TORONTO – Winona Ryder is back at TIFF this year – she was at the festival in 2010 for Black Swan – to promote The Iceman, in which she plays the wife of real-life mob hit man Richard Kuklinski.
It’s a familiar role for the actress, who has played the real-life wife of a volatile man in at least two other films during her 25-year career.
Ryder portrayed Myra Gale Brown, the wife and cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, in 1989’s Great Balls of Fire!. In 2009, she was in Toronto to make the TV movie When Love Is Not Enough, in which she portrayed Lois Wilson, the wife of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Ryder has also played real women in 1994’s made-in-B.C. film Little Women, which was based on the lives of author Louisa May Alcott and her three sisters, and in 1999’s Girl, Interrupted, where she played Susanna Kaysen, on whose experience in a mental hospital the movie is based.
“It’s always challenging when you’re playing someone who existed because you can’t just create someone out of your imagination and you do often feel a sense of responsibility,” Ryder said on Monday. “In the past I’ve usually had the blessing of the person I was playing.”
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For her role in The Iceman, Ryder wasn’t able to study the real Deborah Kuklinski because she went into hiding after her husband was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences for killing more than 200 people. He died behind bars in 2006.
Ryder admitted she was initially curious to know what Deborah knew, or denied to herself, about her husband’s mob life.
“I can’t really imagine that it would have even been helpful to talk to her because I don’t think a person can go through something like that – which does pose the question, how responsible is she if she did know? – and then be very honest,” said the actress. “Her denial was so deep that it would be hard for her to talk about it now.”
Ryder credits the film’s costume designer Donna Zakowska for helping her channel Deborah, who “was flourishing off of this blood money.” She wears a lot of vintage designer clothing in the movie.
The movie also stars Michael Shannon, Ray Liotta and Chris Evans.
Ryder, who turns 41 next month, said she is looking forward to playing more roles like the one in The Iceman.
“I’m actually very psyched to be 40 and psyched to get older because you become more comfortable with yourself and it’s more interesting,” she said, “and it doesn’t really matter, the size of the roles. It’s usually the kind of roles that are more interesting.”
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