Winona Ryder Says 2001 Shoplifting Arrest 'Had a Giant Effect' on Her Career: 'I Checked Out'

Winona Ryder is reflecting on her infamous 2001 arrest for shoplifting.

The Stranger Things actress, 52, admitted the headline-making scandal — where she was charged with taking clothes worth $5,500 without paying from a Saks Fifth Avenue — profoundly affected her Hollywood career.

"I checked out," she revealed of the tumultuous period of her life in a recent interview. "I think I just checked out."

Following the odd incident, Ryder was convicted of grand theft and shoplifting and was sentenced to three years of probation, fines and had to complete community service. In the aftermath, her status as an industry staple completely changed and the media backlash became intense.

"There was a period when I was not in season," the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star said. "It was like 10, 12, 15 years, and it did coincide with everything that happened [in her life] but also, if you look at the period from 2000 to 2010: wow! It was the most degrading time to be a woman. Even the cool people were participating in what felt like it should be off-limits."

Ryder made clear the situation "definitely had a giant effect" on the lack of roles she was being offered. “It kept being like, ‘Oh, it’s fine, this is just, like, paperwork,’ and I was like, ‘OK.’ I was so confused," she explained. "I just remember being told I was going to go to prison. I was like, ‘Huh? What are you talking about?'"

The 90s it-girl opened up about the legal hurdle in a 2016 interview when she said she "must have been at a place where" she wanted to "stop" acting.

"I won’t get into what happened, but it wasn’t what people think. And it wasn’t like the crime of the century! But it allowed me time that I really needed, where I went back to San Francisco and got back into things that … I just had other interests, frankly," Ryder noted.

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As OK! previously reported, her hiatus from Tinseltown may have also had to do with the difficult end of her romance with Johnny Depp, whom she dated for four years until they split in 1993. "He was her first great love, and she wanted to marry him, but fame drove them apart," a source claimed in 2021. "But now, 20 years later, she has finally found peace — and she's ready to come back to Hollywood in a big way."

Esquire conducted the 2024 interview with Ryder.

Porter conducted the 2016 interview with Ryder.