Winona Ryder texts about how you’d expect Winona Ryder to text, according to Finn Wolfhard. The Stranger Things star told GQ that Ryder is “one of the funniest texters ever, because she’ll text you and then you’ll text her back and then she won’t text you ever again.†Earnest, somewhat chaotic, with long absences — Ryder’s texting profile mirrors her body of work. “She’ll text you whatever, say something like, ‘Oh, have you ever seen this movie?’†Wolfhard said. “And I’ll be like, ‘No, I haven’t. How are you?’ And then just, nothing.†Wolfhard also mentions that he likes to pepper Ryder with questions about what it was like to live in the ’90s, and date who she dated in the ’90s. That could explain the long gaps between texts. “She dated Dave Grohl and MCA from Beastie Boys, and all these people,†he said. “I could literally ask her what it was like knowing Kurt Cobain, and she just tells me everything.â€
Beyond telling Mike Wheeler what to expect in the ’90s, Ryder acts as a mentor to the li’l Stranger Things kids. Both Ryder and Wolfhard’s When You Finish Saving the World director, Jesse Eisenberg, have helped Wolfhard grow up on camera. Wolfhard had a panic attack while filming Saving the World, and Eisenberg talked him down in the same way director Greg Mottola had on the set of Adventureland. “It just changed my life,†Wolfhard said, “because I was able to take my anxieties more seriously and realize that it’s okay to feel that stuff in a professional setting.â€