Christina Ricci: Girl We Love

Q: On-screen, you often seem emotionally bruised, but determined never to break down or even be caught blinking back tears.

A: That's partly me. I laugh at everything. If anyone cries in front of me, I just laugh my ass off. It's horrible because people think I'm laughing at them. I can't help it. I have, like, a weird allergic reaction to people crying. It comes from my mother. I have two older brothers and one older sister and anytime any of us would fall down and hurt ourselves when we were little, my mother couldn't stop laughing. I think it's a nervous reaction.

Q: What movie besides The Ice Storm do you think does justice to teenage girls?

A: Fast Times at Ridgemont High was the most accurate. Jennifer Jason Leigh in that movie is so good--the most accurate thing I've ever seen.

Q: There was a rumor around New York that you would have done The Diary of Anne Frank onstage if Natalie Portman didn't.

A: I hate live theater. Oh God, I would never do that play. I would just hate myself. [The real] Anne Frank was a victim, not a martyr--she was an incredible person. But they make her a poor, weak martyr every time they portray her. It makes me nauseous. Suffering for something does not make you a good person. Smart people don't suffer for things. They get what they want the right way.

Q: Why don't we blast or confirm the rumors that you were up for Jurassic Park, Batman & Robin and Lolita?

A: I met Steven [Spielberg] for Jurassic Park and at that time, they were going to have the boy be older, but with a younger girl. I would love to have played Batgirl because then I could kick the shit out of people, but I'd also have had to say, "Fuck you--I'm not saying some of these lines." With Lolita, the first time, I was too "healthy," then "too heavy," then, in the middle of my anorexia, Adrian Lyne called me back and said I was "emaciated." The next time he called me back, he said I was "uncastable," and when he wanted to see me again, I said, "I'm not going there a fourth time, just so I can get fucked with." I was "too short and too young" for William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and I wanted that movie so badly it hurt. I'm very competitive. I know it's gauche, but I can't help it. I don't do anything really horrible, I don't actively hate other actors, but I'm always counting movie credits, making sure that I've done more than someone else has. I just want to be the best at something. I don't care what it is. In the back of my mind, I'm always going, "Am I better?" As if that really matters and as if it can be measured, anyway.

Q: Does it mess at all with your head knowing stuff like Natalie Portman turned down the role you eventually played in The Ice Storm?

A: Happens all the time. Usually, I do get the things that Natalie turns down. And I understand it's because her parents think it's subject matter she shouldn't go near. With me, my mother knows that there's no way I'm going to say no to something because of subject matter. She's given up at this point trying to control me in any way. Besides, my mother actually loves that kind of stuff in movies. I mean, to me, nothing, short of Nine 1/2 Weeks, is off-limits. I've dealt in movies now with a lot of sexual stuff, which I love. My mother knows that I don't go, "This is my identity. Being sexy is the only way I can get ahead as a woman."

Q: You appear to be making interesting choices in movies, not taking the boy-girl romance stuff, staying away from seemingly "surefire" stuff.

A: I hate lovey-dovey, boy-girl stuff. I like the sexier stuff I'm doing, though. It's just a riot, to me. I mean, The Opposite of Sex is, like, all about my cleavage, basically. The "voice" [Don Roos] wrote for my character, the tone, the attitude, were perfect for me. Finally, I get to say the stuff in movies that no one ever lets me say, all the stuff I get yelled at by my publicist for saying.

Q: Hasn't your agent or manager advised you to do some bigger, more commercial movies once in a while?

A: Are you kidding? I would love to make some money. I mean, these independent movies--they don't pay so good. My dream is to be in some big, futuristic action movie like Alien.

Q: I'm guessing you're pretty relieved at having put behind you some of those not-so-hot movies most kid actors have to make when they're in that in-between stage.

A: I wish Gold Diggers could be deleted. That's sort of horrible. That Darn Cat was another one I'd like to delete. Hey, I needed the money.

Q: Ever had a really good screen kiss?

A: Jared Leto [in High Kings] was probably the very best. Elijah wasn't bad [in The Ice Storm], except Ang didn't like the way we were kissing during the first take and he came over to Elijah and said, "Less biting action." I was, like, "You cannot say that to a teenage boy!" It was so funny. My, though, I've had my share recently, haven't I? I've gotta say I've never had a crush on a costar. Except for Raul [Julia on The Addams Family]. He was so magnetic and warm, I felt so loving toward him. I wanted to marry him. I only understand little girls wanting to marry their fathers because of meeting Raul.

Q: From what I hear, you tend to show up now and then at parties and clubs.

A: Oh, my God. We cause scenes at those places. It's so horrible. I'm very bad at being really fake.

Q: You love to play with people's heads, don't you?

A: I just think it's funny. I love it when people expect you to act one way and you're totally another. There are times when I meet these supercool, hot young actors, right? They expect every girl to flirt with them and, even if I'm really attracted to them, as a rule, I will always snub a really good-looking actor. Just on principle. It doesn't matter, because they have tons of women falling all over them anyway. Most actors are kind of boring. You have to be so self-involved to be an actor that I couldn't deal with that. I mean, if there were two of us being self-involved and really competitive, it would never work.

Q: Are you lucky in love?

A: I'm pretty sensible, but I always end up going out with guys who later tell me that they're gay. Isn't that weird? [Laughing]

Q: What are you up to now, workwise?

A: I've got my own production company and we have this great script called Westland. We're not affiliated with a big studio. In fact, the only kind of deal that I'd make would be with someone like October Films, because they make the kind of movies I want to make.

Q: What are you wishing for currently?

A: That I continue to work and work for years. That people understand that I'm not really obnoxious and full of myself--or maybe I am, which is why I'm so paranoid about people thinking that. I always worry that I say things that only sound sarcastic in print, when I'm not really serious, I'm just having fun.

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Stephen Rebello interviewed Kate Winslet for the March 98 issue of Movieline.

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