Shoplifting arrest was 'best thing,' says Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder, who was arrested in December 2001 for shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, has finally opened up about her brush with the law and how it forced her to take a much-needed break from acting.

The 41-year-old actress told Interview magazine that she was headed towards the wrong direction for a long time and was struggling with the people's opinion of her, the Herald Sun reported.

The 'Heathers' star admitted that a lot of people think that the episode pushed her off in another direction, but that she was actually having trouble a few years before the incident even happened.

Ryder, who is currently starring in a new film 'The Iceman', said that a subsequent lack of job offers forced her to take time off from work, which she'd never though of before.

She asserted to the publication that the arrest was almost like the best thing that could have happened because she had never questioned herself if it was all right not to act, as that was all that she really knew.

She said she began to focus on her other interests.