Winona Ryder in Stranger Things.

“My 30s were a little bit tough,” she told reporters at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.

Ryder was infamously arrested for shoplifting in 2001, and she took a hiatus from acting.

“But the last few years, I did a few things I was proud of,” she told the press.

Winona Ryder with ex Johnny Depp in 1990.Source:Getty Images

Ryder said she was pleased with her role in HBO’s miniseries Show Me a Hero. She’s now starring in her first full TV series, Stranger Things on Netflix.

Stranger Things explores the story of a young boy who vanishes under suspicious circumstances in the 1980s while his mother, played by Ryder, opens an investigation into his disappearance.

“I adjusted my perspective and used my own confusion to try to figure what was going on for my character,” she said. “The reaction has been completely overwhelming in the best possible way. I don’t think I was expecting it.”

Ryder said she felt compassion for her character, Joyce.

“I did see her as someone who wasn’t perfect,” she explained. “She was complicated, struggling. She carried a lot of guilt that she was leaning on her older son. Like a lot of women I know, she was trying the best she can to get by. I appreciated her flaws … [And] she reacts quite appropriately to these insane things that are happening.”

Ryder has been in showbiz since the mid-‘80s. She said young actors today should appreciate the work they are doing.

“The work is the reward,” she said. “The attention and the love is so great. I want everyone to feel it and savour it, and they so deserve it. But also remember the work itself.”

Stranger Things is now streaming on Netflix.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission.