THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412220058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long : 163 lines
HOW CAN the heroine of Generation X make ``Little Women'' and maintain her cool?
``Oh, no!'' Winona Ryder said, batting her eyes. ``It's a cool book. Now really, it is. I keep hearing about how you guys won't go see the movie. Well, why not? You're interested in girls, aren't you?
`` `Little Women' was one of my favorite books - not my very favorite, but one of them. I guess `Catcher in the Rye' was my favorite, but that was about a boy. ALL the books were about boys. I liked `Lord of the Flies' and `Treasure Island,' but there was just nothing about girls.
``I mean there are girls and then they're women. In books and movies, there's nothing in between. Girls don't have many role models.''
The fourth version of Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel, arriving Christmas Day, stars Ryder as the irrepressible Jo, a role played by Katharine Hepburn in 1933 and June Allyson in the all-star 1949 version.
Ryder's 10-year career has been something of a phenomenon in that she has received consistent raves while making headlines with every new date. She is to the '90s what Natalie Wood was to the '50s: the child who grew up before our eyes, without that awkward stop on the way to adulthood. All the while, she's held on to her young fans, but older audiences like her, too.
Last year, she won the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination as the repressed May Welland in ``The Age of Innocence,'' yet another addition to a gallery of memorable characters etched in such films as ``Great Balls of Fire,'' ``Heathers,'' ``Mermaids,'' ``Bram Stoker's Dracula'' and ``Reality Bites.''
``Dracula'' gave Ryder enough box-office clout to get ``Little Women'' made. The studios wouldn't consider it until she announced she was interested.
``I keep hearing that I have this clout,'' she said. ``I don't see it. I don't hear those conversations, but if it was me that got `Little Women' made, so be it. I've never worked harder on a part. Jo has this unending energy. She moves every minute.''
Jo March is the eldest of four daughters in a Concord, Mass., home during the Civil War. Hepburn played her as a strong tomboy; Ryder had different ideas.
``I liked each of the other versions of `Little Women,' but I didn't see Jo as being so strong,'' she said. ``I mean, I always hated those characters in things I've seen - the feisty woman, the tough cookie. Jo wanted to be independent, but she was vulnerable, too. She wasn't too sure of herself. How could she be in a world that wouldn't allow her to even try being a writer?''
Like Generation X itself, Ryder is indefinable - even to herself.
She admits that she went through something of an identity crisis ``when I started reading stories about myself. I didn't, at one time, know who I was, so I thought I must be this person they were writing about - this actress Winona Ryder.
``Then I found I wasn't like her at all. I wasn't like what people expected me to be. Sure, there was a period of rebellion. I tried to become an alcoholic. That lasted no more than two weeks. I'm just this little, little girl. My body won't stand that kind of thing. Physically, I can't abuse myself that way. Now, I think I'm firmly grounded.''
Winona Horowitz was named for her birthplace, Winona, Minn. Her parents were self-described hippies who raised her in a commune without electricity. They published works on Aldous Huxley and Louisa May Alcott, claiming, in part, that she wrote ``Little Women'' while under the influence of opium.
``Yeah, my parents were hippies, but it wasn't so weird,'' Ryder said. ``It's the only upbringing I know, so to me it wasn't weird at all.''
She grew up in the public eye.
``It was a pain in the neck. I mean, I suffered because of it, and compared to the others, I had it good. High school itself is enough of a problem for any kid without throwing in making movies. The only way you can get through it is if you have strong parents who will protect you.
``I did. I had the very best of circumstances. I got good, really worthwhile projects, and I never really went `Hollywood.' The important thing, I think, was that I stayed up in Petaluma (north of San Francisco) and never really moved to Los Angeles.''
She also attended regular high school when she wasn't working. It wasn't always easy.
``I never liked school, mainly, I guess, because I didn't like being stared at. I was making bad grades. Kids would stare at me and say, `She's the girl in `Beetlejuice.' My mind would go blank when I got nervous. Finally, the teacher let me take tests in a separate room. It improved my grades.''
Asked if she, like Jo March, was a tomboy, Ryder flashes that natural smile.
``Oh, you know the answer to that. Jeans and a T-shirt is my wardrobe. I only got dressed up today because I had to talk to you. I wasn't consciously a tomboy, but I guess I would have rather been a boy. I wasn't real popular in high school. I didn't really care whether I got dates or not.''
Speaking of dates, the latest story, one that made Associated Press, was that she is marrying David Pirner, lead singer for the rock group Soul Asylum - and that she got engaged across the street from the Viper Room, the Los Angeles bar owned by former steady Johnny Depp.
``It's not true,'' Ryder said with a trace of bemusement. ``Dating is a problem with anybody, but with a famous guy, it can be made real hell by the tabloids. I went out with these people, and we had a really good time. . . . I hugged David and we held hands, and I kept thinking, `I shouldn't be doing this. Someone might be watching.'
``Then I thought, I'm not going to spend my life hiding. I have the right to go out on a date and act silly, just like everyone else. But I'm not engaged. They made that up.''
Ryder was discovered at age 12 in classes at the American Conservatory of Theater in San Francisco, and whisked away to make her movie debut in ``Lucas.'' Eleven years later, she doesn't feel she missed out on her youth by working in movies, but says a number of other young actors did.
``I've seen some horrible things happen on sets,'' Ryder said. ``On this one set, I saw this young boy being dressed down because he had a pimple on his face. They were telling him that he couldn't be filmed that day and that the set would have to be closed down, and it would cost $300,000. He was humiliated to the max. Should a kid have to worry about $300,000 just because he had a pimple on his face that day?''
Ryder said she saw the same thing happening on her next film, ``Boys,'' in which she co-stars with seven young boys. ``There's not a lot I can do, except talk to them and let them know I sympathize. But in this case, I did something I've never done before. I told them that I was going to walk if they didn't stop picking on this boy.''
As for her newfound clout, she maintains it doesn't exist. Ryder had to fight to have ``Little Women'' dedicated to Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old girl from Petaluma who was kidnapped and murdered last year.
``I felt really close to the case because I had gone on the air to help keep Polly's picture circulating when they were searching for her,'' she said. `` `Little Women' was her favorite book. At the time I began working on the film, her family gave me her own personal copy. Then, just days ago, the studio told me they felt it would be too depressing to have the film dedicated to her.
``But they had PROMISED! I mean, I had told the family. I just told them that I would be doing interviews, and I was going to bring it all out that they had refused the dedication. I don't usually ask for things like that, but a promise is a promise. It meant something to me.''
That doesn't mean she enjoys getting special treatment on the set. ``I just began noticing it since `Dracula,' '' Ryder said. ``I mean, they treat me like some princess, and it's like everybody else is trotted over to a tent to get their gruel. I don't go for that. I went around telling people that, `Hey, I'm just a hired actress like everyone else.' ''
Ryder turned down a remake of ``Sabrina,'' but will soon start work on ``How to Make an American Quilt.'' Her schedule, though, isn't as nonstop as it sounds.
``I have time off between movies, usually,'' she said. ``Besides, I love making movies. I love acting, in general. The chance to get out there and pretend to be someone else is a real joy.''
As for ``Little Women'' appealing to modern audiences, she isn't worried.
``To me, just to me personally,'' Ryder said, ``it touches bases about wanting to fit in, trying to leave home, feeling guilty about leaving home, getting your heart broken, breaking someone else's heart and trying to have a career when everyone says no.
``It has all those things, and they're all modern things. And I think guys should go to see it, too. I mean, it's not unhip.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos from "Little Women" movie
Photo
Winona Ryder received an Oscar nomination for her role in "The Age
of Innocence."
by CNB