Haunted Mansion Director Explains Winona Ryder’s Cameo

Haunted Mansion is now playing in theaters, and the Disney film features many big stars. LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, and Jamie Lee Curtis round out the main cast but there are also some fun cameos. The movie features an appearance by Winona Ryder, who is no stranger to spooky stories. From Beetlejuice to Stranger Things and many iconic performances in between, Ryder was the perfect person to show up in Haunted Mansion. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director Justin Simien spoke about Ryder’s fun role in the film. 

“We kidnapped her. We told her that she was shooting Beetlejuice 2, and she just went with it for a while until she caught on,” Simien joked. “Carmen Cuba, the casting director, myself, and the studio were really enamored with this idea of plugging in classic faces in these cameo roles, and it just felt so right that she’d be the tour guide at the end of the movie,” Simien explained. 

He added, “She was just so delightfully weird and funny in her performance, and it was a super magical time having her on this project.” 

Justin Simien on Tim Burton’s Haunted Mansion Influence:

It’s no surprise that Simien wanted Ryder in the movie considering he has said Beetlejuice director Tim Burton served as an influence while making the film. Haunted Mansion takes place in the present day, but you may have noticed from the trailers that the characters’ costumes feel like they’re from another time. While chatting with Simien, we asked the director about the classic looks, and he explained the movie’s unique costume choices. 

“Well, I really wanted the movie to feel timeless,” Simien explained. “When I watch a movie like Clue or I watch a movie like Little Shop of Horrors, which I know technically takes place in the ’50s, or I watch Ghostbusters or Tim Burton, late ’80s, early ’90s Tim Burton especially, you have no sense of when these movies take place. You know it’s modern times because people act and talk like regular people do. But costume-wise, the car, it’s an amalgamation. And it’s sort of like, Hitchcock kind of invented this thing where you live in a movie world and it sort of allows you to give yourself over to the fantasy just a little bit more. And so that was definitely a philosophy that I came into it with.”

You can watch our interview with Justin Simien at the top of the page. 

Haunted Mansion is now playing in theaters.