Q&A: Winona Ryder talks about aging, playing the wife and avoiding horror fare

TORONTO – Former teen queen Winona Ryder says she’s relishing a career rebirth in her 40s, which started with a small but impactful role in “Black Swan.”

In her latest film, the off-kilter “Experimenter,” she plays Sasha Menkin, wife to famed psychologist Stanley Milgram, whose controversial “obedience experiments” in the ’60s asked ordinary people to send electric shocks to a stranger.

Peter Sarsgaard plays Milgram, a man haunted by the Holocaust as he justifies ethically questionable techniques to study people’s capacity for cruelty.

But it’s not your standard biopic, with director Michael Almereyda incorporating obviously fake sets, breaking the fourth wall by having Sarsgaard speak to the camera directly, and working in actual documentary footage to highlight the manipulation at play. It’s available on demand and on iTunes this Friday, and hits select theatres in Toronto on Friday, in Vancouver on Nov. 1 and Saskatoon on Nov. 20.

Reached by phone recently in New York, a loquacious Ryder notes she actually has an odd connection to Milgram — her godfather, Timothy Leary, knew him because they both taught at Harvard.

The 43-year-old doesn’t believe she ever met Milgram as a child, but recounts her frustration at being told as an adult that she once hung out with John Lennon and his son Sean at a party.

“(Sean Lennon) was like five and I was like nine. Honestly, I wish I could remember. It kills me,” she says with a sigh.

The Canadian Press chatted with the “Reality Bites” star about playing “the wife,” aging and avoiding slasher flicks.

CP: The structure of this film is very interesting. Could you envision Almereyda’s broader plan when you were shooting?

Ryder: It turns the biopic on its head in a way. In the way that it is such an imaginative, creative, thoughtful, interesting way to tell this story that is so fascinating to begin with. We’re just used to biopics where they cram 20 years into a couple of hours and I just really appreciated what his choices were.

———

CP: The role of the wife can be difficult.

Ryder: Oh, I know, trust me.

———

CP: You’ve played many wives.

Ryder: God, you hit a certain age and you’ve gone from the girlfriend to the wife…. There’s something that is incredibly important (with that), which is (having) complete trust in a filmmaker. Meaning both trust creatively, but also trust in that they wouldn’t buckle under pressure from anyone higher up, like use something that you weren’t sure about.

Say you are on a set and you try a take and you don’t know if it’s going to work, and you didn’t really like it…. Most of the time you have to just pray to God that if it doesn’t work, they won’t use it. But a lot of times they’ll use it just to like, finish, because they’ll need the cut or whatever. And with Michael, there’s absolutely no fear of that.

———

CP: You’ve really taken on an array of interesting projects, including the 2012 film “The Iceman” and HBO’s recent miniseries “Show Me A Hero.” Are you being more selective or is the material changing?

Ryder: There is a bit of selectiveness in it, but it’s also, frankly, just opportunity.

Look, I don’t want to do “Saw XI.” I’ve resisted paycheques, movies that I’m not into, very violent (ones). I have some standards.

But I think something sort of happened in my late 30s, I would actually say with “Black Swan,” that sort of liberated me in a way where I was finally able to play my age. Because when you have a lot of success when you’re in your teens and 20s people don’t want to let go of that, and so when you’re in your 30s people are still thinking of you as that ingenue. So even though you are the right age they don’t see you as the right age. And even you don’t even see yourself as the right age….

It’s hard because of the social media — which I don’t have but — they put these pictures up and it’s like, you know, the same five pictures. And they’re great pictures, but they’re me when I’m 20.

———

CP: They also put up photos of you today and they say, ‘Look how youthful she is at 43.’ As if 43 is a senior citizen.

Ryder: It’s like I’m not allowed to get (old). When you’re getting your picture taken, a trick that I’ve learned is relax your forehead and then you won’t have all these lines — but if you don’t then they’re going to criticize you for looking (old). You don’t know how to win in this way….

I’ve worked on Indian reservations since I was 18 and in that culture the older you are the more awesome you are — it’s so respected, which is sort of the opposite of how we treat our elderly here in America, at least. And my heroes growing up were like Ruth Gordon.

When you’re the kid for so long you dream about getting older and I think I’m just one of those people that actually really enjoy getting older. I enjoy feeling more comfortable with myself.

— This interview has been edited and condensed.