EXCLUSIVE: Winona Ryder on that “balance” in life, work, the Internet and nostalgia

Image

Winona Ryder has a new film with a juicy role for her to play in it going into limited release this coming weekend. “The Iceman” is another tour de force Michael Shannon performance,this time as a real-life Jersey hitman. And Ryder plays his seemingly unknowing wife.

At the end of our chat about that film, I fired a few questions at her that I’d solicited from fans.

She was last seen at the “Disconnect” premiere as the date of the film’s director, Henry Alex Rubin. If she hitting the “Murderball” director, an old friend, up for gigs?

“He had a baby, Georgia, two days before the premiere. I’d been over visiting with his sweet baby girl,” so that’s why she and not Rubin’s wife hit the red carpet with him.

“We go back a long ways — my second unit director on ‘Girl Interrupted,’ back in the ’90s. I’m really really proud of him. He’d BETTER cast me in something. He’s filmed enough footage of me, over the years –things.”

At 41, Ryder is working more now than she has in years, with two films in the can “and some GREAT stuff I’ve been sworn to secrecy about. I WISH I could start talking about that!”

So how does the former tabloid favorite spend her down time, these days?

“I spend a lot of my time at home in San Francisco, one of my favorite places in the world. You can often find me at City Lights Bookstore. That’s my favorite place in the city. Yeah, I’m really boring. I read a lot. And go to the movies. I love going to revival houses and seeing old movies on the big screen.
“With the way world is, with all this instant Internet access to things for you to react to. It makes me nostalgic for the old days. Nostalgic in a sweet way, I think. It makes me want to do retro stuff like go to revival house theaters.
“I’m not bashing the Internet, but you know when you go to a bookstore to pick up a book, and you see 500 books that you never would have seen, thought of or heard about if you had never gone to the bookstore? That part of the experience I love. I know you can order books online, but that means you miss out on seeing and touching and picking up books that you never would have considered.

“Video stores were that way, too . You see things you never would have thought of renting.

“My friends call me ‘Old School.’ A little too old school, I’m afraid.
“For instance, I actually learned that there ISN’T a  (Genius) bar upstairs in the Apple Store, a place where they serve alcohol and everything. To geniuses. Very embarrassing.

“I am slowly adapting. Maybe it’s just a phase. Maybe it’s my love of tangible objects. I’m more into face to face communication, having those experiences in person.
“There’s a ton of great things that are happening online, so much good politically and in terms of communication. The good is amazing and great. Corruption is exposed! But the bad is depressing and scary. The worst thing a person can do is Google yourself. I did that once and friends had to talk me off the ledge.
“I’m lucky this way, because of what I do, that I don’t have to engage with that world that much. I have a lot of friends and people close to me who are more into it and are using the Web in amazing ways to get the word out about projects or causes. That part of it I’m really drawn to.

“I just need to understand it more. Obviously, if I’m asking people how a ‘cloud’ can hold information, and ‘What happens if it rains?’ If I’m thinking there’s a bar upstairs at the Apple Store, then I’m a little out of step. And I’m pretty insecure about that.”

 

 

About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine
This entry was posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to EXCLUSIVE: Winona Ryder on that “balance” in life, work, the Internet and nostalgia

  1. Bruno says:

    So (bleeping) adorable!

Comments are closed.