out in terms of how they encouraged me to develop my own personality so I didn’t just feel incredibly insecure and like I didn’t fit in. I just felt, like, well, you know, it’s good to be different. So I never really modeled myself on anyone. I was inspired by lots of people, certainly in acting and in writing and stuff, but I never wanted to he somebody else. My parents really instilled this idea in me of being your own person–almost to the extent that I couldn’t do wrong. I’d get a bad grade and they’d be like, “No! What you did was great!” [laughs]

MOOALLEM: I always wonder about people who experience so much success when they’re so young, like you did. How do yon think it affectedthe way you looked at acting or even just work in general?

RYDER: Well, the fact that I got into this at all was kind of fluke-ish. I loved movies, but I can’t remember ever really wanting to bean actress, and I certainly didn’t imagine ever being in a movie. I think I wanted to be a writer. When I was 12, we moved to Petaluma [California], and at the first junior high school I went to I got really bullied. After three days, I was put on home study. We had just moved to this town, so I didn’t have any friends, and my parents, god bless them, scrimped and saved to send me to ACT [American ConservatoryTheater in San Francisco] three times a week as a kind of outlet. SoI was like taking these acting classes, but I was so young that it wasn’t really in my sights to have a career.

MOOALLEM: So how did that happen?

RYDER: Well, they were casting a movie at ACT, and I auditioned, and I ended up being asked to do a screen test, so my family drove down to L.A. in our ’69 Volvo with no air conditioning. I went to the studio and there were these lights–I had no idea what was going on. I remember I screen-tested with River Phoenix. Anyhow, somehow I got the part. We didn’t have any money, and I think that might have been motivation for a lot of parents, but mine were really afraid of Hollywood. My mom was like, “Oh, look what happened to Judy Garland. They gave her pills and they bound her breasts!” You know, there are all those horror stories. But my mom also had this real passion for old movies. She started this film society in Minneapolis with her college boyfriend, so she knew how to run a projector, and when we lived on a commune she would screen these classic movies in this barn on, like, a sheet, and everyone would sit around on backrests and futons. So I loved movies, and she did too, but both of my parents were very worried. They were very protective, and one of them was always with me when I was working. I couldn’t work during the school year and I had to maintain a 4.0 GPA. I was supposed to audition for River’s Edge [1986],and there was a sex scene in it or something, so they were like, “No, you can’t. You’re too young.” [laughs] It’s funny because in the scripts for my first four movies, my character was always described as “homely” or “freakish.” I was actually really into that because I loved Ruth Gordon and I wanted to be like a cool character actress. And so I think, in L.A., when people would hear that I turned down a movie or I passed on a project or I wouldn’t come in on something, it made them kind of intrigued. But it was also weird, us being so choosy, because we couldn’t afford to drive down from Petaluma for every audition.

MOOALLEM: How did Heathers happen?

RYDER: Heathers came around when I got the script from Michael McDowell, who wrote Beetlejuice. I read it before it went out to people and I freaked out. I called Michael Lehmann [the director], and I waslike, “You don’t have to pay me. I just want to say these lines.” And at first they didn’t want me. It’s actually on the commentary for the DVD, which is kind of nuts. Dan [Waters, who wrote Heathers] and Michael are talking about casting me, and they say something like, “Remember how we didn’t think she was pretty enough?” But when I heard that, I immediately went to some mall makeup counter and had them put makeup on me, and then I went back and convinced them to cast me. So even though Heathers didn’t make a lot of money, I really was able totransition into a situation where people thought I could play an attractive role because of it.

MOOALLEM: It’s such an influential film.

RYDER: That movie probably did a lot more for me than I even knew at the time. It never made any money when it came out–it made like acouple million dollars–but I felt like everyone saw it. Some peoplewere even offended by it. I mean, it is very ’80s, but I think it totally holds up.

MOOALLEM: You know, they’re trying to make it into a TV series.

RYDER: Someone just told me that today. Is that true? Because I also heard that they’re trying to do it as a Broadway musical.

MOOALLEM: I heard that. And then I’ve heard things over the years about a sequel.

RYDER: Well, see, I have always wanted to make a sequel, and I’m always bugging Dan and Michael about it. I mean, the only way I would ever do it is if it was the same group of people, and they’re always sort of like, “Yeah, right.” But people do come up to me on the street and ask me about it. Dan Waters came up with this idea. I guess he was sort of joking, but he had this idea of, like, Veronica Goes to Washington, where the first lady is like the ultimate Heather. So I still have like this shred of hope, but I guess it’s probably not goingto happen.

MOOALLEM: Well, the movie was years ahead of its time. People didn’t write films about teenagers in that way, with that sort of sensibility, before Heathers. Things like Twilight and even Gossip Girl probably wouldn’t exist the way they are now without that movie.

RYDER: We were joking about taglines on the set, and we came up with one that was, ‘Love. Lust. Murder. Heathers: The Last Teen Film.’ We really wanted to make the teen film to end all teen films. But it’s weird because I feel like when I saw Mean Girls [2004], which was directed by Dan’s brother [Mark Waters]–which is kind of strange in and of itself–it’s a nice movie, but I remember feeling like I wantedthem to say that there was some influence, and they kind of deliberately didn’t say that. I mean, it’s got to be flattering for Dan and for Michael that they want to make this TV series, but I’m not sure what to think about it. I’m curious how it’s going to work. Heathers was once on Comedy Central or something, and they had to bleep every other word although, I guess on TV now you can get away with saying a lot more.

MOOALLEM: I think they even sort of get into some low-grade swearing on Mad Men.

RYDER: They do, right? I actually just started watching the first season of Mad Men. Does that guy have like a whole different personality or something? [sighs] I’m so confused! I also just got into The Wire. I really wanted to watch it when it was on, but I was, like, always working or something. But I just watched the box set and I love that show. It’s the greatest writing. I loved that show Homicide: Lifeon the Street that [The Wire's creator] David Simon did before The Wire, and I actually read that book he wrote [Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets]. That guy is incredible. But there’s some hardcore stuff in there.

MOOALLEM: Would you be interested in doing something like that at some point? Does the idea appeal to you at all?

RYDER: I think it would be kind of cool to do a series like that, but then every actor has that fear … You would want it to get picked up, but then it could be like six years of your life. But TV is such a different medium now. I would, in a heartbeat, do something like The Wire. If you just really love acting, then it doesn’t matter whatformat it is. You just want to do a great part.

MOOALLEM: Obviously, you did a little thing in Star Trek as Mr. Spock’s mother, but aside from that, a lot of the films that you’ve done over the last several years have been smaller and more independent.Did you make a conscious decision to move in that direction?

RYDER: Yeah. The industry has really changed a lot. I don’t reallyunderstand the business part of it–I don’t really follow it–but you certainly feel the repercussions. Some of the movies I’ve done havenot turned out how I’d hoped they would, but then a lot of the studio stuff out there was just those sort of genre films, and I’ve just wanted to do more interesting things. Some of the ones I’ve done were actually good experiences where the movie just didn’t really come together in the end, but the important thing for me is that I wanted to go back to how things were when I started, where there was always this feeling that I was taking a chance.

MOOALLEM: When you were younger did you ever get into one of thosesituations where you were doing back-to-back-to-back films?

RYDER: I did that when I was in my late teens and then I totally had a meltdown because I was so exhausted. I mean, I wasn’t in one movie that was an overnight sensation–you know, like Pretty Woman [1990] was for Julia Roberts. So I was lucky in the sense that my success was gradual. But then there was a point when there was so much attention, and you get surrounded with people who sort of make you feel like you have to do everything or else it’s all going to go away. It’s really sweet when younger actresses come up to me. It’s so touching because I know how they feel. I know what they’re going through. It’s really tough to suddenly be very famous. I think you get this feeling like you have to kind of be what everyone thinks you are, and if you slow down, then it’s all going to go away. If anyone ever asks me foradvice, that’s sort of what I tell them: that they shouldn’t feel like they have to live up to all of this, and that it’s important to try to have a life outside of it–even just for your work. It’s like, sometimes I’ll watch a movie, and it’s got some big star in it playinga working-class person, and the character is in a grocery store, andyou can kind of tell, from just watching the scene, that this actor doesn’t do their own shopping. So you have to have some sense of reality. That’s why, at the height of everything, I used to go to the Laundromat to do my laundry–just because I had to sort of maintain.

MOOALLEM: What did it feel like for you at that time? You were getting a lot of attention, obviously, for being in movies, but also foryour personal life.

RYDER: I think when all that was happening, I did sort of get trapped into working too much. And then I sort of had … It wasn’t like a breakdown, but I was just exhausted, and I had to just stop and take care of myself. And then I kind of segued into only wanting to do one movie a year, and I was so lucky that I was able to do that. Even though I never really had to pound the pavement as an actor, I alwaysworked really hard. But, at the same time, I always felt like peoplethought that I didn’t have to struggle even though I was struggling.I approached work very seriously. I never went out. I couldn’t fathom people who could go out to clubs … I mean, if I had a 6 A.M. call, I had to be prepared. I had to be in bed at a certain hour. But I definitely went through a time where I was just terrified and exhausted and I didn’t really understand. The world just seemed, or Hollywood… It just got to be too much for me. My problems seemed so glamorous to other people, and everyone just thought I was so lucky. But then, I was lucky because my family was really there for me–San Francisco was a real refuge. I think I just felt like I really wanted to hold on to who I was as a person, and try to–for lack of a more interesting way to say it–have as much of a normal life as I could. But it was hard. Nowadays, it seems like these girls … I know how they’re feeling. They think it’s going to be like this forever so they’re notbeing more careful. But I’ve been doing this for a quarter of a century now. I remember when so many people were the number-one person atthe box office. And I’ve also seen so many people crash and burn, orbe on top and then just make some bad choices.

MOOALLEM: When do you think things really changed for you in termsof your relationship with the idea of being a movie star?

RYDER: I was never strategic really, but back when I was starting out no one cared. In the acting community, box office didn’t matter. I really think it was a mistake when they started paying people like $20 million to do a movie because now it’s all people think about. Isshe worth it? Is he worth it? That’s got to be a rough feeling. I’venever been paid anywhere near that, but it does sort of take away from the movie because no one else is getting paid like that. And then,as an actor who is paid that much money, you have to maintain this thing. I think, in a way–even if it was a little bit subconscious–when that started happening I really didn’t want to be a part of it. Maybe it was just out of fear, like I don’t want to hear someone say, “Is she worth it?” But also there’s this vibe of camaraderie on the set if everyone is doing it for the art of it. The great directors understand that, and aren’t just sitting there reading the trades and wondering how we can make this the most commercial film ever made. I mean, on this one I did, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, the director, Rebecca Miller, was so amazing. On most of the other movies I’ve done,you’re just constantly aware that they don’t have the time or the money, and you just feel that pressure. But Rebecca just really kept itaway from us–even though I’m sure it was there. Then there’s also this thing with actors–and we all talk about this, even like really big actors–and it is what happens when the movie ends and you’re justsitting at home. If you’re a musician, you can practice your guitar every day and write songs, but when you’re an actor, you can’t just like burst into a monologue. Your only exercise is when you’re in prepor you’re working. If you know you’re going to do a movie in a couple months, then you can start researching and developing your character and stuff. But most actors don’t know what you’re going to do next,so you get into this thing where you have to sort of force yourself to have another life outside of acting. And then, as soon as you start something in this sort of normal life that you’re trying to live, you get a job. So you have this sort of constant struggle because you want to be able to commit to things and to finish things in your life, but then you also want to be able to act.

MOOALLEM: Do you still write?
RYDER: Yeah. I write pretty much every day, but I don’t have any desire to publish anything. I mean, years ago, I wrote this short story, and it got published in some really tiny zinc. I did it under another name. But it was the greatest feeling because people talked aboutit and they didn’t know it was me. I can’t even describe the feeling. It was like, people liked it, but none of my baggage got in the way… But I do still write. There’s something about it that I just keep coming back to. I actually just finished American Pastoral, which Ididn’t read when it came out, but I really love Philip Roth. When I was reading it, I was just thinking about how these great fiction writers can write so beautifully and painfully about something that theydidn’t experience. It’s just amazing to me.

MOOALLEM: Well, it’s interesting that you say that, though, because you kind of do that in a different way as an actress. You constantly have to find ways to access things that you haven’t necessarily experienced.

RYDER: I guess that’s true. I remember, when I did The Crucible [1996], there was literally nothing from my own life that I could call upon–nothing even remotely close. But I have had that experience before, certainly on period pieces, which I love doing. I’ve learned so much making those movies. For six months, I’d study. I’d learn thingslike the etiquette, or what the medicinal things were at the time, or why, when you walk into an old Victorian house, the room to the right, with the chaise lounge, was designed for fainting, so women couldgo and pass out. I just loved soaking that up. But I’d done a few period pieces in a row, and then I got the script for Reality Bites [1994], and literally it was all about the fact that I could wear jeans.Oh god, corsets … They’re great for your performance because then you feel so repressed, but they take their toll. I would love to get back in one, though.

MOOALLEM: The Catcher in the Rye comes up a lot in your old interviews. Are you still a big fan?

RYDER: I was and still am. It’s weird because when you first read that book, it’s so personal and you feel like you’re the only one whofeels that way, and then you realize that everyone has had that experience with it. But Holden Caulfield was like my best friend when I was a teenager. Salinger is someone whose work I just love so much, and I totally respect how protective he has been about his privacy. My dad saved every New Yorker that J.D. Salinger ever had a story in. Actually, one thing happened … I’ve never actually told anyone this, but when I was 19, some, um, [pauses] my boyfriend at the time boughtme at an auction a Christmas card that Salinger wrote someone in the’50s. It was literally just like, “Merry Christmas!” But Salinger’s signature was on it. I kept the card for a few years but I felt so guilty, like he wouldn’t want me to have this, so one day I decided I was going to send it back to him. I wrote this letter, and I tried notto gush, but I was like, “Dear Mr. Salinger. I received this as a gift because I’m a big fan, but I want to return it to you because I respect your privacy.” And then, sometime later, I got a thank-you letter.

MOOALLEM: That’s insane!

RYDER: I know! It was amazing. I mean, it’s possible that his publisher just typed it and had him sign it or something, but it was the greatest thing ever-especially since he’s someone whose work has beenso important to me. There was also that woman, Joyce Maynard, who was selling those letters that he wrote to her. He had had some affair with her or something, and she sold the letters. It’s just like, ugh.You know? I mean, I still write letters, and not that anyone I know would do that or that anyone would care to read them, but it does make me pause. I don’t know how safe e-mail is either because things getleaked out on that, too. Having had a public relationship, I remember, back then, doing an interview where I was like, “I’m so in love.” And then, time goes by, and you just kind of don’t want that out there, you know? But, at the same time, I’m really lucky because my parents have this entire record of my life. They’ve got copies of every magazine I was ever in. They’ve got all of these Polaroids from wardrobe fittings, and all the stuff from Beetlejuice, everything. My parents have just collected it all. My dad even signed up so he could get Google alerts about me, but then he had to stop because he’d get thesethings where people would put my face on some Anna Nicole Smith-likebody, and he got totally freaked out. [laughs]

MOOALLEM: It must be incredible to have all of that stuff, though.

RYDER: Yeah, it is. Although, if someone was there to see me goingthrough all of my stuff … You know, you do things in the moment, and then you change, and then they’re just out there. I guess I just have a really big scrapbook. But I’m really kind of glad. I still actually have these notes that Marty Scorsese wrote me while we were making The Age of Innocence [1993]. If he couldn’t make it into the carriage where we were filming or whatever, he would send me little notes like, “Remember to kiss him at the end.” I save everything, so I definitely have that gene in me. Someone was telling me about this show called Hoarders. I was like, “Oh no!” I save everything. I’m scared I might be a hoarder.

STEPHEN MOOALLEM IS THE EDITOR IN CHIEF OF INTERVIEW.

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.

“I remember feeling, ‘I can’t complain about anything, because I’m so lucky, I’m so lucky.’ After that I realized I needed to take time off more [regularly].”

These days, Ryder says, she has more balance in her life. In the last five years, she says, “I have really tried to develop a whole life so when I work I can come home to something [else].”

She adds, “I would freak out when I wasn’t working yet I was exhausted, so I had to learn to take care of myself.”

Ryder says she admires Kate Winslet for her ability to have it all. “During the Oscars, I was thinking about how she totally has that thing, she has her family and children and life and she seems really together and solid – and yet she can completely devastate you on the screen.”

Ryder hasn’t lost the edginess that made her the Generation X poster girl. She tells the magazine that she always thought it was “cooler to be interesting than to be pretty” and that, she “never wanted to be beautiful, I never wanted to be a cheerleader.”

Source: People.com

‘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

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