Much of the inspiration for this film—in which Ryder portrays a psychologically fragile woman whose parents send her to a psychiatric hospital—was drawn from Ryder's personal experience during her own breakdown in 1990.

Recently, Ryder starred opposite Richard Gere in the romantic drama, Autumn in New York (2000), in which she played a dying young woman, and Janusz Kaminski’s Lost Souls. Michelangelo Antonioni’s romantic drama Just to Be Together is scheduled for release in 2001.

Ryder has been romantically linked to actor Johnny Depp, to whom she was engaged for three years. Depp tattooed “Winona Forever” on his arm (since then it has been partially removed so that it now reads, “Wino Forever”). After her heavily publicized breakup with Depp, she dated David Pirner, the lead singer for the rock group Soul Asylum, from 1993 to 1996. She began dating actor Matt Damon in 1998 after the two met at a New Year’s Eve party. Ryder and Damon broke up in the spring of 2000.