The Role: More period work as Ryder’s career began to blossom and she snagged parts for the best directors. Scorsese this time, and the adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel.
 
She gets to play the wronged society woman as her fiancee (Daniel Day-Lewis) falls in love with another (Michelle Pfeiffer). The cad! Ryder’s performance won her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nod.
 
Ryder Trivia: She’d clearly done her research… Well, she wrote a book report about the novel in school when she was a teenager.