Christina Ricci says acting “rescued me” from “family that was not very nice”
Hollywood is often cruel to child stars and can be a destructive industry can on young people, but Christina Ricci has come forward to say that for her, it was the opposite.
Ricci made her film debut at the tender age of nine in the 1990 family comedy Mermaids, and became a household name when she played Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family a year later.
She gravitated towards darker, more interesting roles than many of her peers, and quickly earned a loyal fanbase. When she reached her late teens, she moved into small, independent movies like Buffalo ’66, Prozac Nation, and Black Snake Moan.
It would be easy to assume that the relatively low profile she kept between the early 2000s and her explosive re-entry into the zeitgeist with Yellowjackets in 2021 was related to her needing to recover from the challenges of being a child star. However, when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, she revealed that the industry was a saving grace for her as a young person.
Speaking to Variety, Ricci revealed that she never experienced any of the horror stories that so many child actors live through, even though she did have to endure comments about her appearance. “The film industry, it sort of rescued me from a childhood that was not very nice and a family that was not very safe,” she said. “So to be able to escape and do this thing where I was totally safe when I was getting validation from adults, and it was based on a skill that I had that was special, I think really, really saved me.”
Ricci revealed that she was comfortable in front of a camera as soon as she stepped in front of one. “Now as an adult, realizing how valuable and what a gift that is, I do my best to protect that all the time,” she said.
The actor is currently starring in season three of the Showtime thriller Yellowjackets, for which she earned an Emmy nomination in 2022.
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