Winona Ryder Reveals Difficult Time Following Johnny Depp Split

Winona Ryder: I Struggled to ‘Take Care of Myself’ After Johnny Depp Split

Winona Ryder & Johnny Depp
Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock; Evelyn Hockstein/AP/Shutterstock

A difficult time. Winona Ryder revealed that she was in a lot of “pain” following her 1993 split from former fiancé Johnny Depp.

“That was my Girl, Interrupted real life,” the Stranger ThingsStar, 50, told Harper’s BazaarIn an article published Tuesday, June 28, Ryder compared her mental state to her 1999 film that chronicled the lives and times of several girls in a psychiatric facility in the late 1960s. Ryder played Susanna in the movie. She was admitted to the hospital following a nervous breakdown. Ryder attempted to end her own life.

While the Edward Scissorhands star didn’t go into detail about her struggles, she did reveal that her Age of InnocenceCostar Michelle PfeifferDuring her time of need, she had support from him. “I remember Michelle being like, ‘This is going to pass.’ But I couldn’t hear it,” Ryder recalled. “I’ve never talked about it. There’s this part of me that’s very private. These days are dear to me. But for someone younger who grew up with social media, it’s hard to describe.”

Eventually, with the help of “an incredible therapist,” Ryder was able to heal by imagining being gentle to a younger version of herself. “I remember, I was playing this character who ends up getting tortured in a Chilean prison [in The House of Spirits],” the Little Women star recalled. “I would look at these fake bruises and cuts on my face [from the shoot]I would struggle with myself 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.”

Ryder was arrested in 2001 after Ryder was accused of shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills. “I definitely retreated,” she said. “I was in San Francisco. But I also wasn’t getting offers. I think it was a very mutual break.”

She continued: “It’s so interesting when you look at the early aughts. It was a very cruel time. There was a lot of meanness out there…. And then I remember coming back to L.A. and​​​ — it was a rough time. And I didn’t know if that part of my life was over.”

Ryder has previously spoken out about the effects of the arrest on her career. “Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop,” she told PorterAugust 2016, magazine “I won’t get into what happened, but it wasn’t what people think. And it wasn’t like the crime of the century! But it allowed me time that I really needed, where I went back to San Francisco and got back into things that … I just had other interests, frankly.”

The HeathersStar was discouraged by Hollywood and decided to leave. “People would tell me, ‘Oh, you should be doing this, or that, and you have to keep working otherwise people will forget about you,’” Ryder recalled. “But I learned to stop listening to those voices.”

Listen to Us Weekly’s Hot Hollywood as the editors of Us break down each week’s top entertainment news stories!
Listen on Google Play Music