BIOGRAPHY – Christina Ricci

Published on: 17th September, 2009

BIOGRAPHY - Christina Ricci  | read this item

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Few actresses have appealed to the alternative crowd in recent years more than Christina Ricci, the former child star of The Addams Family who transcended from the indie scene to the A-list in a succession of daring and interesting roles. Having co-starred alongside the likes of Johnny Depp, Cher, Michael J. Fox and Samuel L. Jackson, and for such renowned filmmakers as Tim Burton, John Waters, Terry Gilliam and Ang Lee, Ricci has produced a rich and varied body of work, never repeating herself and always catering to the alternative crowd. Having avoided most of the public pitfalls that young stars are vulnerable to, Ricci progressed through a variety of offbeat roles, only occasionally flirting with the mainstream, although her cult appeal has only grown from strength to strength.

Ricci was born on February 12, 1980, in Santa Monica, California, to a lawyer and former model. The youngest of four children, Ricci was first discovered at the age of seven at a school Christmas pageant, performing in a production of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Her mother was initially reluctant to introduce her daughter to the horrors of the industry, having been a Ford model as a child and witnessed the way some children are treated. Having auditioned but failed to land a role in Mary Lambert’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel Pet Sematary, Ricci would score her first movie at the age of nine alongside Cher, Winona Ryder and Bob Hoskins in the comedy drama Mermaids. The film would become a huge success, spawning a number one song and introducing the world to its young star.

Her next role would be less significant, as the daughter of Annabella Sciorra in John Badham’s action comedy The Hard Way. Paying homage to the ‘good cop, bad cop’ thrillers of the eighties, the movie would see tough detective James Woods on the trail of a serial killer, who is then reluctantly saddled with spoilt actor Michael J. Fox in an attempt to land him the role of a lifetime. In between the action, Woods is dating Sciorra, much to the disapproval of her overprotective daughter, Bonnie (Ricci). The movie would be a minor success, but had little impact on Ricci’s career. It would be her next role that would launch her to stardom and change both her life and career forever.

The Addams Family was the directorial debut of Barry Sonnenfeld, who had previously worked as a cinematographer for the Coen Brothers on their first three features. A big budget update of the cult show, the movie would see screen legend Raúl Juliá as Gomez Addams, with Anjelica Huston as his wife Morticia. Their two children, Pugsley and Wednesday, were played by Jimmy Workman and Ricci. Whilst her co-star would fail to launch his career on the back of The Addams Family, Ricci would immediately become an overnight sensation, thanks in part to her deadpan performance. After minor acclaim with her next project, The Cemetery Club, Ricci once again returned to the role of Wednesday with its sequel Addams Family Values, a film that managed to improve upon the original.

With Ricci still only being thirteen, her mother would read the scripts that she was offered first, deciding whether or not it would be suitable for a child actress, before passing them onto her daughter. She would begin to show the first stages of maturity with Casper in 1995, which would become a huge success and help cement Ricci’s reputation as bankable talent. Further acclaim would come the same year with her turn in Lesli Linka Glatter’s Now and Then, which sees a group of adults reminiscing about their childhood together. Ricci would portray the young counterpart of Rosie O’Donnell, whilst her young co-stars would include Thora Birch (later of American Beauty fame), Gaby Hoffman and Ashleigh Aston Moore (who would sadly pass away from pneumonia and bronchitis at the age of twenty-six).

Arguably Ricci’s first major step towards more adult material was with The Ice Storm, in which she would portray the daughter of Kevin Kline and Joan Allen and sister of Tobey Maguire. Whilst its performance at the box office was less than expected it was a huge hit with critics, and soon afterwards Ricci reinvented herself as a Lolita-style vixen for Don Roos’ The Opposite of Sex, bleaching her hair blonde and seducing Ivan Sergei, the partner of her gay half brother Martin Donovan. Her performance prompted critic Roger Ebert to state that she ‘has left all memories of The Addams Family far behind.’ Over the next eighteen months, Ricci would become the queen of the indie scene, beginning with Vincent Gallo’s cult flick Buffalo ‘66.

After making her first (albeit brief) appearance alongside Johnny Depp in the surreal classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Ricci would once again continue to work with independent filmmakers, resulting in several acclaimed flicks that would help build her reputation as a unique character actor. After portraying the girlfriend of photographer Edward Furlong in John Waters’ drama Pecker, she would appear in the likes of Desert Blue, 200 Cigarettes (an ensemble piece that would also feature Ben Affleck, Courtney Love and Paul Rudd) and No Vacancy, before joining Depp again for Tim Burton’s gothic horror fantasy Sleepy Hollow. Ricci and Depp would later appear together again in The Man Who Cried and Breakfast with Hunter. During this time, she would also make her foray into producing with Prozac Nation, which would fail to impress both cinemagoers and critics.

Over the next few years, Ricci would continue to appear in a variety of low-key roles, ranging from Miranda and Anything Else to such TV shows as Malcolm in the Middle and Ally McBeal. She would star in two horror films, one that would receive great acclaim, whilst the other was heavily criticised. Having previously worked together on the hit slashers Scream and Scream 2, director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson decided to try their hand at a werewolf flick, resulting in the abysmal disaster that was Cursed. The other project was Monster, playing the lover of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, portrayed by Academy Award winner Charlize Theron. Whilst Theron received the most praise, many critics still acknowledged Ricci’s outstanding performance.

In 2006, she co-starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson and pop star Justin Timberlake in Craig Brewer’s drama Black Snake Moan, in which she would spend the majority of its running time in her underwear and chained up by Jackson. The film received a mixed response but, once again, it was noted how Ricci’s performance stood out amongst the mediocre storyline and pedestrian direction. Naturally, due to the state of her character, there were some complaints from feminists due to the portrayal of sexuality in the movie and its relation to violence. Other roles to follow soon afterwards included Penelope, Speed Racer and a voiceover for the video game The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, as well as an acclaimed cameo in the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.

Ricci’s next project is to be alongside Liam Neeson, Justin Long and Celia Weston in the psychological horror After.Life, both written and directed by first-time filmmaker Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo. Shot in New York last winter, the movie is scheduled to be released on October 9 2009, and sees Ricci as a young woman who has passed away and is trapped between life and death. She has also made several appearances in TNT’s Saving Grace as the temporary partner of unorthodox detective Grace Hanadarko, played by Holly Hunter. As Ebert had commented, the days of The Addams Family are long behind Ricci, having now taken on a variety of adult roles. Whilst she has still refused to completely embrace the A-list, her résumé is littered with various cult classics.

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