Winona Ryder was a punk rocker! A photo of a 13-year-old Winona emerged last week that showed the actress as a punk. And she’s not the only Hollywood star who went through a dark style phase before becoming famous. From Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks to Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy, see more stars who were goths or punks.
Getty Images (3); AP Photo (bottom left)
Winona was a punk rocker! A photo of an eighth-grade Winona Ryder at Petaluma Junior High School in Petaluma, Calif., emerged last week, showing the actress in the midst of a punk style phase. Her short, spiked hair, metal chain, and black shirt remind us more of Good Charlotte than, say, the Ramones, but you have to admire her spunk. With Winona having LSD advocate Timothy Leary for a godfather and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg as a family friend, however, perhaps her teenage rebel streak isn’t such a surprise.
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Bridesmaids star “Missy McCarthy,” as she apparently was known in high school, was voted both “most punk” and “most changed” in high school for her amazing transformation from preppy Catholic school cheerleader to full-blown punk. The actress relived her high-school style phase during an interview with Anderson Cooper, where the CNN host dug up old photos of the star pre- and post-transformation. “Yeah, like in one summer I played tennis, I was on student council, I was a cheerleader. Then like the next, I think it was like the next year ... [I had] blue-black hair that I’d shave in patches,” McCarthy divulged.
Combat boots? Leather jacket? Shaved head? Check, check, and check in this photo of a high-school-age Christina Hendricks. The Mad Men actress shared this photo of herself during an appearance on Ellen and confessed, “If I went to my high-school reunion nobody would recognize me. I was a bit of a misfit in high school. What you can’t see in this picture is that the back of my head is shaved.” It’s hard to imagine the woman who plays sultry Joan Holloway as a “misfit,” but Hendricks has no regrets about her dark style past. “I tried to set myself apart and it ended up with multicolored hair. It was how I was expressing myself and I’m happy about it—I look at that picture and think, she’s cute.”
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Along with Christina Hendricks, Cate Blanchett proves that even the classiest ladies in Hollywood sometimes have dark, angsty pasts. The Lord of the Rings star told Stylelist about her youth and her “gothic phase.” “Back then, I’d go to bed with my makeup on if I’d been out. And I went through a big gothic phase, so my pillow was always covered in black mascara and white pancake makeup.” Unlike Hendricks however, Blanchett isn’t exactly proud of her younger self’s style choices. “Well, it’s not that cool in retrospect, and I’m definitely more careful now about removing it,” she said.
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Dream House actress Rachel Weisz looked fashionably unhappy in this photo taken during her days at Cambridge University, when she apparently rocked dark makeup and messy hair. Though the Academy Award–winning actress eventually ditched the dour style phase, she broke out her old lipstick (and a smile) for her look at the 2009 Costume Institute Gala.
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British bombshell Elizabeth Hurley looks like a long-lost member of the Cure in this photo from Brighton, England, in 1983. With her Robert Smith–esque tendrils of peroxide blonde hair and an enormous nose ring, one wouldn’t guess she’d later turn out to be the ultimate temptress in 2000’s Bedazzled.
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Though Jennifer Aniston was crowned the No. 1 Hottest Woman of All Time by Men’s Health magazine last year, she has admitted that, as a teenager, she was so self-conscious about her looks that she hid behind goth makeup for years. She told InStyle magazine, “I was a dumpy teenager. My mom was a model and all about looks, so I rebelled by going goth. It took me years of peeling back the onion to finally stop using makeup as a mask and feel comfortable in my skin.”
It doesn’t get much more goth than Angelina Jolie at the 2000 Oscars, when she channeled Morticia Addams in a no-skin-showing Versace dress and jet-black hair down to her butt. Few people liked her red-carpet style, but Jolie made sure the dress was the least memorable part of her evening. Highlights include her making out with her brother James Maven in the press room and declaring during her acceptance speech, “I’m so in love with my brother right now. He just held me and said he loved me and I know he’s so happy for me.” Awkward.
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