There are so many reasons to love 18-year-old Christina Ricci besides the fact that she's exceedingly gifted. For example, she's willing to admit that she was a "horrible, horrible beast" as a child, that she has an allergy to people crying, that she has a therapist on each coast, and - best of all - that she likes to talk about herself.
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By the time Christina Ricci was 15, she had already starred in two blockbusters ( The Addams Family and Casper ), had held her own with Cher and Winona Ryder in Mermaids, had worked with Demi Moore and Melanie Griffith playing the young Rosie O'Donnell in Now and Then, and had survived a rough few years doing forgettable fare such as The Cemetery Club and Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain. Then, right when adolescence and Hollywood were both conspiring against her, as they do every child star eventually, she delivered a raw, piercingly sad, on-the-nose performance as a guarded, sexually curious, over-it teenager in Ang Lee's brilliant, angst-ridden The Ice Storm. Her touching, desperate, droll presence hinted troubling undercurrents that left one wondering what emotional rock Ricci had overturned to pull out all that darkness--and what she would do next.
Now 18, Ricci has embraced a sensibility that seems, when you think about it, not all that surprising for someone who played The Addams's beloved Wednesday with such mordant perfection. Alternating small roles in edgy, offbeat, independent movies with showpiece roles in equally edgy, offbeat, independent movies, she's proving unafraid to come off as sulky, smartened-up, sexually provocative and nobody's baby doll in films like The Opposite of Sex, director Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, director John Waters's Pecker and Buffalo 66.
Dressed in jeans and a silky shirt over an army camouflage combat T-shirt, Ricci strides in to our meeting at a swank Manhattan restaurant 40 minutes late. Her tardiness isn't unusual for an actor, but her excuse is.
STEPHEN REBELLO: I was about to send out the cavalry. Are you OK?
CHRISTINA RICCI: Yes, and I am so sorry to be so late, but you've got to hear this. See, I woke up a little late, and I was rushing around getting ready and my credit card slipped right into the toilet bowl. So, I was standing there in panic trying to decide what I was going to do. Should I wake my boyfriend? Should I just go ahead and flush the toilet, figuring the card was the wrong shape to get flushed? Should I just stick my hand in and get it? Such a dilemma.
Q: Well?
A: I woke my boyfriend up. He got my card.
Q: That's all that counts, then. So, let's get right to it: why do you think you act?
A: I guess because that's what I can do. Acting is what I was given. I don't have any training and I don't believe in training. Of course, people who don't have training always say that. It's like it's become programmed in me. On my first movie, when I was, like, nine, somebody said, "How do you know not to blink on-camera?" I was, like, "Oh, should I blink?" Almost instinctually, right from the first movie I made, I knew how to hit my mark every time. I love acting. Besides, I like the attention. I like going to photo shoots and having people dress me up and put makeup on me. I like having my picture taken. And I like talking about myself.
Q: Do you also like the auditioning and meetings for roles?
A: I'm very shy. I can't even act that well when the camera's not on. I get really embarrassed.
Q: Didn't you take a year and a half off from acting after Gold Diggers?
A: I guess you'd have to call it my "teenage awkward phase." I got ugly. People were just not having me. Of course, your attitude is reflected in the way you act. People would call my agents and say, "What's going on with her?" I thought I was really normal.
Q: You must have collected an all-time favorite list of reasons you got rejected for jobs.
A: Throughout my childhood, my favorite was: "She looks too healthy." They wanted that really gaunt, runaway girl kind of look. I was like, "Mom, I thought you could never be too healthy." She said, "Ignore them." [Now] they tell me I lose jobs sometimes because I don't come across as vulnerable. Well, people don't walk around being vulnerable all the time, in life or in movies.
Q: Did the rejection help you build your sad, needy, ferocious character in The Ice Storm?
A: That's how I think I got that job. Because I was just like that at the time. I feel like I've been playing different versions of that character forever, with different little twists, because that character is so much of who I was. At the time, I was in a really bad place. That depressed, that angry, that lonely. It was just a matter of perfect timing.
Q: Making that film couldn't have been a day at the beach--the subject matter alone was depressing.
A: It was anything but easy, but I know it was good for me. I liked the idea of all that angst, but once I was really in it, I thought, "Get me out of this hell."
Q: Don't underestimate your performance, though.
A: Thanks, but for years I hated myself. I covered the mirrors in my house. I literally couldn't have a mirror in my room. I still can't sit in a restaurant or someplace where I can catch my reflection. I get so paranoid. So, I understand all that in the movie. Now, though, I'm getting more comfortable. I never thought I'd be so comfortable with myself, my body. I mean, you know that I was anorexic for a year, right?
Q: No, I didn't.
A: I had a total backlash from that, and once I was over it I got really fat. If I wasn't in this business, what would all that matter? But with me it was like, "No, I have to lose this weight immediately because I have to work."
Q: You don't strike me as someone who has to fake anger.
A: [Laughing] I never lose touch with my anger. I have no idea what the real source is, but I'm always mad about something. It gets ridiculous at times. I have life rage. What am I going to do with it? I can't kick the shit out of someone. I can't yell or constantly be rude to people, because that's unacceptable. I have a therapist on each coast. I've had a problem with that, too, because I've had a different personality when I go to different ones. I've overcome that, though, because I really don't think that helps my therapy at all.[Laughing] I'd say that, deep down, I'm very disillusioned. I've been that way for a very long time. As much as I'm cynical, though, there's a lot of optimism in me--which pretty much assures that, over and over, I'm going to get disillusioned. [Laughing] But I have the ability to laugh at all this stuff.
Q: I sometimes think that growing up in the public eye is like being at ground zero on the toughest, meanest schoolyard on the planet.
A: Tell me. During that year and a half when I wasn't getting work, people would come up to me on the street and say, "Aren't you that girl from The Addams Family?" and when I'd say yes, they'd say, "You got big." What helped me was being able to step back and say, "Hey, if I wasn't an actress, this extra weight wouldn't be such a big deal. I'll get over this and it'll be OK."
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.
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.