Christina Ricci: The Most Original Young Actress in Hollywood

Q: Lately you've been looking very striking. You must be getting compliments.

A: I was in my car stuck in traffic waiting for the light to change when a guy next to me said, "Are you who we think you are?" I was like, "Probably." Another guy in the car said, "You're growing up beautifully. Want to go to the beach?" I said, "Well, no, not really." Later my boyfriend had a weird experience going with a friend of ours to rent a movie at a video store that's filled with sketchy characters. Just after our friend said to him, "You might not want to bring Christina here," two guys walked by and said, "I've rented every movie Christina Ricci's been in. When's she going to show her tits?"

Q: Do you ever think about what fans might do when they watch some of your videos at home?

A: That's so gross! The whole idea of someone I don't know doing weird things to pictures of me--so nasty. And I haven't done anything really gross in my movies--I'm not even that much of a sex symbol. Imagine what it would be like to be someone like Pamela Anderson.

Q: You've got a different kind of sex appeal than she does.

A: Yeah, dirtier.

Q: Ever had a weird experience with a fan?

A: In Toronto, some asshole, a creepy guy in a jogging outfit, followed me for seven blocks while I was walking my dog. Every time I stopped, he stopped. I started walking toward my hotel and tried to think, "Don't be paranoid. Maybe he's staying at the same hotel." But when I got to the hotel, I noticed him--and he was steadily coming toward me. When he was two feet away, I grabbed my dog and walked through the lobby, but I was afraid he was going to get on the elevator with me, so I started talking to someone at the front desk. Then the guy came right up to me and just stood there. I turned to him and said, "What the fuck are you doing?" He said, "Are you Christina Rich-y?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Can I have your autograph?" I just looked at him and said, "Is that why you've been following me like a fucking freak for the past seven blocks?" He said, "Uhh ... yeah ... sorry ... did that ... bother you?" He wouldn't leave so the man at the front desk called security.

Q: How do your siblings handle your growing fame?

A: I'm the youngest, so everybody's grown up already. My brothers, who've always been supportive, are much older. I'm very close to my sister, who's on my side. She hates the people I hate for the same reasons I hate them. She's actually more competitive than I am and says things like, "Why is she getting these parts? Didn't you go up for that?"

Q: Do you think you're getting a crack at the best material?

A: Mostly. The best material for me, yeah. Most of the material you get sent, though, isn't great. In fact, it's shit.

Q: Tell me about an especially shitty role you were offered.

A: All my lines were like, "I swallowed your cum and you won't let me sleep on your couch?" I was like, "Why would I ever do this? What makes you think I would actually allow myself to be a part of such a disgusting thing?"

Q: Why do you think people want to cast you so often as the dominatrix, the man-killer or the Lolita?

A: I don't really get it. I'm the furthest away you can be from any of that stuff. I mean, I do like spiky heels, until I remember how hard they are to walk in. Especially when I have to balance my gigantic head on my non-existent neck. [Laughs]

Q: With whom do you compete for roles?

A: When you get to this point, it becomes less competitive. It's a lot more competitive when nobody knows who you are and you go to auditions and see the same girls. It's like the [producers] are saying, "You're not individual enough as actors, so we're going to group you with every 14-year-old girl we've ever heard of."

Q: What's it like being with other actors who try to psych you out by mentioning how they've been out socially with the director or how they don't know what they'll do if they get the job because they're already booked?

A: I'm so bad because I see it and I think, instinctually, "I hate this person." Then I feel bad about hating them without really knowing who they are, so I try to be really nice to them. Then I become a victim of all that psyching out and I say to myself, "My God, they really are better than I am" when they're just talking complete shit.

Q: I ran into you here at the Chateau a few months ago and you and Norman Reedus had just met with Penny Marshall about doing a movie together. What happened?

A: I didn't get it, quite obviously. Norman was sweet. I'd met Penny Marshall when she was a producer on one of my finer movies, Gold Diggers. I thought the meeting this time went fine, but I didn't do it correctly. I was reading for the part of a teenage mother who's really fucked up on drugs. I tend to read seriousness into things, so I treated it as if it were, you know, reality, like this girl was really in pain. They were like, "You're supposed to be tough, funny--you don't let it get to you."

Q: What's been your ugliest casting experience in the past few years?

A: I went to audition for this director who did one movie that was really popular. He thought he was such a hot shit--really obnoxious. After I read for him, he said, "That was about a five. Why don't you give me a ten?" I should have gotten up and walked out, but I tried to give him a ten.

Q: So, despite how well things have been going for you, it's not like people are lining up to kiss your butt?

A: Nobody's kissing my ass, unfortunately. I could use a little. But then again, my personality isn't conducive to butt-kissing. People are a bit intimidated by me, especially the ones who tend to kiss ass. They don't even want to talk to me. But, of course, there are also times when you go in for a role and absolutely no one in the room knows you and you go, "Oh, OK, reality check."

Q: There are casting agents who don't know you?

A: Usually, when you're at a certain level, they have the courtesy to make sure you're the only person at the audition. Recently I went to one and there were a couple girls there. I just thought, "Well, that's a little strange, but I'm early." I'm looking at my lines when this guy comes out and says, "Hi, I'm Scott, the casting assistant. We're ready for you now." I said, "I'll be a minute," and he said, "No, no, no. They're ready for you now." I was like, "OK!" and he says, "I have to Polaroid you," and I'm like, "Polaroid me? Oh, OK." He's like, "What's your name again?" I told him, and he asked me to spell it, so I did, and then he asked me my height, weight, whether I had another number, who my agent was. I'm like, "I'm with Toni Howard at ICM," and he's like, "With a 'y' or an 'i'?" I tried to think that he was overworked and tired, but he just honestly didn't know who I was, that I've done 24 movies, whatever. I go in and the casting director said to the director, "Christina's done a lot of work" and he tells him what I've done. Then, they put me on tape, which they also don't usually do. I read the lines and the director said, "Do you want to get more angry? Maybe act out the scene?" I said, "No, actually, I don't. This is an audition. I'd be angrier if we were actually shooting." I should have said, "You're lucky I'm here. Fuck you."

Q: It seems that so many people in this business thrive on treating other people like crap.

A: Yeah, but if someone pisses me off, I'll do it, too. If I don't like a person, I'll give them the impression that I'm so far above them that I have no idea who they are. It's obnoxious, but I do it. I've sunk to that level, unfortunately.

Q: Let's talk about your films after Sleepy Hollow. Next you're making The Man Who Cried, which will be the third time you're working with Johnny Depp.

A: Really, three times? Oh, you mean because of my small role in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? I'd forgotten about that. Our working together so much is a fluke more than anything. But he knows he can stand working with me.

Q: What's the film about?

A: I play a Russian opera singer who goes out with a big opera singer played by John Turturro. Johnny plays one of the gypsies who takes care of the horses in the opera. I become romantically involved with him. Then the Germans come and I have to flee because I'm Jewish.

Q: Do you sing?

A: I never have before, but I will be singing in the movie.

Q: You just finished filming a small role opposite Kim Basinger in Bless the Child. Why did you do it?

A: The money. [Laughs] I shouldn't say that. Well, the money was great but it's also a really interesting script about the second coming of Christ. And all that stuff intrigues me. I like reading about saints and stuff.

Q: Would you ever like to play a saint?

A: Probably. Maybe Saint Christina, who was crazed and lived alone because she couldn't be around other people. She defecated all over the place. For some reason, though, she was a saint.

Q: When are you going to start filming Prozac Nation?

A: I'm supposed to do that after The Man Who Cried. We have a script and we're looking for a director. The only thing I really care about, besides it being a good story, is that the movie will make people understand what it's like to be clinically depressed, because most people who haven't experienced it don't really understand it. It's also a way for me to say, "See? This is what I meant"--the way anybody who's experienced [depression] wants to do. I really want to have it told and I know I can do it right.

Q: Thanks for not being the umpteenth actress to rave on about wanting to play a junkie.

A: [Laughs] Like heroin is so chic. Hey, I've read those scripts, too, but I don't find that kind of downfall romantic.

Q: How does it feel when Don Roos, with whom you're friends and who directed you in The Opposite of Sex, casts Gwyneth Paltrow in his upcoming film, Bounce, and doesn't ask you to join the party?

A: I'm really jealous. I mean, I've lived with Don. He even watched my dogs at Christmastime. I'm not old enough for that part, though. Still, I want it to be a horrible experience so that he misses me.

Q: Do you still hang out with Don?

A: Oh yeah. You know those fabulous Lifetime Original Movies? Love 'em, they're so good. There was this wonderful one Don and I watched together recently in a hotel in London. Joanna Kerns plays an alcoholic who had an abusive mother and the young Hilary Swank from The Next Karate Kid plays the 14-year-old daughter who beats up her little brother, who's like, 10 and keeps a flask of vodka under his pillow. It was the greatest movie I've ever seen. Don and I just laughed our asses off.

Q: Speaking of basket cases, do you ever feel sympathy for the has-beens profiled on "E! True Hollywood Story"?

A: Everybody unravels. There's just a lot more attention when somebody famous unravels. I have as much sympathy for them as I do for anybody who's had a nervous breakdown or becomes addicted to whatever. People tend to think that when you do that and you're an actor, you're really crazy. If a "normal" person does it, it's more accepted. Craziness and problems, don't come from this Industry. They come from life.

Q: Do you admit to any odd turn-ons?

A: I like the way my own feet smell. I love to smell my sneakers when I take them off. I think my feet smell like stale popcorn, but my boyfriend disagrees completely. He says they're just disgusting.

Q: Do you ever dream about having someone else's career?

A: Maybe Nicole Kidman's. She's an amazing actress, and she's done a good job of being a legitimate actress and starring in huge box-office successes. She carries herself in such a way that everyone respects her and sees her as smart and beautiful. That's hard to do.

Q: Ever fantasize about being out of the business entirely?

A: I've been working for a really long time now and supporting myself, but I'd love someone to take care of me. I could imagine myself as somebody's girlfriend who doesn't make movies. Or only does them every so often.

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Stephen Rebello interviewed Melissa Joan Hart for the August issue of Movieline.

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