RICHIE ‘RICCI’
Christina Ricci on her comeback
CHRISTINA RICCI has opened up about her early years in Hollywood. The former ‘90s star, now 43 and currently starring in Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” was best known for starring as Wednesday Addams in “The Addams Family” 1991 movie and its 1993 sequel, as well as films such as “Sleepy Hollow” and “Prozac Nation.”
An “It” girl for most of that decade who gave irreverent interviews referencing death and eating disorders, she told Rolling Stone, “I could have handled [fame] in a way that was less teenage … I always go too far. I never realize how awful a thing I’m saying is until someone else is like, ‘What the f–k?’
“I was a bit of a dickhead.”
In 1999, when she was 19, Ricci graced the cover of Rolling Stone in pink lingerie. Looking back, she said that it was “not how I would have chosen to be dressed, but it’s very much of its time. Not great.”
As a teen, she revealed that she struggled with anorexia and her mental health.
“I had trouble processing my childhood and adjusting to being an adult. I had a lot of very feral moments. I was never clinically depressed. I would just joke that I wished it was worse so that I could go to a hospital, have a f–king break, and I didn’t have to make choices. ‘Please, take all my choices away from me.’ ”
Ricci is now a mom of an 8
year old and a 1 year old (one child with her ex-husband, James Heerdegen, and one child with her current husband, hairstylist Mark Hampton). She took a step back from acting to be a mom, but she’s had a recent resurgence, starring in Showtime’s edgy drama “Yellowjackets,” which costars Melanie Lynskey and follows a group of women who survived being
stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash as teens.
She also appeared in Netflix’s smash hit, “Wednesday,” which revisits the Addams family – but this time, Ricci plays a teacher while Jenna Ortega plays the titular character.
“I still am uncomfortable with the fameoriented aspect of all of this,” she confessed about her renewed popularity. “I’ve been told I need to get on TikTok, which I don’t want to do. I’m a 43-year-old woman. What am I going to do? Videotape myself doing laundry?”
Nevertheless, although she might be uncomfortable with the “Yellowjackets” fandom, many fans find her bizarre character, Misty, funny. She even got a note about that from a famous fan.
“Comedy has never been my thing,” she said. “It is such a skill, and I feel like a fraud … Seth Rogen wrote to me and was just like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re so funny in this show. I love it.’ And I was thrilled.”
Even with the recent spotlight, however, said that she’s not sure if her latest comeback will last.
“When you’ve gone through periods of great success and then a dry [spell], you kind of end up having this feeling things are going to end,” she told Rolling Stone. “It’s a little panic-inducing. You don’t want it to be a fluke, for people to be like, ‘Oh, actually, she’s lost it.’ So I have this feeling of ‘OK, we’ll just hold on tight, and this will be over soon.’”
“Yellowjackets” Season 2 premieres March 24 on Showtime on demand, and on Sunday, March 26 at 9
p.m. on Showtime.