When famous people re-emerge after a break from (or unintentional avoidance of) the spotlight, we like to define them as being “back.” It’s one of those special, against-all-odds moments of a celebrity’s narrative that we, as a culture, are sort of programmed to be endeared by. Though the state of being back is often falsely—or at least prematurely—declared by the media, when it’s real, it’s a happy moment. (When it’s not, it’s an HBO series.)
Take Winona Ryder, for example. She’s never really stopped acting—not even after her notorious 2001 arrest for shoplifting—she just began taking different types of roles than she did during, oh, the first 13 years of her career. As she slowly dipped out of Hollywood’s A-list, Ryder’s once-loyal fans of Generation Xers froze an out-of-date version of her in their minds. They didn’t want Winona from The Ten or Mr. Deeds, they wanted Winona as Lydia Deetz and Veronica Sawyer.
But now that Stranger Things is a sensation that spans some of the most important TV-watching demographics—from the ones her age who are delighting in seeing her play the parent to the teens who’ve never even heard of Heathers—Ryder is officially back.
That was my unnecessarily rambling way of reminding you that Ryder is currently part of a cultural phenomenon. Stranger Things is summer 2016, and by proxy, so is she. But her appearance on the current list of things no one can stop talking about doesn’t necessarily make her familiar with all the other bullets. In an interview with Variety (brought to our attention by Vanity Fair), her Stranger Things costar Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) revealed that Ryder was less than familiar with both “Swifties” and Snapchat.
Millie Bobby Brown: The fans — apparently they’re called the Strangers.
Wynona Ryder: What is that?
Brown: I had no idea what they were called, and I said, “We need to find a name.” Because, like the Taylor Swift fans are called the Swifties …
Ryder: I didn’t know that. The Swifties? Like a Swifty Picker Upper? I have one of those to clean my house.
Brown: [laughs] She thought Snapchat was chips.
Ryder: Because in Heathers we had the Snappy Snack Shack. It was the 7-Eleven place. I thought it had something to do with food.
Winona Ryder, everybody. She’s back, and she used to think Snapchat was chips.