Winona Ryder Got Teased by Dummy Kids for Being a Goth in 'Beetlejuice'

Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder in ‘Beetlejuice’ (Rex)

High school can be tough — even when you’re a famous teen movie star.

Winona Ryder, now 43, spoke with The Daily Beast in a conversation pegged to the historical drama The Experimenter, but which also touched on the films that made her famous back in the ’80s and ’90s. And as she notes, while she’s now a goth-style icon for Beetlejuice — the 1988 supernatural-comedy hit that made her a star — the movie’s wardrobe led to a lot of personal anguish.

“We didn’t know that was going to be a big movie at all,“ Ryder, who played Lydia Deetz in the classic comedy, told the website. "And I was in high school when it came out, so I thought I was in this movie and it’s doing things and people are going to be nicer, and they were calling me a ‘witch’ and ‘a weirdo’ and throwing candy corns at my head! It was like I couldn’t win.”

Instead of bullying Ryder, those kids should have been taking a hint and investing heavily in Hot Topic, the alt-teen boutique that opened, in a bit of perfect timing, back in 1988. Beetlejuice went on to be a classic, and a film that is still so beloved and culturally relevant that, even almost 30 years later, fans are still clamoring for a sequel… which may or may not happen, according to Ryder.

“Tim talked about it finally, but then every time I say something it gets blown up and I feel bad, because the truth is I don’t know where it stands,” she said. “I’m pretty sure it’s happening, but nothing’s official—even just the deals being done. And Tim is such a perfectionist so he wants the script to be perfect, so he may even take another movie before, although I hope he doesn’t!”

Burton spoke with Yahoo Movies about a possible sequel last December, saying that he’d love to do it at some point.

"There’s a script now, that I think is closer to what it could be and I’m excited about it,” the director said, referring to a screenplay by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter author (and future The Flash director) Seth Grahame-Smith. “I wouldn’t call it so much a sequel, but it’ll have some characters. It’s a bit too early to say but it’s definitely something that’s on my radar and something I’d love to do.”