Winona Ryder’s ‘One Condition’ for Joining ‘Stranger Things’: A Break for ‘Beetlejuice 2’—And How It Was Successfully Negotiated
Winona Ryder revealed during a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar that she had only one condition when she first met “Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer for a role they wanted her to play on Netflix: If “Beetlejuice 2” ever got off the ground, they’d have to let her take a break from the series to film it. They agreed, and Ryder was cast as the matriarch Joyce Byers in what would become one of Netflix’s biggest original series.
“I am literally on my 10th year playing her,” Ryder said in a video interview for the magazine. “It’s an absolute first for me to play a character for that long. It was huge to say yes to just one episode … they only gave me the pilot episode. I didn’t at the time know what streaming was. It was terrifying in that regard.”
“At the time, Tim [Burton] and I were talking about the ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel,” Ryder continued. “There have been moments over the last 15 years where we thought it was going to happen, but that’s the thing … it had to be perfect with everybody in order for it to happen. I remember at my first meeting with the Duffer Bros. I said, ‘As long as if “Beetlejuice 2″ happens you’ll let me go do that.’ They agreed. Luckily it worked out. That was my one condition.”
Burton told Harper’s Bazaar that various ideas for a “Beetlejuice” sequel emerged after the 1988 film became a classic among moviegoers, adding: “‘Beetlejuice Goes to Outer Space,’ Beetlejuice does whatever. There’d been talk about it, but I never really understood why it was popular. And this was when people didn’t talk about sequels.”
“There were a lot of times my agents didn’t know that I was meeting up with him,” Ryder added about sequel talks over the years.
It turns out Ryder wouldn’t need to take a “Stranger Things” break in order to finally shoot “Beetlejuice 2,” which is officially titled “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and arrives in theaters this September after world premiering at the Venice Film Festival. The long-awaited sequel shot in between “Stranger Things” seasons, so Ryder didn’t have to miss out on any of her requirements for the Netflix series. The show is currently filming its fifth and final season.
In “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Ryder is once again Lydia Deetz. Only this time Lydia is a pill-popping widow struggling to connect with her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Lydia hosts a television series called “Ghost House” thanks to her ability to see and speak to the dead, but a riff exists between her and Astrid since the one dead person she can’t connect with is her late husband and Astrid’s father.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” opens in theaters Sept. 6 from Warner Bros. Watch Ryder’s full video interview with Harper’s Bazaar in the post below.
