THE ORUGIBLE
Ryder on the storm
As The Crucible comes to the big screen, its star WINONA RYDER talks about the rebel in her, while (right) its creator ARTHUR MILLER tells of the play’s tempestuous history, from 19505 McCarthyism to the demands of Hollywood. Story: Alan Morrison
THOSE BIG S()l‘"l‘ eyes gaze out from delicate features on hundreds of photographs and posters. At the age of 25. Winona Ryder‘s transformation from adolescent outsider to beautiful young woman is complete. With two Oscar nominations under her belt — for The Age Of Innocence and Little Women — she has also won the respect of her l-lollywood peers and a place as one of the filth industry‘s leading players. As her latest film The Crucible is released. she is being closely watched.
Yet her early ‘rebel’ image has been hard to shake. As late as last November. the US Government‘s Secretary of Health. Education and Welfare singled Ryder out as a terrible role model for young girls because ‘she does smoke all the time in every single movie she makes‘. Her love life also makes
'l'm really small. I have a weird metabolism. Muscles look strange on me.’
good tabloid fodder. While shooting Edward Sr'issm'lmnds. Johnny Depp got ‘Winona For Ever‘ tattooed on his arm; then a couple of dates last year with X-I’iles star David Duchovny went nowhere: now it seems true love is out there with Soul Asylum singer Dave Pirner. her partner in an on-off three- yea r affair.
Ryder‘s life story. along with out-of-the- mainstream roles in Beet/ejuice and I-Iern/iers. helped create a combined persona of a girl who just didn‘t fit in with the conformity of American life around her. Born Winona Horowitz to counter-culture enthusiasts in 1971. she was brought up with siblings Uri and Sunyata and half-sister Jubal in California's hippy hangover communes. where she could chat as a child with poet Allen Ginsberg or her godfather. LSD guru Timothy Leary.
The family moved to a more regulated suburban lifestyle when Winona was eleven. bttt never really settled in. their hippy legacy being viewed with suspicion by neighbours. Wearing a short. spikey. punk haircut and riding a skateboard. Winona formed her own brand of rebellion and was once arrested for shoplifting a comic book. When the police took her home handcuffed. her parents allegedly tried to beat up the arresting Officers. Winona Ryder: witch way now?
8 THE U81 21 Feb-6 Mar 1997