At the 1991 Golden Globes, Winona Ryder turns her head toward the audience. She is looking for something, or someone; when her eyes meet Johnny Depp’s, her face lights up with a smile that lasts only a few seconds. Then the light fades from her gaze. That tiny moment was etched into memory forever.
They had met in 1989, at the premiere of Great Balls of Fire!. A year later, they were formally introduced: she was 18, he was 26. Five months later, they were already engaged. Soon afterward came Edward Scissorhands, directed by Tim Burton, the film that brought them together on camera and turned their real-life romance into a fairy tale for an entire generation. Johnny had “Winona Forever” tattooed on his arm.
That night in 1991, they were still together. The video did not capture a farewell or the painful reunion of two former partners, as many interpreted it when it resurfaced on social media. It captured exactly the opposite: two young people in love who still imagined a future together.
The breakup did not come until 1993. Johnny removed two letters from his tattoo and turned “Winona Forever” into “Wino Forever”, an expression that could be translated as “drunk forever”. Winona, on the other hand, could not transform her memories as easily.
“He was my first everything: my first real kiss, my first real boyfriend, my first fiancé, and the first man I had sex with. That’s why he will always be in my heart. Forever… it’s funny to use that word”. She once confessed.
The separation plunged her into a deep depression. Winona tried to numb the pain with alcohol, stopped taking care of herself, and one night fell asleep with a lit cigarette. When she woke up, the flames had already begun to surround her. Years later, she would compare that period to living through her own version of Girl, Interrupted.
Nevertheless, she never spoke of Johnny with bitterness. When serious accusations against the actor emerged decades later, Winona clarified that she could only speak to her own experience and remembered him as someone affectionate and protective during the years they shared.
Winona rebuilt her life and fell in love again, but she never spoke of Johnny as if he had been just another man. Some people stop being part of our present and, even so, remain forever in the story of who we once were.