Starchives - Christina Ricci - News - Interview

STARCHIVES
Christina Ricci
Interview - The Ice Storm
1997

Building on her Gothic period, Christina Ricci comes into her own as actress determined to shed light on the dark side of real life - and in her new film, The Ice Storm, she's a beacon

Of all the troubled souls in Ang Lee's new film, The Ice Storm, none is more compelling than fourteen-year-old Wendy, a precocious but desperate adolescent whose future lies wrecked before her.

As played by Christina Ricci, Wendy will, you guess, grow up to be the kind of woman who has countless masochistic affairs with smug philanderers like her father (played by Kevin Kline) - her professors, her bosses, and so on. Even though the movie offers a salve at the end, you come out worrying for Wendy. But there's nothing you can do. The damage has been done.

Ricci's acting in the role is so truthful that it makes you wonder if she's playing out her own psychodrama, a subject she addresses in the following interview. But it's also a darkly funny performance: Catch the scene in which Wendy, wearing a Richard Nixon mask - it's the Watergate era - fools around with her bewildered boyfriend (Elijah Wood). Here's a girl who's already getting off on lies, and she's dressed for the part.

Ricci admitted, when we met, that she tells the odd lie too (but then, she could have been lying). Artifice seems to be the modus operandi for this outstanding actress with the hazel eyes that make you believe they've seen much more than they probably have: When she talks, she weaves webs - and then unpicks them with doubts and misgivings. At seventeen, she is as unformed as she should be and wiser than she ought to be. But she's not the Goth smarty-pants you might expect from watching her movies: Ricci Is intense, but she's also contagious company and altogether sunnier than Wednesday Addams.

GRAHAM FULLER: What did you feel when you first read The Ice Storm script?

CHRISTINA RICCI: There were things in it I didn't understand, but I was struck by that sense you get when you're little and you're playing doctor with the kids next door, and you feel this weird kind of humiliation and embarrassment and shame - like people will look at you and know that you did something dirty. I loved that, because you don't get to see it too often in movies. People usually don't want to recognize feelings that make their skin crawl.

GF: Did you read for it?

CR: Not immediately. My character, Wendy, was offered to Natalie Portman at first.

GF: Were you disappointed?

CR: I was really down at the time, because I felt I was never going to get any film I ever wanted, and that I would be forced to do films like That Darn Cat [1997] for the rest of my life. I don't like it when I don't get a role I haven't read for because they're judging you by the way you look or who you are. But Natalie Portman turned the part down, and my agents begged to let me go in and read for it. When I did, they offered it to me. I was so excited, because I knew it was the first role that was going to challenge me. Actually, it's the only thing I've done that I'm really proud of.

GF: Do you think of it as your first grown-up movie?

CR: It's the first movie where it felt real, and the first one I've ever been influenced by. I'm weird about acting, because I don't like blatant emotion. When I read actresses talking about emotion in interviews, I think it's icky. My way of working is to do what the director tells me, and if I'm doing it wrong, I know they'll tell me; I've always been results-based. On this movie I could sense the weight of the story. It was hard because the character I played is very similar to me in a lot of ways, and I felt so naked every day. I loved our cast and crew, but it wasn't a very pleasant experience for me, because my character was so miserable.

GF: Did you connect It with experiences of your own?

CR: No, I just felt completely fucked up for three months, so I had no idea. . . . I mean, I kind of did, because I would get home at night and go, Why do I feel so awful? I knew it couldn't all be me. I felt that the character was really rubbing off on me. There are a lot of films I haven't gotten, and people have said it's because I'm not vulnerable enough - and I'm not. Who wants to walk around like an open wound? I'm against doing that when you don't have to. But since I did feel this vulnerability when I was making The Ice Storm, I felt I must be doing something right, because that's one of those things actors always talk about.

GF: Do you think you've put a shell around your emotions, and that this movie prised it open a little?

CR: Definitely. I'm been very guarded since I was little. I think that's why I'm an actor: because I can hide any emotion I have at any time, and I can put on another one whenever I need to. This is the only movie where I've ever let go, and it was really overwhelming.

GF: In what ways are you like Wendy?

CR: We both have this deep-running anger, but doing the movie exorcized that a bit for me. I saw Toby [Maguire] the other day, and I said to him, "God, I feel so bad for you - I was such a bitch when we did the movie. I was so angry and I hated everything." He said, "I know." I'd walk around like a thundercloud all day long. I doubt Wendy has gone as far as I have, though, because she probably hasn't been in therapy since she was six years old.

GF: And you have?

CR: Yeah. My dad was a group therapist.

GF: Your parents are divorced, and you live with your mom, right?

CR: Mm-hmm.

GF: Are you still in touch with your father?

CR: [shakes head]

GF: Do you think that's where your anger comes from?

CR: No. I've been like this since I was little. I mean, obviously it has to do with stuff that went on in my family. But I've always been easily outraged. I can remember at an early age being appalled by the stuff people did.

GF: How do you express your anger?

CR: I don't. When I'm mad at people, I don't yell at them, or even tell them, even if someone does something awful to me. I don't feel the pain for a long time, until it builds up, and then it all comes out. Then there's no controlling it, but that only lasts for five hours or so. It's really frightening.

GF: Do you channel your anger into your acting?

CR: Yeah, it's where my energy comes from. I don't think I could act without it.

GF: In The Ice Storm, Wendy is humiliated by the realization that her father is having an affair with her boyfriend's mother [Sigourney Weaver]. So Wendy's not only competing with her mother for her father's attention, but with her father's mistress; it's a real kick in the teeth. Does that resonate with you personally?

CR: Definitely. I often turn my directors into father figures, and I tend to get mad at them for not giving me enough attention. Sometimes I won't even like their wives or girlfriends or boyfriends. I don't act; I just shut off and am really cold to them. I never had that kind of relationship with my father where I would be jealous of his attentions to anyone else, but I do feel that with other father figures in my life.

GF: Do you think there's a danger that you could project that onto people you become involved with?

CR: Uh-huh. I tend to overreact, and I get very jealous of people my boyfriends work with. It's completely ridiculous, but unfortunately I can't help it. [giggles]

GF: Was the sexual stuff in The Ice Storm difficult, particularly the scene where you and Adam Harm-Byrd get into bed?

CR: Yeah, I think Adam still gets embarrassed when he thinks of me. It was really strange. The night before, I started thinking about it and feeling nervous. I can't stand that, so when it came to it, I said to myself, I don't care, whatever, and just went for it. I was almost daring people to make me feel embarrassed about it, and I guess that made me less dependent on them making me feel comfortable. We'd already shot the ["I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours"] scene in the bathroom with me and Adam, and that was a little weird, but I didn't mind, It showed my underwear and that was about it. Then there was the scene where me and Elijah had to kiss. I'd done a couple of screen kisses before, but he'd only done one, so he was a little nervous - but it's cute the way it turned out. Adam and Elijah weren't like some older actors, who when they start to feel insecure and nervous turn into huge assholes. They were really nice about it, and when they got nervous, they were just nervous little boys. That made it easier.

GF: Your scenes together remind us that adolescent girls are so much more mature than adolescent boys. Wendy's nowhere near being a woman, but for better or worse, she's already aware of her seductive powers.

CR: Yeah, just becoming aware - but she's not in control of them yet. That made her uncomfortable with Elijah's character, so. that's why she does those things to Adam's character: because she could control him. But she's not sexually attracted to him; it's more that they have this bond of affection.

GF: What were you feeling when you were wearing the Richard Nixon mask and making out with Elijah?

CR: I was upset because it was so hot. And I didn't understand why it was so funny. Everyone was laughing hysterically; they thought it was the best thing on earth. I'd had a huge fight with a friend of mine that day, and so - once again - I was like, Let's just do it.

GF: What do you think about the wife-swapping in the film?

CR: Those adults are such jerks. I think all that is against human nature. I didn't even know what the sexual revolution was before I started this movie. I'm still not too clear on the whole thing. It seems so indulgent.

GF: OK, let's talk a little bit about you. How did you start out?

CR: It's really awful the way I got my first part. I was in third grade and I wasn't into acting, but my school put on this Christmas pageant. This boy Nicky got the lead role, and I was outraged. I thought the musical director should have realized my genius, or something retarded like that, so I provoked Nicky into hitting me hard enough that it would leave a mark, and I ran up to the director and went, "Nicky hit me. Look at this!" And the director took the part from Nicky and gave it to me. I can't believe I did that when I was seven; it was so calculated. I'm happy to say I've never done anything like it since. Ironically, it was Nicky's mom-she's an entertainment critic - who recommended to my mom that I start doing commercials.

GF: And eventually you were cast in Mermaids [1989]. Did you take to film acting immediately?

CR: I loved it. I'd been so unhappy and caused all these problems at school by writing all over the bathroom walls. I was a horror. But as soon as I started acting, it stopped.

GF: Why do you think you were everyone's favorite choice for Gothic Girl for a while?

CR: I think it's because I could understand it. With a lot of kid actors, the more smiley or adorable you are the better. But that's not what I was about. I would come to auditions for commercials with black eyes from playing soccer and not having bathed in two weeks. I like darkness, although my agents say I have to start getting away from that now. It's not the Gothic part I'm interested in; it's where the darkness comes from: anger, hatred, sadness, feeling that you're different and weird. I like playing people who are so ashamed and scared of who they are and so disgusted by everyone around them that they decide to become the ultimate extreme of what they're afraid they are. I mean, this is not a happy planet, and we pretend it is. I would feel like such a little jerk if I was acting in romantic comedies.

GF: Tell me about your relationship with your mother.

CR: I depend on her a lot.

GF: Did you go through a period of rebelling against her?

CR: Against her, everyone, and everything - just being as obnoxious as I possibly could. I made up stories of awful things I did to tell my father and have him react. It sounds silly, but I couldn't help it. I went through my self-destructive phase and my teenage-whatever phase. You know that whole thing where you're a sloth and you sit in a dingy little apartment and do illegal things for a while? I kind of went through all that quickly. And I'm so glad, because there was something in me that said, "Yuck! Get this over with. You don't like it anyway." My mother knows I'm like that, but I have to experience things for myself and go through them, and eventually I'll be all right.

GF: Is there a danger that if you move with such velocity through the stuff you're meant to take ten years to do. . .

CR: That I'll get bored?

GF: No, I would be more concerned that by the time you're twenty-five, you'll have come out the other end and be Miss Sweetness and Light.

CR: Oh, I don't think so. I find those people so repulsive. Innocence is incredibly overrated. Anyway, I'm really naive too. Most of my experiences have been so extreme that I don't know simple things. The first time I went to Washington Square Park [in New York City] and people there were going, "You like chocolate?" I thought they actually meant chocolate. So I've got a lot to learn. I don't think I'll be reformed until I'm well into my fifties.

GF: It must be pretty exciting to be you right now, because you're at the age when anything is possible.

CR: Yes, but a year ago I thought I was a failure, because I wasn't famous and I wasn't getting everything I wanted and I didn't make enough money and I wasn't engaged.

GF: You're only seventeen now. How could you be engaged?

CR: I know. [sighs] I also thought I should have gone through all my emotional problems and be a stable person already. And finally, two weeks ago, I was sitting in my house thinking, I gotta do something about this. But then I realized there's nothing I can do. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing, basically. And it does make me feel excited to know I can do almost anything. I also don't have a curfew anymore. That in itself is inspiring.

GF: What about boys?

CR: I hate dating. It's so awful. Another thing that I realized recently - this has been my month of epiphanies - is that the woman's place is to look attractive, because unless she's a lesbian, she's trying to attract men. I'm not into any hard-core feminism or anything, and you have to excuse me because I am a teenager, so I'm allowed to sound illiterate at times and make really stupid statements like, "I'm not into hard-core feminism." The point I'm making is, a man goes out on a date to see if he likes that person. But a woman goes out on a date to see if the man likes her. And to me that's upsetting, because it makes me insecure and I start telling these ridiculous stories - usually about three every date. Then I get home and call a friend, and I go, "I can't believe what I told him."

GF: What stories do you tell?

CR: I'll make up some story about falling off a roller coaster when I was three, or something stupid. Nothing too weird.

GF: Have you been In love yet?

CR: I don't know. I've felt strongly about people, as if the whole world revolved around them, and being around them and seeing them has made me smile and feel warm and stuff. But then at the same time I hated them passionately. I think when you're truly in love, your insecurities should go away, and you stop thinking about yourself and your flaws. When I thought I was in love, I was trying to be perfect, so he wouldn't not fall in love with me. So I don't think it was love.

GF: What's that Supremes song? You know, "You Can't Hurry Love."

CR: Oh, I don't agree. Everyone says, "Christina, you have to be patient." But I say, "Fuck that." I've never been patient in my life. Why should this be the one thing that I can't create, that I can't do something about? But you can't, can you?

GF: You were talking earlier about being judged by your looks. How much do you think looks have affected your chances?

CR: I was really fat for a year; I was ugly. People would come up to me in the street and say, "Weren't you Wednesday in The Addams Family [1991]? God, you've gotten so fat." I felt I was a separate person from the person they were talking about, and I'd want to take them aside and scold them: "You can't talk to me like that." Being overweight made it so hard for me to get films. I didn't work for a year because of it, and it was so devastating. There's still part of me that feels I'll never succeed because I'm never gonna be what they want me to be, or I'm never gonna be thin enough. But at the same time, I don't want to be thin enough. [pauses] When I got my breasts, I can remember just wanting to get thin so I wouldn't have breasts anymore. So I starved myself and started to get sick - I was anorexic for two years. When I started eating normally again, my metabolism was so slow that I put on tons of weight. So it all started again. It was a huge ordeal. Just in the past three months, I've lost twenty pounds. I don't feel I'm beautiful now, but I feel I'm much more attractive than I was, and life's so much easier. I can get people to help me in a store, no problem. People even hold doors open for me. I like the fact that I look like a woman now, and at the same time, I'll go to a photo shoot and apologize to the stylist because I don't look like a model. I really feel that making girls think they should be emaciated is a reaction from men who don't know how to react to women's mystique and the power that comes with being womanly and voluptuous. We're much easier to control when our pride in our bodies is taken away.

GF: Are you ambitious?

CR: I think so. But I have to tell you right now, I have the biggest fear: The last time I read a review, it said I was disgustingly precocious and pretentious and full of myself, so I'm afraid I do come off that way.

GF: You don't, actually, but do you think you perhaps get a little ahead of yourself?

CR: Yeah, because you can have wisdom and still not be able to use it. I know I have good judgment, but I still do stupid things.

GF: Have you considered going against this knowing quality you have?

CR: Playing someone who's stupid? I don't think I could do it very successfully, because a lot of my being knowing and showing it is about my trying to rebel against being a child. It's so ingrained in me to be in people's faces about the fact that I have a brain that I don't think I could play dumb convincingly. The knowing part would just pop out.

GF: Are you ready to play adults?

CR: I just did - in a movie called Buffalo 66, with Vincent Gallo, who wrote it, directed it, and acts with me in it. I play this eighteen-year-old woman living on her own. I even did sex scenes in it, which was exciting. My sisters always told me that, out of respect for other women, I should never do nude scenes. But I don't know if I buy that, because if you're doing a character, you want to make her as real as possible. At the same time, I'm glad it's still illegal to shoot me naked, so I don't have to worry about that yet.

GF: What do you want from your film career?

CR: I'm confused about it. When I was little, I wanted to be famous, and now I do like the attention. I enjoy going to premieres and having people take pictures of me - it's this huge ego thing. It's a little disgusting, but I can't help it. At the same time, I would never want to get pulled apart by the press like that whole thing that happened to Alicia Silverstone. I'm probably not strong enough to deal with that. Still, if you put yourself out there, you have to deal with the scrutiny.

I guess it sounds silly, but I think I take the parts I do because I want to make people aware of things. I wish that certain things were acceptable that aren't. A friend of mine, Kevin, is always saying to me, "All right, Christina, you're not Nietzsche," because I do get a little highfalutin with my beliefs. But it boils down to the fact that I hate condemnation, and I hate when people who don't fully understand someone else say that they're wrong. So I want to play characters who initially make you go "Ugh!" and then make you understand those characters, so that if you met someone like them, you wouldn't be so quick to judge them. I don't mean to sound self-righteous. I just hope that maybe I can teach people something from what I do.

Starchives - Christina Ricci - Interview - The Ice Storm 1997
STARCHIVES
HOME BIO FILMS IMAGES DOWNLOADS BOOKS MUSIC VIDEO AUDIO NEWS LINKS STORE

Join FriendFinder - Largest Premium Personals Site!