Winona Ryder is downplaying the seriousness of her shoplifting incident fifteen years after it attracted the world’s attention.

Ryder reflects on the tough era in her life in her thirties and was detained at Saks Fifth Avenue in the newest edition of Porter magazine.

“Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop,” she told Porter magazine, “I won’t get into what happened, but it wasn’t what people think and it wasn’t like the crime of the century!”

“But it allowed me time that I really needed, where I went back to San Francisco and got back into things that… I just had other interests, frankly!”

Ryder was eventually found guilty of grand theft and vandalism in November 2002 after stealing over $5,500 worth of property. When she returned to acting a few years later, she told Porter that it was tough for her to shake the ’90s image she’d cultivated via previous film appearances.

She says, “People associated me with the 1990s, and I wasn’t that anymore. And they didn’t really buy me as my age..”

“It’s that line in First Wives Club — ‘There are three ages for women: babe, district attorney and Driving Miss Daisy!’ I just never got to play that district attorney.”

Ryder is now starring in the Netflix original series “Stranger Things.” She said that she spent the most of her time on set weeping.

“I was delirious!” the actress said after spending two months “basically crying every day.” “Because I’ve never been able to do that method thing, you know? I actually have to really cry.”

“I was talking to Keanu [Reeves], who I’ve known since I was 15, and we both felt so old-school. ‘Um, sorry, I need a second!’ Things move so fast now.”

Now that she’s back in Hollywood, the actress is reminiscing on her time away from the limelight. “People would tell me, ‘Oh you should be doing this, or that, and you have to keep working otherwise people will forget about you,’ but I learned to stop listening to those voices,” she recalls of her four-year absence from the entertainment industry. “You know, what’s great about getting older is you realize that other things are more important than this business! Time is just more precious now.”

Winona has already received tremendous accolades for her strong portrayal as Joyce in the new sci-fi series Stranger Things.

Nobody has applauded the award-winning actress’ efforts more than the Duffer Brothers, the show’s directorial combo.

“She hasn’t had a part like this before. She is a mother doing whatever she can to get her son back. She kicks a lot of asses. Winona was definitely excited by that and gave it 110 per cent,” they told Ed Power earlier this year.