Winona Ryder recalls incident that made her ‘check out' of Hollywood

Winona Ryder stepped away from her acting career after her December 2001 shoplifting arrest and the backlash that followed.

In a new interview, she reflected on the arrest’s impact on her career, telling Esquire: “I checked out,” to cope with the aftermath of the arrest.

“I think I just checked out,” she added.

In 2000, the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice actress was charged with shoplifting clothes worth $5,500 in Beverly Hills, California.

In December 2001, she was convicted of grand theft and shoplifting, and her sentence included three years probation, fines and community service. The Stranger Things star then stopped acting and moved to San Francisco.

The actress admitted that the arrest “definitely had a giant effect” on her career, but at the time she thought it was a simple mistake.

“It kept being like, ‘Oh, it’s fine, this is just, like, paperwork,’ and I was like, ‘OK.’ I was so confused,” she recounted.

She recalled being told that she could end up in prison, saying, “I just remember being told I was going to go to prison. I was like, ‘Huh? What are you talking about?’ ”

Reflecting on the time after her arrest, she said: “There was a period when I was not in season. It was like 10, 12, 15 years, and it did coincide with everything that happened [in her life] but also, if you look at the period from 2000 to 2010: wow! It was the most degrading time to be a woman. Even the cool people were participating in what felt like it should be off-limits.”

Ryder will next be seen in Beetlejuice sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which will hit theaters on September 6.