Christina Ricci

At 44 years old, Christina Ricci has this physical status:

Career

Ricci was first discovered by a local theater critic when she appeared in a school production of The Twelve Days of Christmas at the age of eight. When another child was supposed to be in the role, Ricci devised a scheme to guarantee her the role for herself: she insulted her rival so much that he punched her. When she told him, he had forgotten the character. "I've always been a really optimistic person," she said. I guess that's the first time it's really reared its ugly head." On Saturday Night Live, she appeared in two spoof commercials shortly after. Ricci as a child at a birthday party in which medical waste fell out of a burst piata, parodying the then-topical dumping of garbage in the rivers of the United States' east coast. Ricci received her SAG-AFTRA card because of this.

Kate, Cher's character's youngest daughter, was the subject of Ricci's debut film in Mermaids, 1990. In the music video for "The Shoop Shoop Song," she appeared alongside Cher and co-star Winona Ryder, which appeared on the film's soundtrack. In Barry Sonnenfeld's The Addams Family, she starred as the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams, based on the cartoon of the same name. Addams Family Values, a 1993 film, starred her in a reprised role. Both films were a commercial success, and critics singled Ricci's appearances out as the best in the film series.

Casper (1995) was her first lead role in a live-action film. The film received mixed feedback, but it was the year's eighth highest-grossing film. Ricci played in Gold Diggers: The Hidden of Bear Mountain (1995), as the younger version of Rosie O'Donnell's character in the coming-of-age drama Now and Then (1995). The latter is often referred to as the "female version" of Stand by Me, and has since been in demand since its inception. She appeared in Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), Anjelica Huston's first directorial debut, and Ricci had previously worked with the Addams Family films.

Ricci appeared in the Disney version of That Darn Cat in 1997, which was a marginal hit at the box office. She made a shift into "legitimate [...] adult roles" later this year in Ang Lee's critically acclaimed art film The Ice Storm, a turbulent, sexually curious Wendy Hood. Natalie Portman was the first to be considered a candidate, but she resigned after her parents felt that the job was too provocative. "The sight of the [film's] young stars [...] fiddling with each other may cause sarcastic prudes," Peter Travers wrote about Rolling Stone, but Lee treats these scenes with sarcastic wisdom and compassion. Her performance, which captures puberty's indignation and apprehension, is the film's crowning glory.

In Fear and Loathing, Terry Gilliam's offbeat road film, it was Ricci's first appearance with Johnny Depp. She appeared in three independent films in 1998: Buffalo '66, where she played Vincent Gallo's unwitting abductee-turned-love interest; John Waters' black comedy-drama The Opposite of Sex, which portrayed the acid-tongued, manipulative Dede. Ricci, the former actor, received critical acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress. Todd McCarthy of Variety characterized her as "deadly funny" and said she delivered her "deadly funny" and that she displayed "the ability of a prospective Bette Davis." Entertainment Weekly picked Dede out of her list as one of the "Worst Oscar Snubs Ever" for many years.

In Tim Burton's gothic horror fantasy film Sleepy Hollow, Ricci appeared for the second time. Ricci received a Saturn Award for her role as Katrina Van Tassel in the film, both commercial and critical. Ricci performed parodies of Britney Spears and the Olsen twins on December 4, 1999, the guest host on Saturday Night Live. Ana Gasteyer was accidentally punched in the chest by actress Jennifer McCarthy during one of her skits. 200 Cigarettes (1999), Bless the Child (2001), and The Man Who Cried (2000; her third time working with Depp). Elizabeth Wurtzel's best-selling memoir, Prozac Nation (2001), a drama based on Elizabeth Wurtzel's best-selling memoir. Critics disagreed with Ricci's debut as a producer, but analysts agreed that she 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 Matthew Shepard's assassination. Critics lauded the 2002 film, while TV Guide's Matt Roush praised the cast's portrayal of homophobia, while noting that the film's investigation of homophobia may "enlighten" viewers. She appeared in Kyle MacLachlan in the British comedy-thriller Miranda and guest-starred on Ally McBeal's fifth and final season as attorney Liza Bump in seven episodes in the same year. In addition, she produced and starred in Pumpkin, a black comedy about a homeless young man's friendship with a sorority girl. Roger Ebert's essay for The Chicago Sun-Times declared, "Pumpkin is alive, and takes risks, and uses the twisted blade of satire in order to convey the complacent political certitude of other films in its campus genre. It is not safe to play it safe. And there is hope in the performances--for example, [...] the way Ricci sails fearlessly into the dangerous stuff."

In 2003, Ricci played a young girl wandering through England on foot in the British horror film The Gathering, the former girlfriend of an up-and-coming film actress enjoying all the benefits of fame in Adam Goldberg's I Love Your Work, as well as a neurotic, vivacious, vindictive, and neurotic girlfriend in Woody Allen's Anything Else, in which she appeared with Jason Biggs. A. O. Scott of The New York Times described the film as a "antiromantic drama" and said that Ricci played her role with "feral, neurotic glee."

In the biographical crime drama Monster, Ricci appeared opposite Charlize Theron, a second time in 2003. Tyria Moore's character —Selby Wall — was a fictionalized version of Tyria Moore, the true-life accomplice of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Ricci said that choosing her role "completely opposed to who I am [as a person]" and that it was "dark and depressing" during filming. Patty Jenkins' film was released with rave reviews upon its debut, with most observers focusing their attention toward Theron, who went on to receive an Academy Award for her portrayal of Wuornos. During her acceptance address, Ricci acknowledged her as the film's "unsung hero." Roger Ebert praised Ricci's appearance, saying, "[she] finds the correct note for Selby [...] so accurate [that] some commentators have mistaken it for bad acting," it says, when in fact it portrays a bad actor in its portrayal of a bad actor. Selby plays Selby as if she were clueless, dim, and in over her head, catching cues from time to time, cobbling her behavior from concepts derived from bad movies, old songs, and barroom romances. Selby must have stepped into a gay bar for the first time just a few weeks ago, and she's been trying to figure out how to present herself. Selby and Aileen are often trying to improvise the next line that they know is important.

Ricci made a cameo appearance on Beck's 2005 album Guero, singing "Hell Yes" and providing vocals. Ricci appeared in two episodes of Grey's Anatomy in 2005, which earned notoriety for its tumultuous production history, and in 2006, she was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In Penelope (2006), a fantasy romantic comedy based on the myths of pig-faced women, Ricci played the title character. Ricci had to wear a prosthetic nose; "We had a couple different noses we tried at one time... this really ugly, horribly unattractive snout... then there was this really cute Miss Piggy snout; we ended up meeting somewhere in the middle." The film was described as a "lovely fairy tale," by Empire's Andrea Gronvall, while The Chicago Reader's Andrea Gronvall said it was "a worthy vehicle" for Ricci. In a similar vein, Variety's David Rooney said that Ricci gave "the fanciful script more grounding than it might have had," and critic Eric D. Snider said it was "fun to see her in the most lighthearted role she's played since... well, almost every."

In the 2006 drama Black Snake Moan, opposite Samuel L. Jackson, her portrayal of nymphomaniac Rae was particularly well liked. She shed a lot of pounds in order to make her character seem "unhealthy." Critics argued that Ricci was fascinating because of its sombre and exploitative themes, but observers were optimistic that it was moving. "She's the white-hot focal point of [director] Brewer's loud, brash, encompassing vision," Nathan Lee wrote for Film Comment. Ricci appeared in another 2006 film, Home of the Brave, an ensemble drama following four soldiers' lives in Iraq and their return to the United States.

In Speed Racer (2008), a US$120 million remake of the Japanese anime and manga series of the same name, Ricci played the girlfriend of the titular character. On release, the Wachowskis film received mixed reviews and was dubbed a financial loss; however, some commentators have praised it as a "masterpiece." She appeared in a segment of the 2008 anthology film I Love You With Orlando Bloom, as well as in a segment of the 2008 anthology film New York, I Love You.

Ricci appeared in three episodes of TNT's Saving Grace in 2009, as a detective teaming up with lead character Grace, played by Holly Hunter. She appeared alongside Liam Neeson in the psychological thriller After.Life and made her Broadway debut as Mandy in Donald Margulies' performance Time Stands Still, opposite Laura Linney. On September 23, 2010, she gave her first public appearance at the Cort Theatre. Alicia Silverstone, who appeared on Mandy during the play's first season in 2009, was fired by her. Ricci was described as "confident" and "appealing" by the New York Times.

In Bucky Larson's Born to Be a Star (2011), a comedy written by Adam Sandler, Ricci played a kindhearted waitress. Critics had generally dismissed the film. Andrew Barker, a writer for Variety, called it "one of the most surprising unfunny films of this or any other year," but she praised Ricci, who said her role "more than it deserves" for her role. Ricci appeared on ABC drama series Pan Am from 2011 to 2012, based on the iconic airline of the same name. The series received mostly favorable feedback, but the designers decided not to continue with a second season due to a decrease in viewer numbers during the series's first run of 14 episodes. Ricci reprised her role in April 2012, playing Hermia in an off-Broadway version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Ricci appeared in Le Petit Film Bel Ami, based on the 1885 French novel of the same name, in 2012, and she headlined Around the Block in 2013 as an American drama teacher befriending an Aboriginal child during the 2004 Redfern riots. She has since appeared in animated films The Smurfs 2 (2013) and The Hero of Color City (2014).

Ricci played the title character in Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, a Lifetime film based on Borden's trial and acquittal of her father and stepmother in 1892, and she reprised the role in 2015 in The Lizzie Borden Chronicles. Both received generally favorable feedback; Jane Borden of Vanity Fair described it as "playful, wicked brain candy," adding that "Ricci was born to play [a] 19th-century ax murderer" on the latter. Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times characterized Ricci as "gleeful and ruthless," while Keith Uhlich of The Hollywood Reporter found that she and co-star Clea DuVall had "a delectable rapport not too far removed from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford at their hag-horror peak in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane." Ricci continued to receive a nomination for Outstanding Achievement by an Actress in a Miniseries.

Ricci, the woman she believes was her sister in the independent drama Mothers and Daughters, was a woman who received a life-changing revelation from the woman she believes was her sister in the film Mothers and Daughters as part of an ensemble cast made up of Sharon Stone, Susan Sarandon, Selma Blair, Mira Sorvino, and Courteney Cox. Ricci appeared in the 2017 Amazon Video miniseries Z: The Beginning of Everything, which featured a fictionalized interpretation of American socialite Zelda Fitzgerald's life. Ricci performed on the series as a producer; "I can tell you that I've never, ever been cast in a role like this, and I would never get this role normally." I'm just not seen in that way. People are divided into various classes and types, and I was never a romantic lead. You could not expect five people in a room to agree that I should be a romantic lead. I could get one person to come, but there is always more than one person whose opinion matters."

Ricci appeared opposite John Cusack in the 2018 psychological thriller Distorted as a woman suffering from bipolar disorder. Critics mixed on the film, who cited Ricci's appearance as a highlight.

In 2021, Ricci began a regular role on Showtime's Yellowjackets, for which she was given a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Ricci was cast in Tim Burton's Wednesday as a series regular for Netflix on March 21, 2022.

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