Winona Ryder has finally spoken out about her arrest for shoplifting in December 2001.
The actress told Vogue magazine that painkillers were to blame for the “embarrassing” incident, as they left her in a state of “confusion”.
“Two months prior to that, I broke my arm in two places, and the doctor, a sort of quack doctor, was giving me a lot of stuff and I was taking it at first to get through the pain. And then there was this weird point when you don’t know if you are in pain but you’re taking it,” she says.
“I didn’t have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn’t hurt anyone. Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience.
“The attention was what was embarrassing. I never said a word. I didn’t release a statement. I didn’t do anything. I just waited for it to be over.”
Winona was charged with after attempting to steal designer clothes and accessories from Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue.
She was sentenced to three years probation, 480 hours of community service and made to pay around $10,000 in fines and damages.
But Winona says the arrest was a blessing in disguise, because “[she] knew [she] couldn’t do that [painkillers] anymore.”
Adding: “No one [in my family] ever got angry with me. Concerned, yes, but not concerned with a drug problem or anything. Because after that night I pretty much didn’t ever. … If you are ever arrested, you can’t ever do that again.”
