Ailing Ryder Drops Out of Film
August 23 -- An unspecified "stomach bug" has sidelined Winona Ryder, whose role in the indie Lily and the Secret Planting must now be recast, the film's London production office confirmed to Mr. Showbiz today.
The British press had already been buzzing about the actress's "mystery illness," after she was reportedly rushed to a private London hospital for a battery of tests.
In a joint statement from the actress and the film's production office, producer Sarah Radclyffe says, "We are obviously very disappointed. Winona has been so passionate about this project, and we wish her all the best."
The statement confirms Ryder's hospitalization in London and noted that although she has since been released, the "anticipated recovery period would preclude her continued involvement" with the film.
Ryder also expressed her disappointment, saying, "I fell in love with this script as soon as I read it, and was really looking to working with [director] Hettie Macdonald. I hope to find an opportunity to work with them in the future."
Ryder was to have played the title role of Lily, a claustrophobic London girl who finds romance through gardening, opposite Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, of the Oscar-nominated film Amores Perros.
Britain's The Sun reports that at Ryder's last public appearance, at the London post-premiere party for Planet of the Apes, she looked "shaky and nervous [and] was sweating profusely as she chain-smoked in a corner of the party's VIP section all evening."
An unidentified "friend" told The Sun, "We are all concerned about her health. She has been pretty secretive about what is wrong with her. … She has been feeling ill for some time and she needs to slow down and think about her health."
Ill health also forced the delicate actress to bow out of 1990's The Godfather, Part III. That recasting went down in movie history after director Francis Ford Coppola chose his inexperienced daughter, Sofia, to take Ryder's place in his crime saga.
While doing press for the mental-institution drama Girl, Interrupted, Ryder revealed that she had her own brief stay in an institution after breaking up with beau Johnny Depp. "I was working constantly. I didn't take any time off. When I did, I was really stressed out. … I really thought I was losing my mind. I became a terrible insomniac," she told Vogue in a 1999 cover story.
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