In an interview with The Sunday Times, Hollywood legend and current star of the Netflix series Stranger Things has opened up about two examples of anti-Semitism she has experienced in the entertainment industry.
In one incident, Ryder explains an encounter with Mel Gibson: “We were at a crowded party with one of my good friends, and Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar, and we’re all talking and he said to my friend, who’s gay, ‘Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’ And then something came up about Jews, and he said, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?’”
Gibson did apparently try to apologize afterward Ryder added.
Winona Ryder also revealed an encounter with the head of a movie studio in which she was told that she looked “too Jewish” for a role the actress was considered for many years ago:
“There was a movie that I was up for a long time ago, it was a period piece, and the studio head, who was Jewish, said I looked ‘too Jewish’ to be in a blue-blooded family,” she said.
