Winona Ryder didn't take the 'Stranger Things' plot lightly. How 'otherworldly' grief and a kidnapping in her hometown informed her character.
Winona Ryder is no stranger to the spotlight — or to grief. On Stranger Things , which premiered on Netflix in 2016, Ryder plays Joyce Byers, a grief-stricken suburban mother coping with the sudden disappearance of her young son, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), in the show’s first season. When it came time to bring Joyce to life, Ryder didn’t need to look far for inspiration — she knew a family that experienced a similar loss.
While chatting with Interview magazine for its winter issue, the Stranger Things actress spoke of a young girl named Polly Klaas, who went missing in Petaluma, Calif., where Ryder was raised.
“I had this experience when I was in my early twenties: There was a girl from the town that I grew up in,” Ryder said. “Her name was Polly Klaas, and she was kidnapped. I knew her family.”
Klaas, who was 12 years old, was kidnapped at knifepoint by a man named Richard Allen, who entered Klaas’s mother’s home during a slumber party on Oct. 1, 1993. Ryder told Interview that, at the time, she was doing “whatever I could to help this family” and keep the story in the news, even offering a $200,000 reward for Klaas’s safe return. But the search for Klaas came to a tragic end two months later, on Dec. 4, 1993, when her body was found buried near Cloverdale, Calif., about 35 miles north of Petaluma.
“When you’re around that kind of tangible grief, it’s otherworldly,” Ryder said. “She wanted to be an actress, and her favorite book was Little Women , so that was a big reason I did that movie and dedicated it to her.”
