Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Winona finally talks about her arrest

Winona Ryder has finally spoken publicly about her 2001 arrest for shoplifting. In August's Vogue, Ryder says, "I didn't have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn't hurt anyone. Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience. I never said a word. I didn't release a statement. I didn't do anything. I just waited for it to be over." Ryder was videotaped stealing merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills and later convicted of grand theft. She says, "The attention was embarrassing," and that life had been rough for her just before the arrest. "Two months prior to that, I broke my arm in two places, and the doctor, a sort of quack doctor, was giving me a lot of stuff and I was taking it at first to get through the pain. And then there was this weird point when you don't know if you are in pain but you're taking it." Ryder says the painkillers she was on, Oxycodone, left her in a state of "confusion." She describes her arrest "in a very weird way, was a blessing because I couldn't do that [painkillers] anymore." Following the resulting court issues, Ryder moved to San Francisco to be near her parents and made "a very conscious decision not to work." She is back at work now though, with three movies due you later this year.