Jimmy Kimmel, like many of us, fell in love with Netflix’s Stranger Things and proceeded to invite Winona Ryder to appear on his show. They didn’t play Stranger Strings, but Ryder, who plays tortured mother Joyce Byers, did talk about babysitting Tom Waits’ kids, auditioning as a kid, and, of course, Stranger Things.
In the clip, the actress admits she doesn’t really go on the Internet, but was still overwhelmed by the popularity of the show thanks to her parents forwarding links to her. When Kimmel asks Ryder if she has a Netflix account, she recounts how the show’s release coincided with Netflix’s price hike, and the placement of a Stranger Things ad accidentally made her “the face of the Netflix price hike.”
Voicing the immense sympathy and stress that we all probably experienced watching Ryder’s Joyce struggle with her missing son, Kimmel says “it seems silly to ask if it was a fun show to shoot—you are shooting with a bunch of kids—but you really are crying and upset almost the whole series.”
Ryder explains that she’s more “old school” in her approach, meaning she had to actually cry as she’s allergic to the material to create fake tears. Additionally, while some called the actresses’ performance of grief extreme (see this article on how the show subverts some of these gender roles), Ryder comments that her portrayal was a realistic response, stating, “Pretty much the first five out the eight episodes I’m pretty hysterical, as I think any parent would be in those circumstances.”
I’m not a parent, but I imagine that seeing monsters in the wall and finding out that your missing son is trying to talk to you through lights will definitely make you feel some kind of way.
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