We’re in the midst, it seems, of another Christina Ricci renaissance. The cyclical nature of the 42-year-old’s career reflects her ability to consistently subvert Tinseltown’s expectations with her choice of roles. The complex characters whom Ricci inhabits on screen—villain, hero, antihero, and all the gray areas in between—display an immense amount of range. Even at the start of her career, it always seemed as if Ricci’s characters, from the murderously misanthropic Wednesday Addams in 1991’s The Addams Family to the amiable, altruistic Kat in Casper, were effortlessly traversing a moral tightrope.
Soon, Ricci will return to The Addams Family universe, playing a character shrouded in mystery, in Tim Burton’s Wednesday, coming to Netflix this fall. She will also expound upon her twisted character Misty, for which she recently received an Emmy nomination, in the second season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, which begins shooting later this summer.
Recently, I spoke with Ricci about the success of Yellowjackets, reuniting with Burton 23 years after Sleepy Hollow, and the trajectory of her career from child actress to Hollywood veteran.
Congratulations on your Emmy nomination for Yellowjackets.
Thank you! Thank you.
The duality of your character, Misty, and the ability to switch to the dark side and back on a whim was very impressive. What drew you to script?
I’m always interested in playing things that I haven’t seen before. Doing a version of something that’s new. And so when I read the script, I loved how specifically written Misty’s character was. She only had that one scene in the pilot, but what she does in that scene implies so many other things. So the idea of taking that character and extrapolating from that scene, I just felt like she was going to be such a fun, challenging, interesting character. And she proved to be.
The kind of methodology that actors follow is an oft-debated subject. Do these primal, explosive moments that you have as Misty draw from a particular technique?
Oh, God, I would never be able to tell you that. It’s such a weird, completely internal [thing]. Every actor works in a different way. Everybody is different in the way that they conjure those things. I didn’t go to any school for acting or do any kind of training to become an actor, so I don’t really have any kind of name for it, really. [As a child], it was a lot of just learning as you went. And for me, I just take the script and I figure out a way to deliver what needs to be delivered.
Despite the dark subject matter of Yellowjackets, it seems like it would be a really fun set with this particular cast and crew involved.
Yeah. It’s such an incredible group of actresses, and I felt so lucky to be working with all of them. We didn’t always work together is the thing. I think I only had one day when I worked with Melanie [Lynskey] and Tawny [Cypress], but we were all very much in touch behind the scenes and involved in what was going on with each other and the show.
How did Samantha Hanratty, who plays the younger Misty, approach the role?
Each actress handled their situation differently. For me, Sammy and I really just met for lunch and discussed how she was going to play the character and how I was going to play it. Different references we’ve been given, different things we’ve been watching—all that kind of stuff.
What can we expect from the upcoming second season?
I’m really excited to find out myself! I haven’t read any scripts or anything yet. We don’t shoot until the end of the summer, so I would imagine sometime before then, we’ll start seeing probably at least the first two [scripts], maybe.
This year is the 25th anniversary of Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm. What impact do you think the film has had on you and your career?
The Ice Storm had a huge impact on me and my career. It was the first movie I did that really reflected my personal taste in film—when independent film started to become the real thing and the kind of things I would have wanted to be a part of. And it was such an incredible taste of that kind of world, of the film world with the level of talent, I got to work with. So it was really impactful. And then the movie was so wonderful that I’ve always been really proud of it.
My siblings and I would always call each other “Charles” from The Ice Storm. We’d also always whisper, “Can I keep you?” from Casper, which has become a classic children’s film.
Aw, that’s sweet! How fun! I really loved being a part of that production. There were so many technical aspects to it that I found very fascinating and that I enjoyed being a part of, and that was challenging, and it was a very long production. So I always, as a kid, really loved working, and I was always sad when productions would end. So that was a really long one, which I liked because everybody got close on the crew, and it was just exciting and fun.
What is the secret, if there is any, to transitioning from a child star, for lack of a better term, to a successful actor as an adult?
I got really lucky that, at the time, when I was 15, 16, 17, it was when independent film was just about to turn into the huge thing that it did. And they wanted to cast teenagers to play teenagers, which they weren’t really doing before. So that was something relatively new. And I was perfectly positioned at that time as this teenager. [Former child stars] have been working forever and actually could help [filmmakers] finance their movies, because of the box office I had from Addams Family and Casper and all those movies. So it was a really good time for me in terms of just being in the right place at the right time. And that helped me build my career because all the independent films. They were all serious, adult, real acting jobs.
Even as a child, you seemed to have a great sense of what roles you wanted to choose.
There were certainly things that when I was younger that I chose not to do. And then it’s always been a situation where I’ve chosen based on the material more so than anything else.
And with the material, does it start with the script? Does it start with the character? Does it start with the director attached to the material?
It’s different for different projects. Some you do because you really want to work with a director. Some you do because you love the story or the subject matter or the script in general. Sometimes it’s a character you’ve always wanted to play or something you didn’t know you wanted to play. Like, “Oh, wow, that would be amazing. I’m so interested in who that [character] is.” But mainly what I do look for is playing characters that are really different than ones I’ve seen before. Having a different take on a character that I’ve seen before. I just try to do things that I think are interesting and different and challenging.
You’ve worked with so many talented directors in your career already. Who would you still like to work with?
I want to work with Ridley Scott really badly.
Would it matter which project?
No!
His range is astounding. How do you go from Alien to making Gladiator?
Right! Yeah, I know! I know.
Tim Burton’s Wednesday is coming out on Netflix this Fall. What was it like returning to the Addams Family universe for you?
It was fun! It was really nice. I was really happy to be asked to be a part of it.
The casting choices are great, especially Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, and Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams.
Yeah, I agree. [Luis] is a really good choice. Catherine Zeta-Jones is really incredible. I was in a lot of scenes with [Jenna], so I have witnessed [her performance] first-hand, and people are going to fall in love with her version of Wednesday. It’s a great modern take on the character.
You worked with Tim Burton on Sleepy Hollow in 1999. How was your reunion?
Oh, it was so great. It was amazing. Tim is such an incredible director and so creative and visionary and smart. And as an actor, you basically just do anything he tells you to because he’s so good and you just trust him so much. And it’s such a gift to be on one of his sets. He’s just continued to make movie after movie after movie that have been genius and amazing. And it was like being 10 again to work with him. He was incredible and inspiring.
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