While watching Juno Temple's exquisite performance in Alexandre Aja's new fantasy/horror/comedy Horns, a name popped into my head: "Winona." In the film, Temple is an angelic and ideal human with a hint of darkness, not unlike the character Winona Ryder played in Edward Scissorhands. Nursing my opinion is the Burton-esque nature of the movie itself, an at times grisly fairytale about an outcast named Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) who's accused of murdering his girlfriend Merrin (Temple) and then sprouts horns on his head that work as a truth serum to almost everybody he encounters. One by one, friends, family, and, strangers start spilling their most sinful desires to him. Horns is absurd and its tonal variation abrupt enough to exhilarate or infuriate, depending on your taste (it's rare to see a movie that's so uproariously hilarious and gruesome).

I don't mean to pigeonhole Temple—I only mean to convey the surge of admiration I felt for this actor while watching Horns by comparing it to that which I had while watching peak Winona. Besides, it would be useless to even attempt to put Temple into any box, because at 25 with more than 30 films under her belt, she is thriving on variety. The British actor (and daughter of director Julien Temple) has played a fairy (Maleficent), a stripper (in Jill Soloway's Afternoon Delight), Anne of Austria (The Three Musketeers), Jane Parker (The Other Boleyn Girl), a rape survivor (Atonement), a schizophrenic American tourist in Chile (Magic Magic), and a Southern simpleton (Killer Joe).

"I knew her work, and I knew her from being very different," Aja told me by phone last week. "During [their first] meeting, I saw how sparkling, and charming, and ethereal, and unique, and kind of other-worldly she was. And I thought she was exactly the character as I was picturing Merrin. She's kind of this memory that you don't want to lose."

I talked with Temple this week in a suite at the Trump SoHo, where she was doing press for Horns. When I mentioned the taste of Winona that came to me when watching this performance and the surveying her bold film choices, she took it as the compliment that I intended it to be—she told me that she once told another interviewer that if she could have anyone's career, it would be Ryder's. We discussed Horns, Temple's onscreen sexuality (which accounts for a huge difference between her approach to her career and Ryder's), and fame. Toward the end, I slipped in a few questions from Rolling Stone's 1991 Winona Ryder cover story for the sake of comparison. A condensed and edited transcript of our conversation is below.

Gawker: This movie relies on its ability to make its audience fall in love with you. Were you aware of that? Was it your goal to seduce the audience?

I think it was more for me that I was really invested in the relationship between Merrin and Ig. I really wanted that to feel like it was a true love affair, so I spent a lot of time with Dan. Me and him kicked it a lot trying to get to know each other, so it felt like we'd known each for a while and felt safe together. 'Cause that's the way the relationship works on camera. You have to feel safe. You have to feel close with somebody. So that was key. I think Alex Aja definitely lit me specifically. They did that to try to make me look as angelic as possible. I need all the help I can get.

You've been nude onscreen before, you've talked about it. Is there anything liberating in being sexual onscreen, as you are especially in the love scene in this movie?

As a woman, I think it's hard sometimes being naked on camera because you do get penalized a bit for it. But being sexualized, as long as it's seen in the right way in a love-making scene—making love is really sexy. And I think it's important that there's a difference between that scene between Merrin and Ig, and then later on the scene in the forest, where it's a fucking destructive, horrible scene.

It's a rape scene.

Rape and murder, and just... ugh. I think you treat it like you would if you were in love with somebody. Sex scenes are weird to shoot, in general, because they're boring and very technical. But I got on so well with Dan, we had a laugh about it, and I think you sometimes allow yourself a shot of whiskey to do something like that (laughs). But they kinda don't faze me. I think the most nervous I've ever been shooting a movie was shooting a gun at the end of Killer Joe. That shit fucking threw me for a loop.

Because it was an actual gun?

Yeah. You fire blanks, obviously. I'm an English girl who grew up pretending I lived in the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland—my own fantasy world. The idea of holding something that could actually take someone's life—I don't want to play God, never have. Never interested in that. That to me is way scarier than showing a bit of nipple.

You mentioned possibly being penalized for being sexual. It seems like you're aware of that, but not afraid of it.

No. Fuck that. I think America can be a little frustrating about nude scenes. Making movies is about showing all different things, but America embraces violence more than it does nudity. Sometimes I get very frustrated about that. I feel very European about that. You can sunbathe topless on the beach in Europe.

Well, it's very hypocritical, too. There's a clear fascination with sex in our culture, but also shame about it, and that gets taken out on other people, especially women.

What annoys me sometimes is how instead of embracing female sexuality, it gets abused. You use a hot, sexual girl in a way that isn't done beautifully. It's unusual to not enjoy sex, to not enjoy being sexual, to not enjoy that part of life, because it's such a liberating and magical thing. But weirdly, showing it on camera, it can be done so wrong, and that's something I'm afraid of. I don't ever want to be shown as a hot piece of ass. I'll take my clothes off if it's valid for the scene, if it's important, if it's a love-making scene. I think sometimes being naked on camera can be very vulnerable, and that really works for a scene, too. But I think there has to be meaning behind it. I'm not a girl that's just like, "Woo hoo! I'm an exhibitionist."

You've said, "I like to play women who have something going on." Is selecting roles a political act for you?

I'm definitely interested in playing interesting female characters, absolutely. I like the idea of playing characters that I'm not going to judge. I've played characters that are quite unforgiving, ones that you don't ever really like, so I don't mind that. I think the big thing for me is I like a challenge, but I also have to trust my director. You have to have somebody who's got your back.

The conventional wisdom is that there are no strong roles for women, but this doesn't seem to have been a problem for you.

I think it comes and goes in waves. I think at times there are such amazing roles for young women. I also think of my age group, there is such amazing talent. So it's exciting, that in itself, that even if you're not working, you're excited to go see what else is being portrayed out there. I'm so inspired by so many of the girls my age, like Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence, Carey Mulligan. These women, who are so fucking brilliant at what they do, you learn from.

Do you feel a sense of competition with any of the actresses you named?

Not really, because the thing that makes sense to me is when you see a film that you loved but maybe auditioned for and it didn't go your way, when you see it, it always makes sense why you weren't cast. The women I named, I really, really so admire what they do. I think things happen for a reason. It doesn't mean I don't get sad when I don't get a role. Absolutely, I'd be heartbroken, but I think that's also because I care.

Do you care about box office?

Not at all, actually. It's embarrassing sometimes when people will be like, "Oh that movie was a complete failure." Was it? I went to see it. Maybe I should [care]. Maybe that would be savvier. But for me it's all about the work. Of course it's sad sometimes when you do these great independent films that nobody sees that you're really proud of and that people fought tooth and nail to get made, and fought tooth and nail to make. You really sweat and bleed for some of them and they don't have a life and that's sad. But I've never been interested in being a movie star. I want to be an actress. I want to do this forever. It's about the work for me. I understand that if box office can mean that you bring more money to movies, then I probably mean a whopping $12.

Do you think you missed anything by going into acting so young?

No. At one point, when I was at school I booked this quite big movie that I would have had to take a whole, as you guys say, semester off [for], and my parents were like, "It's not worth it. You're 17. Go to school." A big thing for me growing up was education. The one thing maybe is that I wanted to go to fashion school. I almost went twice and picked film over that. But I also think there's time for those sorts of things.

What's your relationship to fame?

It comes hand in hand with success. I wouldn't think of myself as famous. I get recognized sometimes, but it's very much like, "I've seen you before…have I?" "I don't know, maybe." And sometimes it's like (covers herself), "I don't know, maybe," while you're getting your cereal in Trader Joe's. Obviously, I want to work so I know that [fame] could happen, but at this point in my life I can still go in my dirty sweatpants to get milk around the corner. I'd like to keep it that way as long as possible.

[Image via AP]