ACTOR
Winona Ryder
- Known for
- Black Swan (2010), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mr. Deeds (2002), Little Women (1994)
82 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Winona Ryder is an actor best known for Black Swan, Edward Scissorhands and Mr. Deeds.
47 Interesting Facts About Winona Ryder
- #001
She was undoubtedly a late adopter of electronic devices. When she was approached to make the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016), she did not know what streaming was.
- #003
She dedicated the film Little Women (1994) to Polly Klaas, a young girl who was abducted and brutally murdered in her hometown of Petaluma, California. She offered a $200,000 reward to anyone with information about the case and remains a strong supporter of the Polly Klaas Foundation.
- #004
She was cut from The Godfather Part III (1990). In an interview later that year, she said she had come to Rome to shoot the film and could not get out of bed. A doctor was called and ordered her to go home and sleep.
- #005
At the age of 20, she briefly checked herself into a hospital because she was suffering from depression, anxiety attacks and exhaustion caused by working on films constantly.
- #006
As a child, she wanted to become a competitive skateboarder.
- #008
During the filming of Mr. Deeds (2002), she broke her arm in the scene where she and Adam Sandler ride a bicycle down the stairs.
- #009
She has a fear of water due to the trauma of nearly drowning when she was 12 years old. This caused problems when she had to perform in some underwater scenes in Alien: Resurrection (1997). As a result, the scenes had to be reshot repeatedly.
- #010
During her first week of middle school, she was harassed by a group of bullies who mistook her for a feminine, skinny boy. Ryder said she came to school in Salvation Army clothes, and one of the bullies shouted, "Hey, faggot!" They accused her and beat her. She was injured so badly that she needed stitches. She was removed from the school for her own safety. She was later homeschooled.
- #012
She was set to play Jupiter "Joon" Pearl in Benny & Joon (1993) and was dating Johnny Depp at the time. After breaking up with Depp, she left the project. The role eventually went to Mary Stuart Masterson.
- #013
Her natural hair color is blonde, but it had been dyed black when she made her first major film, Lucas (1986). She was told to keep it that color and has kept it that way ever since, except for Edward Scissorhands (1990).
- #016
She is six years older than Star Trek (2009) lead actor Zachary Quinto, who plays her son in the film. She was cast as Spock's mother Amanda because the opening scene originally had her giving birth to Spock. However, the scene was deleted and replaced with a more action-packed one. Meanwhile, Captain James T. Kirk's mother in the film is named Winona.
- #017
She turned down the role of Katrina Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow (1999), which went to Christina Ricci.
- #018
She dated Johnny Depp for many years. His original tattoo read: "Winona Forever". After they broke up, he shortened it to "Wino Forever".
- #019
Universal Pictures was persuaded to turn the February 1994 Los Angeles premiere of Reality Bites (1994) into a benefit for the Polly Klaas Foundation. Winona Ryder also had enough influence to see Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" — Polly's favorite book — adapted into Little Women (1994), in which she starred and which was dedicated to Polly Hannah Klaas.
- #021
She serves on the board of the American Indian College Fund.
- #022
She is good friends with Courtney Love and the late Brittany Murphy.
- #025
She was announced as the new face of Marc Jacobs Beauty for the brand's spring/summer 2016 campaign. She and record label owner Marc Jacobs have been close friends for years.
- #027
She sang her own song in the animated horror comedy Frankenweenie (2012). When director Tim Burton said it needed to sound imperfect, she agreed to do so.
- #035
Sean Astin played the overprotective best friend of the person he loved in Stay Cool (2009). Eight years later, he would play her boyfriend Bob Newby in Stranger Things (2016).
- #038
Over these twenty years she had made a huge impact, but at school she was far from "icon status." After she appeared in Beetlejuice (1988), the bullying and torment increased further when the school bullies called her a witch.
- #040
She has a three-bedroom house on Union Street in San Francisco, which she bought for $1,300,000 in 1995, as well as her long-time four-bedroom mini-mansion on North Doheny Drive in Los Angeles, which she bought for $2,600,000 in 1998.
- #041
For her role as a woman on the city council in Show Me a Hero (2015), she cut her eyelashes after writer David Simon said he had made her look too cute with a sweet demeanor.
- #042
She joined Amnesty International at the age of 12.
- #044
She had a date with Rhett Miller, the lead singer of Old 97's, who wrote the song "Rollerskate Skinny" about her.
- #045
She was unhappy that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to preview Autumn in New York (2000), saying she was proud of the film and that the studio had given it a bad name before it was even released.
- #052
In late 1999, she founded her own music company, Roustabout Studios.
- #053
Her idol is the actress Sigourney Weaver. She was a big fan of Alien (1979) and therefore took the chance to appear alongside her idol. Ryder starred with Weaver in Alien: Resurrection (1997).
- #054
Winona Ryder's first house was in the Hollywood Hills. She said she never settled in, and moved out shortly afterward.
- #055
At the age of 12, Winona Ryder enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
- #056
Winona Ryder received an honorary master's degree in Fine Arts from the American Conservatory Theater.
- #058
Winona Ryder helped Italian designer Giorgio Armani promote his Manhattan store chain.
- #060
Winona Ryder is a big fan of the documentary Grey Gardens (1975).
- #061
Winona Ryder says Sarah Miles's performance in Ryan's Daughter (1970) inspired her to become a professional actor.
- #062
Winona Ryder was discovered by a casting director at Salmagundi.
- #065
According to Winona Ryder in a Harper's Bazaar YouTube interview, Michael McDowell, who wrote the screenplay for Beetlejuice, passed Heather's screenplay on to her. The script was circulating secretly, and she had overlooked it early in the process. When she read for the role, they didn't think she was pretty enough, because she was known as the weird girl from Beetlejuice and her other earlier films. She thought this was fair, so she went across the street to the Beverly Center and to Macy's, had them do her makeup, then came back and told them they didn't even need to pay her, she just wanted to say those lines. This nearly happened, because she doesn't think any actor was paid more than scale.
- #069
Lost Souls (2000) was actually shot in 1998, although it premiered in late 2000, and New Line Cinema kept the film on the shelf for two years. Winona Ryder refused to promote the horror film.
- #071
Winona Ryder was engaged to Blake Sennett and had been in a relationship with him since October 2007.
- #072
Winona Ryder sold her Manhattan cooperative apartment at 1 Lexington Avenue, in the relatively quiet Gramercy Park neighborhood, for $2,200,000.
- #073
Winona Ryder was the host of Will Ferrell's final episode as a regular cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975).
- #074
Winona Ryder was born two days before Halloween at 11:00 a.m. CDT on a farmhouse in Olmsted County, Minnesota.
- #075
The role of Nola in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998) was originally written for Drew Barrymore.
- #077
On March 22, 1999, she injured her knee while filming Girl, Interrupted (1999).
- #078
Her involvement in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) was reported in Italian newspapers months before any official announcements; Ryder claims she met author Laura Albert at an opera in 1993.
- #079
She received the "Prix Marie Claire Icono Fashion" award during the Marie Claire Awards Party held in Madrid, Spain.
- #080
She, Gretchen Mol and Famke Janssen appeared in Woody Allen's comedy-drama Celebrity (1998). Nine years later the trio would appear together in The Ten (2007).
- #081
Billy Wilder and William Holden are two artists Ryder greatly respects.
- #082
She was to attend the second Beckett Festival in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, but had to withdraw from the festival due to a sudden death.
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