Winona Ryder Addressed The “Enormous Pressure” Around Botox & Aging

From her days as a teen movie star in the 1980s to her acclaimed run as a Midwestern mom on Stranger Things, Winona Ryder has seen and experienced a lot in Hollywood. At 53, that includes ageism. She reflected on her career in a cover story for Elle UK published on July 23, opening up about unsolicited Botox advice and the roles she gets offered now.

Pressure Around Aging

Despite working in such an appearance-focused industry, Ryder isn’t bothered by aging. “I don’t mind it,” she told Elle UK. “But what’s weird is when you’re surrounded by young women getting weird sh*t done.”

Learning about buccal fat removal, for example, freaked her out. “I thought they were kidding,” she said. “I want to say, like, ‘In 10 years, you’re gonna want that back!’”

Meanwhile, Ryder has been hearing from female directors that she should get Botox. “They’ll say, ‘Just relax your forehead. Relax.’ I’m trying to be a great actor, and they’re saying that over and over,” she said. “It’s nice that people are talking about how it’s OK to age, but there’s still enormous pressure.”

Ryder noted that “every role” she gets now is for a mother. “My career has definitely shifted,” she said, adding that she now aspires to “play the judge who’s like, ‘Chambers now, counsellor! Too far!’”

The Ingénue-To-Mom Transition

Feeling pressure around her age began more than a decade ago for Ryder. “Being replaced by the young thing—I know that definitely happens in Hollywood,” she told Us Weekly in 2010 (via Forbes). “It’s harder to find good roles, and suddenly there’s new girls. I’m at that age I’ve been warned my whole life about.”

The Botox suggestions started coming in years ago, too. In a 2016 interview with Net-a-Porter’s The Edit magazine, Ryder described cosmetic surgery as being “treated almost like hygiene.”

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘Oh, you should, you know…’ and they point to my forehead. ‘Get that seen to!’” she said (via Today). “But I’m like, ‘No! I’ve been waiting so long for that to happen!’”

That same year, she told Time that she “secretly wanted to be older” when she got her start as a young actor. “I know there’s a lot of conversations right now about ageism, and I know a lot of actresses who have a tough time, and I’ve gotten offered those mom parts. But you can make something of it,” she said. “For me, I’m finally getting to play my own age, and it’s liberating. I would not want to go back to playing the ingénue.”

After getting the role of Joyce Byers on Stranger Things, Ryder seized the opportunity to ensure her character was multifaceted. “I had to fight really hard to make Joyce real and flawed,” she told Elle UK.

Now, if only people would leave her alone about Botox.