Winona Ryder: Role size isn’t important anymore

Winona Ryder doesn’t care about the size of movie roles as she progresses in age.

The 43-year-old actress landed a number of parts in huge films throughout her teens and twenties, having starred in classics like Heathers, Beetlejuice and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

But now that she’s in her forties, Winona could care less about whether she is the star of a big budget feature.

“You don’t want to spend four months being miserable with people doing something you don’t care about,” she told ET Online. “The size of the role starts to become less and less important as you get older. Carrying the movie is way more terrifying.”

Winona finds herself in a peculiar position when it comes to being cast nowadays.

She believes youthful looks prevent her from landing roles because of the success she had as a younger woman.

“I feel like when you’ve had a lot of success in your teen years and 20s -- and I’m not trying to speak for anyone else -- but something kind of happens where you are in your 30s and people associate you so much with those other roles,” she explained. “So, they don’t really think of you as old enough, even though you are old enough.

“I feel like I kind of had this thing in my 30s where it was just hard because people were really holding onto this ingénue thing.”

But Winona doesn’t necessarily blame casting directors for passing her over.

She acknowledges her appearance may have put an entire project in jeopardy.

“I wasn’t that anymore and I looked young, you know, and I’m not complaining about that, but I also agreed,” Winona said. “I wouldn’t buy myself as a district attorney when I was 35 either, even though I could have been one, you know, age-wise.”