Winona Ryder “Fought for Joyce’s Flaws” in ‘Stranger Things’
It is difficult to think of a show that provided us with as many pop culture references as Stranger Things in its first season: a tangle of blinking Christmas lights on the walls, Eggo waffles, the Upside Down. Eleven and her shaved head and nosebleeds. But among all those break-through moments and delightful Eighties riffs is the story of a mother and a son.
That mother, Joyce Byers, is of course played by Winona Ryder. Noah Schnapp plays her son, Will, who is missing for the entire first season. That casting won the show major cool points and it turns out the star of Beetlejuice, Little Women and Girl, Interrupted had a few ideas for the character too.
“I really fought for Joyce’s flaws,” Esquire’s latest cover star says in our latest issue. “I didn’t want to be like supermom. I wanted her to be one of these women I saw [in the movies of the 1970s and 1980s], that was just doing the best they can. I really took a lot from [Meryl Streep in] in Silkwood.”
Ryder is also not oblivious to the fact that she brings with her a serious dose of nostalgia. “I’ve gone from being the youngest person on set to being the oldest,” she says. “And I’m not oblivious in any way about the reason they came to me for it. I know there is an element of nostalgia [to her casting]. I am aware.”
Stranger Things is now ending. The show’s fifth season will be its last. The younger cast, which includes Millie Bobbie Brown and Finn Wolfhard, are grown up and deep into new projects. That’s as much as a surprise to Ryder as it is to you and me.
“Ten years! I never thought. [At first] I was like, ‘I don’t want to be doing this when I’m in my fifties!’ It’s nuts, and it’s extra nuts to be at my age. But I love the boys and I love Sadie [Sink] and Maya [Hawke]. It’s been wonderful.”
You can buy the new issue of Esquire now.
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