Winona Ryder Opens Up About Leaving Hollywood After 2001 Shoplifting Arrest: 'I Checked Out'

Mar. 15, 2025

Winona Ryder on Aug. 28.Photo:Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

Winona Ryder“checked out” of Hollywood after her December 2001 shoplifting arrest and the negative headlines that followed.

While Ryder, 52, hasspoken about the arrest before, she reflected on the incident’s impact in a new interview withEsquire, published on Thursday, Aug. 29.

“I checked out,” she told the magazine when asked how she coped after her arrest. “I think I just checked out.”

TheBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceactress wascharged with shopliftingclothes worth $5,500 from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills, Calif. In December 2001, a year later, she was convicted of grand theft and shoplifting, and sentenced to three years probation, fines and ordered to complete community service. She stepped away from acting and moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

When Ryderreturned to Hollywood, the environment was different, she toldEsquire.

Winona Ryder on Aug. 30.Kate Green/Getty

Kate Green/Getty

“There was a period when I was not in season,” she recalled. “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.”

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The arrest “definitely had a giant effect” on her career, Ryder toldEsquire, adding that when it happened, she thought she just made a simple mistake.

“It kept being like, ‘Oh, it’s fine, this is just, like, paperwork,’ and I was like, ‘OK.’ I was so confused,” she said.

When Ryder was told she could spend time in prison, she recalled being surprised. “I just remember being told I was going to go to prison. I was like, ‘Huh? What are youtalkingabout?’ ” she toldEsquire.

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In a 2016 interview withPorter, Ryder said her break from Hollywood gave her time that she “really needed.”

“Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop,” she said at the time. “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’s new movie,Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, hits theaters on Sept. 6. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival,which Ryder attended, on Wednesday, Aug. 28.

source: people.com