‘It really soured making movies’ – Winona Ryder opens up about sexual harassment in Hollywood

"I had a couple of difficult experiences with a couple of people who were just blatantly sexually harassing me…"

The 52-year-old actress, currently reprising her role in the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel, spoke candidly about how these incidents “really soured” her love of filmmaking in those early years.

In a recent interview with Esquire UK, Ryder looked back on her Hollywood career and even spoke about meeting Harvey Weinstein, and offending him. 

The actress event said that Weinstein might have avoided hiring her because she “knew a little bit too much” about him, and said: “I think (not being hired by him) was (for) various reasons.” 

Recalling a brief encounter with Weinstein at the Miramax office, she said: “I extended my hand and he shook my hand. I sat on the couch, and we had a conversation, and I left. 

“And (afterwards) I got like screamed at (by an agent). ‘What the f*** did you do?’ I was like, ‘What?’ Apparently, I offended him because I extended my hand?”

Weinstein, who is currently awaiting a retrial on rape and sexual assault charges in Manhattan, has become a symbol of Hollywood’s culture of abuse. 

Ryder shared her empathy for his alleged victims, saying: “I really understand (what the alleged victims of Weinstein and others went through).”

Ryder spoke of her own experiences with harassment: “I had a couple of difficult experiences with a couple of people who were just blatantly sexually harassing me… 

“And then it happened again in my 30s. It wasn’t an assault, but it was incredibly inappropriate. It was wild.”

Though Ryder clarified that she was never assaulted by Weinstein and does not want to name the individuals involved in her own experiences, she described the complex emotional toll of enduring unwanted advances. 

“I was lucky because I was known, so it didn’t happen as much as maybe it would if I had been a struggling actor. 

“But I remember this feeling in your mind: you’re negotiating, you’re thinking about what’s going to happen if you say something.  You’re working it out while this person is being extremely creepy.”

Ryder also touched on the normalisation of inappropriate behaviour in Hollywood and the ways she had become accustomed to brushing off the advances of older men. 

“If someone was being inappropriate or drunkenly hitting on me it was like, ‘Ha ha!’ You kind of do that. ‘Ha ha!’ Inappropriate? I dealt with that. But touching me? It felt very invasive.”

Looking back on her career, Ryder acknowledged that these negative experiences deeply affected her view of the industry: “I think in retrospect, it really soured (making movies). 

“All the great actors always told me that when it stops being amazing, you gotta get out. I really took that to heart.”

Ryder’s career spans iconic roles in films like Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, Little Women, and the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, where she plays Joyce Byers. 

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