Winona Ryder's Dark Side
Interview by Hollywood.Com
If you've been waiting for Winona Ryder, master of tortured heroines, to make a cheerful, happy, feel-good movie, "Lost Souls" is not what you've been waiting for.
The icon of Gen-X angst and the queen of all that is dark and gothic has now taken on the devil and exorcism. She joins "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" star Ben Chaplin in this supernatural thriller about a young woman with unsinkable faith in Catholicism and her quest to stop the devil from overtaking the body of a faithless New York author (Chaplin). And although she participates in violent exorcisms, fights psychotic criminals and fends of Satan throughout the course of the movie, she was surprisingly unaffected by the fright-factor of the film.
"We had such a blast making it, there was a lot fun and laughter," Ryder says. "It's really sort of ironic that we would have such a good time making such a serious, spooky movie. I never had any residue -- much more in movies like 'Girl, Interrupted' where it was inside the mind. "
Actually, Ryder says preparing for the film was downright enjoyable.
"Doing the research was the funnest part," she says. "It was a great time because all of us got to do the research together, which is really unusual. Normally you have to go off on your own and do it. Because we were all dealing with this very particular subject matter, we all talked to this very prominent priest who had performed many exorcisms or so-called exorcisms and we watched a lot of video tapes on exorcisms -- or so-called exorcisms, depending where you stand on it, which is really sort of fascinating to do. "
Although the supernatural thriller is a new genre for the brunette beauty, she confesses she's a horror aficionado and hopes "Lost Souls" will measure up to some of her favorites, which include "Don't Look Now," a '70s thriller with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, "The Shining" and Linda Blair's head-spinning fright-fest "The Exorcist."
"'Lost Souls' is sort of a step into that genre," says Ryder. " I'd never really done anything like it, and I was really curious to try and do something different and new. The supernatural is always sort of a fascinating subject."
And since exorcism is such a hot topic these days with the re-release of "The Exorcist," Ryder hopes theatergoers will be in a possession-movie frame of mind.
"Actually, I didn't realize it was being re-released in theaters until yesterday when I saw it on the marquee," she says. "Hopefully it will help, though, and will get people in the mood. I'm not sure. I don't really think about what movies do after I make them."
"Lost Souls" opens Friday the 13th.
-- -- --