Lydia Deetz has been the quirky goth hero of many since she first appeared in the ’80s cult classic film Beetlejuice, but it turns out that the role haunted real-life counterpart Winona Ryder.
The beloved Stranger Things star shared with Marie Claire U.K. that she was bullied by her peers despite the overwhelming popularity of the film; in fact, the movie gave them another way to tease her by calling her a “witch.”
“I remember thinking, ‘Ooh, it’s, like, the number-one movie. This is going to make things great at school,'” Ryder said. “But it made things worse. They called me a witch.”
Ryder didn’t let the haters get to her, however; in the time since, she’s had plenty of other truly memorable roles since then and even nabbed a Golden Globe Award in 1994 for for her role in The Age of Innocence.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com