Christina Ricci names “the most disappointing and upsetting” moment of her career
Getting her start as a child, Christina Ricci is perhaps most recognisable for her role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and its subsequent sequel, portraying the solemn, gothic child with perfect humour. The role has since been taken over by Jenna Ortega for the Netflix series Wednesday, with Ricci also starring in the show as a teacher.
Ricci’s career took off after she portrayed the iconic character – a role she bagged when she was just 11. The 1990s were incredibly generous to Ricci, who appeared in a string of successful hits, establishing herself as a multi-faceted star. Alongside The Addams Family, roles in movies like Mermaids and Casper allowed Ricci to become a well-known figure in American cinema. However, she soon began to take an interest in less commercial projects, such as John Waters’ Pecker and Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ‘66.
The latter is one of Ricci’s most well-known roles besides Wednesday Addams, helping to cement her status as a coveted indie cinema icon. The 2000s saw the actor take on roles in projects as diverse as Ally McBeal to Prozac Nation, more recently appearing in the television series Yellowjackets and appearing in the popular The Matrix Resurrections.
Ricci has managed to keep a relatively low profile over the years, although she has been vocal about her struggles in the industry. After entering Hollywood at such a young age, the actor found herself dealing with mental health issues and anorexia, partly due to the pressures placed upon her by industry giants. “When I was growing up, the second you looked like a teenager, you had to quit,” Ricci once told Rolling Stone. She also added that she “had trouble processing my childhood and adjusting to being an adult.”
The actor has discussed the immense pressures placed on young female actors to look a certain way and to fit a specific mould, and subsequently, the roles that Ricci takes on reflect her interest in playing complex characters that aren’t merely a product of the male gaze. In 2006, she accepted a part in the film Black Snake Moan, in which she plays a sex addict held captive by Samuel L. Jackson’s character, who hopes to rid her of her affliction.
Discussing the movie, Ricci explained that “the whole reason I made that movie was to say: ‘Oh yeah, that girl you called a slut probably went through this, so you might not want to use her and throw her away or judge her.’”
However, Ricci’s reasoning for taking on the film quickly seemed futile when she saw the poster made to advertise the movie. An image of the actor in a rather minuscule outfit, sitting in a somewhat suggestive position and holding onto chains that belong to Jackson’s character, is plastered over the poster. The tagline reads, “EVERYTHING IS HOTTER DOWN SOUTH”. Ricci was not impressed.
The actor went as far as to admit that “the way that movie was marketed was probably one of the most disappointing and upsetting things that’s ever happened to me in my career”.
“I have no interest in exploiting women any further than they’ve already been exploited,” she said before adding, “All they [marketing executives] cared about was college-age boys going to see it.”
Black Snake Moan was a massive box office failure, losing almost $5million. Directed by Craig Brewer, the movie remains divisive, with some critics going as far as to call it one of the worst movies they’d ever seen.
