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Winona Ryder's parents refused to move to LA with her as a child: “Beware of Hollywood”

Winona Ryder's parents were skeptical about her fame as a child.

Talk to Another magazineThe Beetlejuice Beetlejuice The 52-year-old actress spoke about the beginning of her career and recalled that her parents chose the seven-hour drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles for each audition rather than move there.

Ryder said she earned a job in the entertainment industry at age 13 by staying in school and maintaining “good grades” according to her parents' rules.

“I couldn't work if it coincided with school. My parents – who are just my best friends – were very suspicious of Hollywood. They associated it with the Judy Garland tragedy and we never moved there,” Ryder said. “That turned out to be a real gift because I knew a lot of kids who went through that.”

“They moved and had to support their whole family, and things weren't going so well. I knew a lot of kids who had burnout,” she added.

Winona Ryder appears on the red carpet for the film “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” on August 28th.

Daniele Venturelli/WireImage


One of these auditions – for none other than Beetlejuicewhich Ryder said caught her attention because the script was much more interesting than other roles she was considering at the time – it involved much more than just reading lines to director Tim Burton.

“I remember leaving my mom waiting in the car because I wanted to do it alone,” she said Another. “I was waiting in a side office of this studio in Culver City when a young man came in – I thought he was from the art department. We started talking about old films and the art of Edward Gorey, and discovered that we had a common affinity with the actor Peter Lorre.”

“[Then] I asked, 'Do you know when Tim Burton is going to show up?' she recalled. “He said, 'Oh, that's me.' I had no idea directors could be such cool young people. I said, 'God, I'm sorry, do you want me to read?' He said, 'No, I want you to do it.'”

Winona Ryder on August 28, 2024.

Ernesto Ruscio/Getty


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Elsewhere in the interview Stranger Things The star spoke about why so many roles in the '80s and '90s were coming-of-age stories, telling the broadcaster she felt a responsibility to tell stories for girls and women.

“In the 70s there was this revolution in film, but then it was as if they found this formula in American films in the mid-80s, whether it was Rambo or John Hughes, where you are the little sister or the daughter,” she said.

“There were girls or women. That is an important reason why I like films like Heather or Little Women — because we didn't have much time for puberty, neither in film nor in literature. Men had it. Men had Lord of the Flies And Holden Caulfield.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be in cinemas on September 6th.