Stranger Things is built on nostalgia. But not the cheap kind that Hollywood seems to throw down our throats with every sequel, revamp, or reunion. Every ounce of the Netflix series feels authentic in its way of delivering glimpses of our pasts through the eyes of the entertainment we adored. This is because the idea of paying homage to the sci-fi, adventure, and horror films of the 1970s and 1980s is vital to the story. It's in the character's blood and it's also woven ever so delicately into the plot.
But authentic nostalgia is represented in the casting as well. Even though the likes of Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour tend to get the most attention. Winona Ryder is easily the most important casting decision, according to the Duffer Brothers who created the show. Here's why...
Why Winona Ryder Was Cast In Stranger Things
In an interview with Vulture when the show was first released, Matt and Ross Duffer discussed the real reason they cast Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers in their critically acclaimed series. Despite nearly being canceled by Hollywood, Winona has had a major career comeback over the past few years, mostly due to her work on Stranger Things.
Even though she has been quoted as saying that the first season of the show was taxing on her emotionally, she appears outlandishly grateful to have been hand-chosen by The Duffer Brothers for the vital role.
"Winona came up very early on and was on one of our first casting lists that our casting director came up with, and we all fell instantly in love with that idea," Ross Duffer said to Vulture. "Certainly there’s nostalgia there, but this is someone we were huge fans of growing up, and it’s someone we just wanted to see more of. And it’s particularly someone we loved seeing in the supernatural genre. Not that she’s not great in other things, like Girl Interrupted or Little Women. But Tim Burton was such a huge inspiration to us growing up and those movies were such a part of our rotation. It was also assigning us the idea of putting a movie star in this role because we always saw this as a big eight-hour summer movie. So to have someone like Winona, who has that movie-star presence where you just point a camera at her and she pops off the screen, it’s not something most people have. So we were excited by the idea of her doing this. And I don’t think even two years ago she would have agreed to it. I do think [True Detective's] Matthew McConaughey and his McConaissance was a huge help and opened up the door to some of these people that are more traditionally known for film."
Winona Ryder Has A Deep Knowledge Of The Nostalgia In Stranger Things
Winona Ryder's role in Stranger Things ended up being a major homage to her previous work, including her role in Bram Stoker's Dracula. However, it was also an expansion on it as she wasn't playing the type of character she tended to when she was young.
"For Winona, those roles [from the ‘80s] were so very different. She was a kid, or she was the ingenue, she was the love interest, whatever. This was a very different role for her," Matt Duffer explained.
On top of the vital personal, nostalgic, and star-power reasons why The Duffer Brothers needed Winona, she also gave them continuous assists when crafting the references in Stranger Things.
"Winona is an obsessive movie fanatic, And she’s particularly knowledgeable in terms of movies from the ‘80s. She loves that era. She grew up there. She has a deeper knowledge of those movies than we do, actually," Matt continued. "That was one of the things that attracted her to us. Any sort of reticence had more to do with — and what’s scary to a lot of actors in television — is the time commitment. If you’re on a movie, it’s not that big of a deal if you’re not happy with it. But she was going off one script and signing on for a potentially long time."
Winona's adoration of the films of the 1980s also helped her develop her character's physical look.
"[Winona's] obsessed with this movie Audrey Rose, which no one really ever talked about, this obscure Anthony Hopkins movie. Or you know, her haircut. She really wanted it like Meryl Streep’s in Silkwood," Matt explained. "We got that picture from her early on. She said, 'This is Joyce. This is what she’s gotta look like'. She’s very knowledgeable in general about cinema, about how it’s going to be edited together. She has almost a photographic memory of all the takes that she did. She has this incredible, really unique type of intelligence."