In a new interview, the 'Stranger Things' actress also credits people who supported her during the difficult time following her breakup with the 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' star.
- June 29, 2022
AceShowbiz - Winona Ryder reflected on her split from Johnny Depp back in the 90s. In a new interview, the "Stranger Things" actress compared the aftermath of her breakup with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star to the movie "Girl, Interrupted".
"That was my 'Girl, Interrupted' real life," Ryder, who ended her relationship with Depp in 1993 following a whirlwind engagement, said in an interview for Harper's BAZAAR's July 2022 digital issue. She was referring to the 1999 film in which she played a woman who stayed at a mental institution for troubled young women.
Ryder then shared that "an incredible therapist" helped her practice self-care by imagining herself as a child. "I remember, I was playing this character who ends up getting tortured in a Chilean prison [in the 1994 film 'The House of the Spirits']," Ryder recalled. "I would look at these fake bruises and cuts on my face [from filming], and I would struggle to see myself as this little girl. 'Would you be treating this girl like you're treating yourself?' "
"I remember looking at myself and saying, 'This is what I'm doing to myself inside.' Because I just wasn't taking care of myself," the actress added. She also credited Michelle Pfeiffer, her co-star in "The Age of Innocence", for supporting her during that difficult time. "I remember Michelle being like, 'This is going to pass.' But I couldn't hear it."
"I've never talked about it. There's this part of me that's very private," the 50-year-old star went on to divulge. "I have such, like, a place in my heart for those days. But for someone younger who grew up with social media, it's hard to describe."
In past interviews, Ryder called Depp her "first real break up" and "first real heartbreak." Meanwhile, the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" actor suggested that they split due to the media frenzy.
"It's very hard to have a personal life in this town," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1993. "My relationship with Winona, it was my mistake to be as open as we were, but I thought if we were honest it would destroy that curiosity monster. Instead it fed it, gave people license to feel they were part of it."
