Winona Ryder: the actress who plays Joyce Byers, 80s icon become the mother of Hawkins
Actresses · Winona Ryder · Joyce Byers
When the show was announced in 2015, Winona Ryder's name was the first thing the audience held onto: the actress of Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Girl, Interrupted was coming back, at 43, to play a mother who talks to Christmas lights. Portrait of an icon Joyce Byers brought back to the front of the stage.
The essentials
- Born: October 29, 1971, Winona, Minnesota
- Role: Joyce Byers, seasons 1 to 5
- Major films: Beetlejuice, Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, The Age of Innocence, Girl, Interrupted
- Awards: Golden Globe 1994, two Oscar nominations
Contents
- The icon of the 1980s and the decade after
- Joyce Byers, the mother who is right
- Joyce, season by season
- In theaters, since the show
- Markers
- What you know less about her
- Joyce in 1987: the axe, at last
- Five Joyce scenes to rewatch
- Kate Bush, and Winona's T-shirts
- The awards, before and during the show
The icon of the 1980s and of the decade after
Winona Ryder is one of the faces of late-1980s American cinema: Lydia in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988), Veronica in Heathers (1989), Kim in Edward Scissorhands (1990), then Coppola's Dracula, Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, for which she receives a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, and Little Women, a second nomination.
The 2000s are harder: a highly publicized shoplifting case in 2001, and a career that slows. She comes back gradually with Black Swan, then shoots the first season of the show in 2015, which puts her back at the center.
The wall-of-lights T-shirt, Joyce's.
In the shopMen's 3/4-sleeve baseball Will Byers T-shirt44,90 €See the product
Joyce Byers, the mother who is right
Joyce is the mother of Will and Jonathan, a cashier at Melvald's, a smoker, exhausted, and the only adult in Hawkins who believes her son is alive when everyone else buries him. Winona Ryder plays Season 1 on the edge of a nervous breakdown, with Christmas lights and an axe, and the show then gives her every register: comedy with Hopper in Season 3, action in Russia in Season 4, and an axe again, facing Vecna in Season 5.
She has said she asked, from season 1, not to play Joyce as a madwoman, but as a woman who knows. The Duffers have said they wrote Will's mother for her.
The 80s linkWinona Ryder really was a teenager in 1983-1986, and the Duffers said she flagged period details on set that did not add up. Her presence is also a seal: she is the cinema the show cites.
Joyce, season by season
| Season | What Joyce lives through |
|---|---|
| 1 | Looks for Will, talks to the lights, enters the Upside Down with Hopper |
| 2 | Loves Bob, loses him, saves Will from the Mind Flayer |
| 3 | Investigates the magnets, kidnaps Alexei, shuts down the Russian machine |
| 4 | Goes to Russia to save Hopper with Murray |
| 5 | Back in Hawkins, axe in hand |
At the movies, since the show
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | The Plot Against America (miniseries) | Evelyn Finkel |
| 2022 | Gone in the Night | Kath |
| 2024 | Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Lydia Deetz, 36 years later |
| 2025 | Last season of the show | Joyce Byers |
Lydia Deetz's return in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in 2024, closed the loop: the 1988 actress and the show's actress are now the same for two generations of viewers.
Markers
| Year | Step |
|---|---|
| 1971 | Birth in Minnesota |
| 1988 | Beetlejuice |
| 1990 | Edward Scissorhands |
| 1994 | Golden Globe for The Age of Innocence |
| 2015 | Joyce Byers's casting |
| 2016 | Season 1, back to the foreground |
| 2024 | Beetlejuice Beetlejuice |
| 2025 | End of the show |
What you know less about her
Winona Ryder was born Winona Horowitz, in Winona County, Minnesota, hence her first name; her stage name comes from a Mitch Ryder record that was playing at her parents' when they chose. She spent part of her childhood in a community without electricity in California, where she read and reread The Catcher in the Rye, and took her first acting classes at twelve in San Francisco. Her godfather was the psychologist Timothy Leary.
Before accepting Joyce, she had never held a regular television role, and she has said she found it “terrifying” to receive a series script for a platform whose workings she did not know. Her only condition, in 2015: to be able to step away if the Beetlejuice sequel ever happened. She finally shot Beetlejuice Beetlejuice during the 2023 strikes, even before filming of the last season began.
The Joyce figure, axe included.
In the shopLego Joyce Byers mini figure14,90 €See the product
Joyce in 1987: the axe, at last
The last season gives Joyce back her Season 1 role: a mother who refuses to leave her son in danger. She lives at the Wheelers' with her sons, trains Eleven with Hopper, forbids Will to go out, then makes up with him in a barn, admitting her guilt for having let him be taken in 1983. In episode 5, she is the one who proposes plugging Will back into the hive, a reversal Winona Ryder attributes to Noah Schnapp's acting, which “caught her off guard.”
In the finale, she climbs the antenna with the group and, in the body of the spider, finishes Henry Creel with an axe blow, after Eleven has run him through. In spring 1989, Hopper proposes to her at Enzo's and suggests Montauk. Ten years after the lights, Joyce has the ending the first season promised her.
Five Joyce scenes to rewatch
-
The lights, 1983
The alphabet painted on the wall, and Will answering letter by letter.
-
The cabin, 1984
The exorcism: Joyce heats the room until the shadow leaves her son.
-
The magnets, 1985
She understands on her own that something is demagnetizing Hawkins, and abducts Alexei.
-
Kamchatka, 1986
With Murray, she crosses Russia to find Hopper.
-
The axe, 1987
In the Abyss, the last blow struck at Henry is his.
Kate Bush, and Winona's T-shirts
A set detail became a season 4 legend. Winona Ryder regularly wore Kate Bush T-shirts and badges on set, from the first season, and slipped allusions to the singer to the Duffers. When the music supervisor proposed "Running Up That Hill" for Max, the creators said yes, and Kate Bush, a fan of the show, accepted after reading the script.
The actress who embodied 80s cinema thus helped, without meaning to, the show's biggest musical success: the 1985 song saw its streams jump by more than 8 700% in 2022, thirty-seven years after its release.
The awards, before and during the show
Winona Ryder received a Golden Globe for The Age of Innocence in 1994 and two Oscar nominations, for that film and for Little Women. The show earned her a third Golden Globe nomination, for best actress in a drama series, and the collective outstanding ensemble award given by SAG in 2017, with the whole cast.
For season 3, she got, according to the press, 350 000 dollars per episode, the highest fee in the cast along with David Harbour's: the mark of an actress become again, thanks to Joyce, one of the most in-demand of her generation.
The Byers house poster, lights on.
In the shopWill Byers hoodie59,90 €See the product
TakeawayBorn in 1971, icon of Beetlejuice, Heathers and Edward Scissorhands. Joyce Byers in all five seasons, the mother who believes her son is alive. Golden Globe 1994, two Oscar nominations. Back in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in 2024.
Frequently asked questions
Who plays Joyce Byers?
Winona Ryder, American actress born in 1971, star of Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, in all five seasons.
Did Winona Ryder win an Oscar?
No, but she was nominated twice (The Age of Innocence, Little Women) and received a Golden Globe in 1994.
Is Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice 2?
Yes, she takes back the role of Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).
Why did Winona Ryder accept the show?
For the role of Joyce, written for her, and for a return to television she wanted far from her roles as a young woman of the past.
Where does Winona Ryder's stage name come from?
From a record by the singer Mitch Ryder that was playing at his parents' when he was asked how to write his name in the credits of his first film, Lucas, in 1986.
Was Winona Ryder nominated for the show?
Yes, at the Golden Globes, in the best actress in a drama series category, her third nomination at those awards.