Winona Ryder: sex harassment soured movie-making for me

‘I offended Weinstein by offering handshake,’ says Beetlejuice star who recalls ‘difficult experiences’ as she began her long acting career

Winona Ryder has revealed that she faced “difficult experiences” with sexual harassment when she was younger that soured making films for her.
The US actress, 52, has reflected on her early experiences in Hollywood after more than four decades in the industry.
Speaking to Esquire UK ahead of the release of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice sequel, she said: “I had a couple of difficult experiences with a couple of people who were just blatantly sexually harassing me.”
She added that “in retrospect, it really soured (making movies)… All the great actors always told me that when it stops being amazing, you gotta get out. I really took that to heart”.
The Stranger Things star made her film debut in Lucas in 1986 and has starred in hit movies including Heathers, Edward Scissorhands and Little Women.
The actress discussed meeting the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, 72, who has been serving a 23-year sentence for his conviction for a first degree criminal sex act and third degree rape.
She suggested he would not hire her as “I think I knew a little bit too much”, explaining: “The one time I was supposed to have a meeting with [him], I went to the Miramax office and I extended my hand and he shook my hand and I sat on the couch and we had a conversation and I left.
“And [afterwards] I got like screamed at [by an agent]: ‘What the f— did you do?’ I was like, ‘What?’ Apparently, I offended him because I extended my hand?”
Weinstein, whose reign over the industry once led Meryl Streep to proclaim him “God”, is currently awaiting a retrial on rape and sexual assault charges in Manhattan.
The allegations made against him in 2017 marked a watershed moment that triggered a global outpouring of claims against powerful men in high-profile industries.
Esquire UK reported that Ryder was not a victim of Weinstein and does not want to name any of those involved or to go into what happened in detail. 
However, she said she can “really understand” what his alleged victims went through.
Reflecting on her “difficult experiences” of sexual harassment in the industry early on in her career, she told the magazine: “It happened again in my 30s. It wasn’t an assault. But it was incredibly inappropriate. It was wild.
“I really understand [what the alleged victims of Weinstein and others went through].
“I was lucky because I was known, so it didn’t happen as much as maybe it would if I had been a struggling actor.
“But I remember this feeling in your mind: you’re negotiating, you’re thinking about what’s going to happen if you say something. 
“You’re working it out while this person is being extremely creepy.”
She added that she had become accustomed to brushing off the unwanted attentions of men.
“If someone was being inappropriate or drunkenly hitting on me it was like, ‘Ha ha!’. You kind of do that. ‘Ha ha!’ Inappropriate? I dealt with that. But touching me? It felt very invasive,” she said.
The actress has previously recalled an incident with director Francis Ford Coppola on the set of his 1993 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula where he attempted to make her crying scene more believable by shouting “w—e” at her on set.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2020, she said she and the director “are good now” despite this and that she was “never really traumatised [by bad experiences] or anything like that”.
In the same year, she also publicly defended her former partner Johnny Depp in a witness statement released by the High Court as part of a defamation case against former wife Amber Heard.
Ryder said that she did not recognise the description of him as a violent drug and drink-fuelled abuser that had been painted by Heard and added that it was “impossible” to believe that he was capable of attacking anyone.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star’s $10.35 million win in the defamation case against his ex-wife was seen as a possible turning point against the tide of the MeToo movement.
Ryder, who had high-profile relationships with Depp and Matt Damon, discussed her love life with Esquire UK and said she was ready to be “a spinster” before she met her partner fashion designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn.
“I was like, I’m f—–g done. I was like, I’ll just be a spinster,” she said.
“I know for younger people it’s a hard thing to hear that it’ll happen when you least expect it. But…”
Asked if they are married, Hahn said: “Not officially, but we’re about to be.” He added it will happen “probably later this year”.
The autumn issue of Esquire UK is on sale now. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which sees Ryder, Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara reprise their roles is released in cinemas on Sept 6