Winona Ryder shared that she nearly missed out on the opportunity to star in one of her most iconic roles because they didn’t think she was “pretty enough”.
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In the late 1980s, Ryder was cast by Tim Burton for his film Beetlejuice. The actress reflected on her role as the “weird girl” and how afterward, she struggled to shake off being typecast as a strange or outsider character.
Following her role in Beetlejuice, Ryder auditioned for the part of Veronica Sawyer in the film Heathers. Instead of turning into a coming-of-age romantic comedy, the film follows Sawyer teaming up with another student to start killing off popular kids.
“The script was given to me by Michael McDow, who wrote Beetlejuice and was a friend, and it was such a brilliant script. And I went in […] and they didn’t think I was pretty enough, I was sort of a weird girl from Beetlejuice,” she said in an interview with Harper’s BAZAAR.
Despite this setback, she admitted she actually thought that perception of her was “very fair”. “Because onscreen I’ve only played really weird characters,” added Ryder, who took some steps to change how industry professionals saw her.
She recounted walking across the street to the Beverly Center, an LA shopping mall, and visiting a Macy’s store, where she asked for a “makeover”. After altering her appearance, she returned to the team and said, “You don’t even have to pay me, I just want to say these words.”
And fortunately, Ryder ended up landing the role in the 1988 release, with her performance helping to propel the film to major success. With a budget of $15 million, the film smashed the box office with nearly $75 million worldwide.
Additionally, Heathers garnered an impressive 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with the film also being adapted into a Broadway musical.
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