Winona Ryder Was Told She Wouldn’t Work Again After Heathers
Winona Ryder was not given the job in a box-office disappointment from 1990, The Freshman, due to her role in the now immensely popular film, Heathers.
Heathers, released domestically in 1989, was a controversial movie that defied expectations and was about a high school girl named Veronica (Winona Ryder) who takes up with a bad boy named JD (Christian Slater who gave off Jack Nicholson vibes at the time). It featured the original teen mean girls in the form of three female students named Heather; hence the film’s title. It only made $1 million in its domestic release at the time it first came out, but has since proven to be popular, partly because of Shannen Doherty’s role in the film. Also, the movie was recently shown in movie theaters through Fathom Events and inspired an Off-Broadway musical. Ryder lost a role in a bigger production back then called The Freshman because of her involvement with Heathers.
Though Heathers was technically a comedy, it was a pitch black one in nature. Its presentation of characters who were mean being taken out of the picture, so to speak, by two outcasts proved to not be everyone’s cup of tea at the time of the film’s initial release. Particularly troubling to some was the movie’s presentation of staged teen suicides by the lead characters in the picture. This nature of the material caused Ryder to lose her role opposite Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando in the much hyped up at the time 1990 $21 million grossing box-office dud, The Freshman. Brando may have spoofed his The Godfather movie character in The Freshman, but for the most part, audiences weren’t buying too many tickets to see it. Still, Ryder was told she’d never work again because of losing the role in that 1990 critically acclaimed movie.
Winona Ryder had some box-office poison in the form of a starring role in Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (which didn’t even gross $4 million) in 1990, but she still saved face by later that year appearing in Mermaids opposite Cher and in Edward Scissorhands, one of her most famous roles to date. Had Ryder made The Freshman, who knows what would have happened in her career? Penelope Ann Miller of Adventures in Babysitting fame ultimately took the role opposite Broderick and Brando in that picture that Ryder lost out to co-starring in. Ryder also lost a part in The Godfather Part III to Sofia Coppola due to falling ill as the rumors had it back in the early 1990’s. Some things simply were not meant to be. Reality Bites was her destiny.
While Heathers is a lot of fun to watch, it is also a tad bit disturbing in spots and one must consider the climate of the late 1980’s when many teens were suffering from depression in the real world. Christian Slater of Heathers even made the terrific Pump Up the Volume in 1990 which addressed that very same issue. Still, Ryder overcame the controversy that arose and has since had a great career which recently got a boost from her appearance in the recent Beetlejuice sequel.
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