Background and career
Christina Ricci ( REE-chee; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but she has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Ricci made her film debut at age ten in Mermaids (1990), which was followed by a breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its 1993 sequel. Subsequent roles in Casper and Now and Then (both 1995) established her as a teen idol. In her late teens, she moved into adult-oriented projects such as The Ice Storm (1997), Buffalo '66, The Opposite of Sex, Pecker (all 1998), 200 Cigarettes, and Sleepy Hollow (both 1999). Her other credits include The Man Who Cried (2000), Prozac Nation (2001), Pumpkin (2002), Anything Else, Monster (both 2003), Cursed (2005), Penelope (2006), Black Snake Moan (2006), Speed Racer (2008), Bel Ami (2012), and The Matrix Resurrections (2021). On television, Ricci played Liza Bump on the final season of Ally McBeal (2002) and had a guest role on Grey's Anatomy in 2006, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. She also starred on Pan Am (2011–2012), produced and starred in the series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) and Z: The Beginning of Everything (2017), and appeared as Marilyn Thornhill on the first and second seasons of Wednesday (2022–present). Ricci has played Misty Quigley on Yellowjackets since 2021, receiving nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She voiced Catwoman / Selina Kyle in the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader (2024). In 2010, Ricci made her Broadway debut in the Donald Margulies play Time Stands Still. She is the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).
Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California on February 12, 1980, the youngest of four children of Sarah Murdoch and Ralph Ricci. Her father had a varied career, including jobs as a gym teacher, lawyer, drug counselor, and primal scream therapist. Ricci has referred to her father as a "failed cult leader." Her mother worked as a Ford Agency model during the 1960s and later became a real estate agent. Regarding her surname, Ricci has stated that she has Italian, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Ricci's family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where she attended Edgemont Elementary School, Glenfield Middle School, Montclair High School, and Morristown–Beard School. She later attended the Professional Children's School in New York City. Ricci's parents separated when she was a preteen. In interviews she has been vocal about her childhood, particularly her parents' divorce and her turbulent relationship with her father.
At the age of eight, Ricci was discovered by a local theater critic when she starred in a school production of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Another child was originally cast in the part, but Ricci devised a plan to secure the role for herself: she taunted her rival so much that he punched her. When she told on him, he lost the part. She later recalled, "I've always been a really ambitious person. I guess that's the first time it really reared its ugly head". Soon thereafter, she featured in a pair of spoof commercials on Saturday Night Live. The first of these featured Ricci at a birthday party in which biomedical waste fell out of a burst piñata, parodying the real-life dumping of waste in the rivers of the East Coast. This gained Ricci her SAG-AFTRA card. Ricci's film debut was in Mermaids (1990), where she played Kate Flax. She also appeared in the music video for "The Shoop Shoop Song", which featured on the film's soundtrack. She portrayed the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in the following year's The Addams Family, Barry Sonnenfeld's big-budget adaptation of the cartoon of the same name, and reprised the role for its 1993 follow-up, Addams Family Values. Both films were financially profitable, grossing over US$300 million between them. Critics singled out Ricci's performance as a particular highlight of Values, with Variety believing she brought "a depth to her character well beyond her years". Ricci took on her first leading role when she headlined Casper, a supernatural comedy based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character. The film received a mixed critical reception, but was the eighth highest-grossing release of 1995. That same year, she starred in the children's adventure movie Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain and played tomboy Roberta in the coming-of-age drama Now and Then. The latter is often cited as the "female alternative" to Stand by Me and has gained a sizeable cult following since its release. Ricci then played a supporting role in Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), the directorial debut of Anjelica Huston, whom she previously worked with on the Addams Family movies. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Dorothy Allison, the film received acclaim for its sensitive handling of disturbing themes.
In 1997, Ricci starred in the Disney remake of That Darn Cat, which was a moderate success at the box office. Later that year, she made a shift into "legitimate adult roles" with her portrayal of the troubled, sexually curious Wendy Hood in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, a drama about dysfunctional family relationships. The part was originally given to Natalie Portman, who pulled out when her parents decided that the material was too provocative. In his review for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers wrote, "The sight of the [film's] young stars ... fiddling with each other may shock '90s prudes, but Lee handles these moments with dry wit and compassion ... The adolescent members of the cast do their characters proud, with Ricci a particular standout. Her wonderfully funny and touching performance, capturing the defiance and confusion that come with puberty, is the film's crowning glory". Ricci made a brief appearance in Terry Gilliam's offbeat road movie, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). That same year, she had starring roles in three features: firstly, Buffalo '66, with Roger Ebert describing her portrayal of abductee Layla as "astonishing". Next up was John Waters' satirical comedy Pecker, where she played a hard-nosed laundromat worker, followed by Don Roos' dark comedy-drama The Opposite of Sex, where she headlined as the acid-tongued, manipulative Dede. For the latter, Ricci garnered critical acclaim and was nominated for the 1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In his review of The Opposite of Sex for Variety, Todd McCarthy described Ricci's portrayal of Dede as "deadly funny" and felt that she delivered her dialogue with "the skill of a prospective Bette Davis". Several years later, Entertainment Weekly singled out her performance as one of the biggest "Oscar snubs" of all time. In 1999, Ricci headlined the Tim Burton gothic horror film Sleepy Hollow, which reunited her with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas co-star Johnny Depp, receiving the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Katrina Van Tassel. She appeared as the guest host of Saturday Night Live in December that same year, performing parodies of Britney Spears and the Olsen twins. The episode drew attention due to Ricci unintentionally punching Ana Gasteyer in the face during one of the sketches. Other film appearances around this time included the New Year's Eve-set ensemble comedy 200 Cigarettes (1999); supernatural horror film Bless the Child (2000), where she played the drug-addicted Cheri; and The Man Who Cried (2000), in which she co-starred as a Jewish girl fleeing Soviet Russia. Critic Elvis Mitchell described her as "transfixing" in Cried, while Rolling Stone felt that her "dark-eyed loveliness" conveyed a "lifetime of sadness". In 2001, Ricci headlined Prozac Nation, an independent drama based on Elizabeth Wurtzel's best-selling memoir. The film—Ricci's first outing as a producer—received mixed reviews, but critics agreed that Ricci was the highlight, with Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine describing her as "splendid". Ricci's next role was in The Laramie Project, a drama based on the murder of Matthew Shepard. The 2002 film, which premiered on HBO, received positive reviews from critics; TV Guide's Matt Roush praised the performances of the cast, while noting that the film's examination of homophobia could "enlighten" viewers. Later that year, she co-starred in the comedic British thriller Miranda and guest-starred on the fifth and final season of Ally McBeal, appearing as attorney Liza Bump in seven episodes. Meanwhile, she produced and starred in Pumpkin (2002), a black comedy about the relationship between a disabled young man and a sorority girl. In his review for The Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote, "Pumpkin is alive, and takes chances, and uses the wicked blade of satire in order to show up the complacent political correctness of other movies in [its genre]. It refuses to play it safe. And there is courage in the performances—for example ... the way Ricci sails fearlessly into the risky material".
In 2003, Ricci took on the roles of a young amnesiac wandering through England on foot in the British horror film The Gathering; the former girlfriend of an up-and-coming movie star in Adam Goldberg's I Love Your Work; and that of a vain, vindictive love interest in Woody Allen's Anything Else. In his review of the latter, A. O. Scott of The New York Times described the film as an "antiromantic comedy" and said that Ricci played her role with "feral, neurotic glee". Next, Ricci co-starred in the biographical crime drama Monster (2003). Her character—Selby Wall—was a fictionalized version of Tyria Moore, the real-life girlfriend of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, played by Charlize Theron. Speaking of her decision to take the part, Ricci said it posed a challenge as it "goes completely against who I am [as a person]". She described the filming experience as "dark and depressing". The film was directed by Patty Jenkins and received rave reviews upon its release, with most critics directing their attention toward Theron, who went on to receive an Academy Award for her portrayal of Wuornos. She acknowledged Ricci during her acceptance speech, calling her the film's "unsung hero". Of Ricci's performance, Roger Ebert said:
[She] finds the correct note for Selby Wall – so correct some critics have mistaken it for bad acting, when in fact it is sublime acting in its portrayal of a bad actor. She plays Selby as clueless, dim, in over her head, picking up cues from moment to moment, cobbling her behavior out of notions borrowed from bad movies, old songs, and barroom romances. Selby must have walked into a gay bar for the first time only a few weeks ago, and studied desperately to figure out how to present herself. Selby and Aileen are often trying to improvise the next line they think the other wants to hear.
