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Winona Ryder holds a special place in her heart for the women who took her under their wing while she was coming up as a young actress.
The actress, 53, recently opened up about her career in an interview with Elle UK, where she sang the praises of Laura Dern as a mentor, telling the outlet, “I don’t think I’d be here without her.”
“I met her on my first screen test for Lucas – I didn’t know what a screen test was,” she recalls.
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“I remember walking in, and River Phoenix held the door open for me. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so nice.’ I recognised him from Stand By Me, and he had broken his leg. Laura was there to read for the older girl, and she talked me through it, ‘cause I didn’t know what the f— was going on,” she continues.
“She befriended me. I was literally 12 and — nobody knows this — she took me under her wing into my twenties. That relationship got me through. I was probably living at her house when I was talking to you [in the ’90s],” she told the outlet.
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Today, Ryder enjoys mentorship from the other side, proud to take the young stars from recent projects like Stranger Things under her wing.
“I was the oldest person on the set. I started [my career] as the youngest, and I always wanted to be older,” she says.
She wanted to help the young stars to “keep it all in perspective” as the show became a smash hit, she explains.
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“I was like, ‘This doesn’t happen. This is weird — the phenomenon. The work is the gift. That is why you’re doing it.’ Which was what was instilled in me. And I think I was successful with some of them,” she shares.
Ryder also shared her hope for the cast that they’d each “remember their own value.”
“I’ve been trying to sort of change this narrative with the kids, because they have it drilled into them that they’re so lucky and, you know, that this show ‘made’ them. I’m like, ‘No. Netflix is so lucky. You guys are the special ones. Like, you guys are magic.’ “
