The speculation began after Priah — who plays sharp-tongued teenager Erica Sinclair — appeared on the Fox 11 Los Angeles series The Sit, where she opened up about her first “big” Hollywood audition. During the interview, she recalled crying afterward because she found the casting director, whom she didn’t name, “intimidating.”
“It was really intimidating,” she said. “The casting director was really intimidating, and I’m sensitive, so she kind of hurt my feelings a bit.”
However, when the clip was shared on TikTok, it was edited to appear as if Priah was talking about Winona. A user posted the clip alongside the caption, “Priah Ferguson reflects on when she overheard Winona Ryder telling the Duffer brothers she wants ‘less scenes with Priah’ because she thinks her Instagram posts are ‘too revealing.'”
The video quickly went viral, racking up nearly 200,000 likes and sparking response videos from other TikTok users that amassed more than 800,000 combined views. But Priah was quick to deny the claim.
“This is not true!” she wrote in the comments. “Winona is one of the kindest people I’ve met!”
“It’s really sad that people will edit an interview of me that has no correlation to what this caption says,” Priah continued. “Please leave Winona alone!”
She also said, “I usually ignore stuff like this but I’m not going to let anyone come for Ms.Winona❤️.”
Priah also addressed the rumor on Instagram after a fan commented on one of her latest photos, “Winona Ryder really said she wants less screen time with you bc of your IG photos?” She replied, “That’s not true. She never said that.”
“Winona has been one of the most kindest people I’ve ever met since I’ve been working in this industry,” Priah added. “They twisted this narrative from an Interview I did with The Sit in LA.”
Winona has not publicly addressed the rumor, but BuzzFeed has contacted her reps for comment. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts below.
