Although Heathers (1988) has gone down as a cult classic over the past four decades, it was a career liability for star Winona Ryder after its release.
The 2x Oscar nominee recently revealed the Michael Lehmann-directed teen dark comedy cost her a role alongside Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick in the 1990 crime comedy The Freshman.
“I was told I was never gonna work again if I did Heathers. I did lose a job,” she told Elle UK, hesitating to reveal the part she lost. “OK, OK, I’ll tell you. You remember the movie The Freshman?”
Ryder explained, “They thought it was making fun of teen suicide. They were deeply offended and, yeah, they revoked the offer. I’m like, ‘I can’t work with Marlon Brando?’ But I had to stand my ground. I wasn’t gonna apologise.”
In Heathers, Ryder stars as the formerly unpopular Veronica, who joins the titular clique of mean girls, which includes Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk) and Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty). When she meets mysterious new kid JD (Christian Slater), they begin killing off the Heathers and staging deaths as suicides.
Although the movie was considered a flop at the time, grossing $1.1 million worldwide as it was met with backlash over the satirical approach to suicide, Heathers has found a cult following over the years, inspiring an off-Broadway musical and a short-lived 2016 TV reboot that was quickly cancelled after it was met with similar criticism as its source material.
Ryder previously recalled that her agent begged her not to take the role in Heathers, which was penned by Daniel Waters.