Winona Ryder Says Jeff Bridges Refused to Kiss Her in Audition

Winona Ryder remembers Jeff Bridges being a gentleman during an early-’90s audition.

The actress, now 52, was asked about auditions for roles she didn’t ultimately get during Josh Horowitz‘s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast and brought up her encounter with Bridges, now 76.

“I remember because I was also auditioning for Fearless with Jeff Bridges, and I remember that audition. It was really around the same time [I auditioned for The Hudsucker Proxy], I think,” she recalled on the Monday, September 2, episode of the podcast. “Jeff Bridges, who I love, wouldn’t kiss me because I was, like, too young.”

Bridges was 43 when Fearless hit theaters in October 1993, while Ryder was 21. The film, directed by Peter Weir and based on the Rafael Yglesias novel, follows a man whose personality changes drastically after surviving a major plane crash. Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez and John Turturro costarred in the film, with Perez earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

“And at the end of the scene he was supposed to kiss me and I was … ,” the actress anxiously held her breath to show her anticipation. “And he, like, he kissed my forehead. He’s like, ‘You’re, like, my daughter’s age.’ And I was like, ‘No!’”

Bridges shares three daughters, Isabelle, 43, Jessica, 41, and Haley, 38, with Susan Geston, to whom he’s been married since 1977.

While Ryder didn’t get the role in Fearless, she was in a much bigger film that same year, The Age of Innocence. She recalled getting some memorable advice from a costar.

“When I was doing the press junket for Age of Innocence, Daniel Day-Lewis gave me the best advice ’cause we were both going through stuff at the time,” the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star said on the podcast, possibly referring to her split from Johnny Depp which happened the same year. “He’s like, ‘Just keep talking so they can’t ask you. Just ramble.’”

She continued: “When I get comfortable I like to [ramble], and I think it could be because I spent so much time not getting to do that, and I still do. I mean, nobody knows what the f–k I’m talking about most of the time.”

The film marked a major turning point in Ryder’s career. “I feel like that was sort of my graduation too, because when you’re a teen actor and a kid, you’re always hearing about the transition into adult roles and how it’s impossible,” she explained. “And then you’re either a daughter — or you’re too young to be the D.A. or even the rookie cop. … I feel like Age of Innocence really was huge.”