Winona Ryder Is Facing Off Against A Heap Of Judgement On Motherhood And Mental Illness

One of the many, many great things about Netflix’s Stranger Things is that it has served as a timely reminder that Winona Ryder is still one of the best (and coolest) actors working today. For some, Ryder’s last notable role would have been in Black Swan as the jealous mentor to Natalie Portman’s younger ballerina character, who is forced into retirement — an obvious, but pretty apt metaphor for Hollywood at large.

Through her role in Stranger Things, Ryder has been able to play a character whose identity isn’t just confined to ‘the mother’, who is able to exercise great agency despite her surroundings. However in an excellent interview with New York magazine, Ryder says that during the press tour for Stranger Things she’s been repeatedly asked how she’s able to play a mum when she’s never had kids herself. Wait, what?

“I’m getting asked a lot, ‘You don’t have kids, so how do you know how to act like a mother?’,” she says. “I know nothing could compare, and I haven’t had that experience, but when my niece was born, I felt like I would jump in front of a car and die for this little person I didn’t even know yet.”

Men would never be asked this question about fatherhood but whatever, sounds legit. In the piece, Ryder also discusses the perception that she’s overly “sensitive” which when describing a woman, can just be another way of saying that she’s a hysterical, nervous wreck. “I’m so sick of people shaming women for being sensitive or vulnerable. It’s so bizarre to me,” she says.

“I wish I could un-know this, but there is a perception of me that I’m supersensitive and fragile. And I am supersensitive, and I don’t think that that’s a bad thing… There’s a line in the show where someone says [of her Stranger Things character], ‘She’s had anxiety problems in the past.’ A lot of people have picked up on that, like, ‘Oh, you know, she’s crazy.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, wait a second, she’s struggling.’ Two kids, deadbeat dad, working her ass off. Who wouldn’t be anxious?”

Ryder has always been candid about her experiences with anxiety and depression — which is why she was so determined to get Girl, Interrupted made, because it “happens to every girl, almost” — in an attempt to reduce the stigma of young women discussing mental health issues. But because of that, she’s never been able to shake this perception that she’s somewhat damaged.

“I don’t regret opening up about what I went through because, it sounds really cliché, but I have had women come up to me and say, ‘It meant so much to me.’ It means so much when you realise that someone was having a really hard time and feeling shame and was trying to hide this whole thing,” she says.

“I do have those qualities, and I just don’t think there’s anything wrong with them.”

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You can read the full interview here.