Sky the limit as TV career takes
What Christina Ricci lacks in stature, the actress makes up for with her adroit acting on the big and the small screens. Now for the first time, she takes a leading role in Pan Am, a TV series that transports viewers back to the 1960s and the experiences
N THE same way Fashion Police’s Kelly Osbourne went from flab to fab, Christina Ricci has transformed beautifully since The Opposite of Sex (1998) and 200 Cigarettes (1999).
The petite star, who started out as a child actress in Mermaids (1990) and The Addams Family (1991), has, over 22 years, honed her craft in a string of films exploring a range of genres.
Although she has crossed over to the small screen, it has been mostly for guest roles in Malcolm in the Middle, Ally McBeal, Joey, Grey’s Anatomy and Saving Grace… until Pan Am came along and she bagged the lead role.
IAs the title indicates, the show is associated with the former US airline, which collapsed in 1991 after a 64-year run.
This series, however, adopts a more “romanticised” approach. It follows the lives of its pilots, stewardesses and passengers from city to city, unveiling their relationship and societal woes amid an assortment of catch-22 situations triggered on every flight.
Ricci, cast as Margaret “Maggie” Ryan, shares the spotlight with Margot Robbie (Laura Cameron), Karine Vannase (Colette Valois) and Kelli Garner (Catherine “Kate” Cameron).
While Maggie tends to question the rules, Laura, who is somewhat of a celebrity after appearing on the cover of Life magazine, is at constant loggerheads with her older sister Kate, who, unbeknown to the crew, is an undercover agent for the CIA. And then there is Colette, who harbours a lot of animosity towards Germans as her parents, who were French Jews, were killed during World War II. She is also haunted by a yearning to find her brother, who was adopted, while she was placed in an orphanage.
On portraying a host of different characters while working in Hollywood, Ricci says: “Well, I think that’s the thing about this job that’s so great. You spend your whole life still playing the same kind of childhood