Winona Forever | Winona-Ryder.org

Character: Rina

Directed by: David Seltzer

Written by: David Seltzer

Cast Members: Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen, Kerri Green

Release date: March 28, 1986

Genre: Family

A socially inept fourteen year old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends -- Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love -- fall for each other.

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Lucas is a promising kid, bright, inquisitive, knowledgeable, industrious, but for a boy aged 14 those qualities don’t count for much socially, his daily life in high school is a brave but hopeless struggle against cruel ridicule (nicknamed ‘leukoplakia’) and abuse on account of his frail figure, ‘miniature’ size and athletic ineptitude, while any demonstration of precocious erudition is frowned upon by his ignorant, dumber peers and seniors, fortunately with one remarkable exception: the studly football team captain, generally known as Cappie, gallantly protects the ‘shrimp’ and as soon as he gets to know Lucas appreciates his mind and courage, eager to learn from him. The arrival of an attractive new girl in his school and neighborhood proves a mixed blessing: Maggie becomes his best friend and companion, admiring his many talents, but inevitably she soon falls for Cappie the other way, so now his ‘big brother’ and protector seems little Lucas’s rival, however hard the hunk tries to stay friends…

Theatrical Trailer

Lucas was Winona Ryder’s screen debut. When she was screen tested for this movie, she had her hair dyed black as a form of teenage rebellion. She was asked to keep it black (she’s a natural blonde which you get to see in Edward ScissorHands) to fit the character. After that, she received more roles of dark haired “types”. It’s one of the reasons she’s stayed brunette all these years. It’s funny how it all started with a little rebellion when she was 13!

Lucas was filmed in Illinois, USA in Chicago, Glen Ellyn, Arlington Heights and Wilmette during the Summer of 1985. Writer/Director David Seltzer wrote Lucas based on rough notes he’d made for a story fifteen years earlier. The story was based on his own life growing up in the area that the movie was filmed in.

Ellen Degeneres was the other actress up for the part of Elise, which went to Courtney Thorne-Smith. Kirk Cameron was up for the part of Lucas.

Quotes: Character

• Ben: Did you hear about Lucas? It’s suicide!
  Rena: What do you mean?
  Ben: He’s gone out for the football team!
• Ben: Why’d Tragle have to kill himself and leave us with this jackass?
  Tonto: Sex-crazed, that’s why.
  Rena: He wasn’t sex-crazed! He was in love!
  Tonto: With a dental technician?
  Rena: Not everybody has to be beautiful to have someone fall in love with them.
  Tonto: You don’t kill yourself over a dental technician.
  Tonto: You ever hear of “Romeo and Juliet”?
  Tonto: Was she a dental technician?
  Rena: No, but people do kill themselves when they can have the one they love!

Promoting the Movie