Christina Ricci: Girl We Love

Q: Do you ever find it weird having to deal with actor-related problems such as getting as good a deal as another actor, when there's already plenty of just plain growing-up stuff to deal with?

A: I couldn't stand dealing with just growing-up stuff. I hated being home, where I was bored out of my mind. I was bored in school, too, because I felt useless and I wanted to have a job. I was a constant troublemaker. I used to provoke bullies or anybody into getting mad at me. Like, I was really good at provoking people into shoving me into bookshelves. I wouldn't fight back at all. I loved it because I loved getting the attention of later going, "Look at what he did to me! I don't know why he did that." I was a horrible, horrible beast.

Q: Fit only for the soundstage, then.

A: Well, as soon as I started working, I got attention and I was doing something instead of just wasting time. For some people, acting and the stuff that goes with it are probably torture. I needed it, really needed it.

Q: Imagine yourself if you hadn't found acting.

A: If I hadn't gone into acting, I would have been one of those weird runaways on Hollywood Boulevard--drugged out all the time, arrested, probably in jail. I'd be a gangsta. No, it'd be uglier. I'd probably be dead.

Q: Didn't you and Macaulay Culkin go to the same school at one point?

A: Yes. For him, acting is kind of abusive. Not because of the work, but because of the press. He couldn't come to school sometimes because there'd be six press crews waiting. This poor kid wasn't doing anything that was warranting that kind of attention. It was like he was being punished for something. Now, I don't get that at all-- people don't even recognize me.

Q: You've never been accosted by some goth kid who's pathologically fixed on you as his or her ideal?

A: For one day, I had a weird stalker when I was doing John Waters's movie Pecker in Baltimore. I was, like, Yes!, finally I have a stalker. What happened was, we were shooting too near a methadone clinic or something, and this guy just came over to me and was like, "Uh, yeah, I'll follow her around all day." It had nothing to do with me. In the movie, I play Eddie Furlong's girlfriend, but what was especially exciting was that two people I love--Martha Plimpton and Lili Taylor--are in it.

Q: What was John Waters like to work with?

A: John loves filmmaking and doesn't get to do it that often, so he was very serious, wanting everything to be perfect. I sleep in between takes. I mean, I'd just go in a trailer and sleep all day long. But John wouldn't let me do that, so I'd just curl up on the set and go to sleep. He was all nervous, like, "What's she doing? Wake her! You have to shoot in 10 minutes and you have to have energy!" I'm like, "Yeah, but I'm about to fall asleep. If I don't sleep now, I'm going to fall asleep in the middle of the scene." I think it'll be a good movie.

Q: How was it working on Terry Gilliam's sex-and-drugs-and-rock-and-roll movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro? Nightmare stories came back from that set.

A: I was only on it five days. I know, schedulewise, it was a nightmare. The only nightmare for me was doing exteriors in Vegas because it was so goddamn hot. The proof that we live in a masochistic society is that Las Vegas is the fastest-growing city in America.

Q: I understand there's heat in your scenes in the movie.

A: It was a very intimidating set to be on. I have three scenes in the movie. In one at an airport, Benicio is trying to convince my character to have sex with him, even though she's only 14. She's a painter who paints portraits of Barbra Streisand. He gives her acid and he's sitting there with only a blanket on and she's tripping. Johnny's character is afraid they're going to get busted, so they get rid of me, figuring I'll just get raped by horny businessmen who'll give me more drugs.

Q: And your costars?

A: Benicio's so out-there in a really good way. They wanted me to do improv and I'm, like, "Improv? I'm an actor--write me lines." But Benicio would whisper things for me to do, like, "Grab my beard!" and I loved him because he totally controlled me. I was right there with him. I'd met Johnny when I was doing Mermaids and he was with Winona [Ryder] at the time. I was nine years old and didn't know what "gay" was and, when I asked Winona, she said, "I can't tell you, ask Johnny." Johnny explained how there were different theories about why people were gay, what it was to be gay, and--this is what I couldn't figure out--how gay people have sex. He was amazing like that. Eight years later, I'm going into rehearsal on Fear and Loathing and he remembered me, our discussions and my mother, Sarah. He said to her, "Hi, Sarah, how are you?" and asked about my brothers. He was really sweet, kind and gentle.

Q: You've worked alongside Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen and Kevin Kline in one movie alone, Anjelica Huston in four, one in which she directed you. Ever get really good advice from any of these powerful actors?

A: Well, everyone on The Ice Storm was kind of isolated from each other, in their own world. Doing press for the movie, though, I got to see more of Sigourney and, wow, she is just the bomb. Very powerful. Anjelica Huston is a really kind woman. I didn't know anything about concentration on a movie set and I couldn't understand why everyone was being so fucking quiet with her. Once, when they were going to shoot a close-up of Anjelica, the kid who played Pugsley was banging something on a table, just being a normal 10-year-old, and she said, "Jimmy, I need you to stop," and then explained concentration to all of us. I thought, "I'm going to try that." I did, and you know what? It helps a little.

Q: Since you say you learn by osmosis, I suspect you've had the chance to learn how to play the diva.

A: I know how to throw a good fit, yeah. But I'm saving it for sometime when it really matters and for someone who really needs to be punished. One of the most amazing shows of power I've ever seen was Cher. She has power not as a star but as a person. What she wants usually makes total sense. She used to hide me in her trailer when she had meetings with the producers of Mermaids. She wanted me to hear what was going on when she was setting everybody straight. She tells them what she wants and why, then what they should do and exactly what she's going to do if they don't do it. That wasn't celebrity power, it was coming from her brain.

Q: Some actors describe your director on The Ice Storm, Ang Lee, as tough but worth it. What's your take?

A: Ang wouldn't come over and talk with me very much--a word or two and that was it. If he wanted me to be in a certain place, he'd just physically move me there. I appreciated that so much. It's a lot better than the director who comes over and talks with you for, like, a half hour when after five minutes, I'm like, "You are just so full of shit. I have no idea what you're saying. I hate you." But Ang was perfect, and every morning, he'd give me a hug.

Q: You're not shy about disagreeing with directors. You reportedly put Barry Sonnenfeld in his place on The Addams Family, and also a producer on Gold Diggers. Do you think you're too smart for the room?

A: Only sometimes. And that's very frustrating. If I'm in an argument, not just on a movie, I want to be, like, "I'm smarter than you and I know it, so you can shut up now because you're wrong." A lot of times, though, I really do feel like an idiot. Am I really smarter or am I just imagining things? On Gold Diggers, I got this whole "You must bind your breasts because you look too mature" thing and it was gross. I don't think the producer had talked to many teenage girls. It made me feel like there was something wrong with me. But it was necessary, and you just have to be able to separate yourself from it, and tell yourself, There's nothing wrong with me, it's just that breasts are not appropriate for this role. After the initial shock, I laugh at shit like that.

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