Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci (born February 12, 1980) is an American actress, who began her acting career appearing in commercials and received early recognition as a child star. Her debut performance in Mermaids (1990) was followed by a breakthrough role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993) when she was eleven and thirteen years old, respectively. Following her success with the Addams Family films, she earned somewhat of a "teen icon" status thanks to appearances in various big budget productions, notably Now and Then (1995) and Casper (1995), which were marketed for younger audiences before making a successful transition into adult-oriented roles with the art house drama The Ice Storm (1997) at the age of seventeen.

Ricci continued acting in small-scale independent films such as Buffalo '66 (1998) and The Opposite of Sex (1998), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She made a departure from independent cinema with Tim Burton's big-budget Gothic horror Sleepy Hollow (1999) and later received praise for her performance in the drama Monster (2003), portraying the girlfriend of a notorious female serial killer. Although she has developed a reputation for being a prominent independent film actress, Ricci has appeared in many box office hits—to date, the films in which she has starred have amassed a gross in excess of $743 million.

Ricci has also acted in various television productions. In 2006, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role as a paramedic in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy. From 2011 to 2012, she starred as a stewardess in the short-lived series Pan Am. In 2014, she starred in the titular role of the Lifetime show Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, marking a return to the darker roles she had generated attention for earlier in her career. In 2015, she reprised the role in the limited series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, chronicling the aftermath of the events that took place in the biopic.

Ricci married dolly grip James Heerdegen in October 2013 and gave birth to a son in August 2014. She is also the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN).

Early life Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California, the fourth and youngest child of Sarah (née Murdoch), a real estate agent, and Ralph Ricci, a lawyer and group therapist. Regarding her ancestry, Ricci has stated, "The Italian blood has been bred out of me. There's an Italian four or five generations back who married an Irish woman and they had all sons. So they married more Irish women, there were more sons, and more Irish women. Now I'm basically Scots-Irish."

The family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where she grew up attending Edgemont Elementary School, Glenfield Middle School, and Montclair High School, as well as the Morristown-Beard School. After one year, she left the high school for the Professional Children's School in New York City. Her siblings are Rafael (born 1971), Dante (born 1974), and Pia (born 1976). Ricci's parents separated in 1993, when she was 13, and she has not spoken to her father since. She has been vocal about her childhood in interviews, particularly her parents' divorce and turbulent relationship with her father.

Career A critic for the Bergen Record discovered Ricci at age eight in a school play (The Twelve Days of Christmas) at Edgemont School in Montclair, New Jersey. Another child was originally cast in the role, but Ricci got him to hit her and told on him; he lost the role to her as part of his punishment. Ricci appeared in a couple of parody commercials in the late night sketch variety show Saturday Night Live. The first of these featured Ricci as a child at a birthday party in which medical waste fell out of a burst piñata, parodying the then-topical dumping of medical waste in the rivers of the United States' east coast. This gained her her AFTRA card.

Ricci's big screen debut was in 1990's Mermaids as Cher's character's younger daughter. She also appears in the music video of the film's soundtrack "The Shoop Shoop Song". The following year, she starred as the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in the feature film adaptation of The Addams Family. She reprised the role for the film's 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values. Both films were commercially successful, and critics singled out Ricci's performance as being one of the highlights of the first film and its sequel.

Her next project, the live-action adaptation of Casper, was her first in a lead role. The feature received mixed critical reviews, but it was a success at the box office, being the year's eighth highest-grossing film. Ricci then played the younger version of Rosie O'Donnell's character in the film "Now and Then". Now and Then was another box office success, and received favorable comparisons to Stand by Me, being called "the female version" of the film. She also starred in a handful of other films with teenage roles such as Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain and That Darn Cat. In 1997, Ricci began to appear in more adult roles, beginning with her performance as the troubled, sexually curious Wendy Hood in Ang Lee's critically acclaimed The Ice Storm.

Ricci subsequently appeared in films like the independent hit Buffalo '66 (in which she played Vincent Gallo's unwitting abductee-turned-girlfriend), John Waters' Pecker, and Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex (as the acid-tongued, manipulative Dede). For her performance as Dede, Ricci won acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Although she missed out on an Academy Award nomination, Entertainment Weekly honored her well-received performance as one of the "Worst Oscar Snubs Ever".

Later films included Sleepy Hollow (alongside Johnny Depp), and Prozac Nation. She then starred opposite Charlize Theron in the film Monster; during Theron's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, she acknowledged Ricci, calling her the "unsung hero" of the film. Ricci made a cameo appearance on Beck's successful album Guero, providing vocals on "Hell Yes". On December 4, 1999, she appeared as the guest host on Saturday Night Live. She performed parodies of Britney Spears and the Olsen twins. During one of her skits, she accidentally punched actress Ana Gasteyer in the face.

In February 2006, Ricci made a guest appearance as a paramedic in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She was a guest star for seven episodes in the last season of Ally McBeal in 2002 as Debbie 'Liza' Bump, a lawyer who works at Cage & Fish and marries Richard Fish in the last episode.

In 2006, Ricci stated that she feels that at 5 ft 1 in (155 cm) she is "too short" to ever be an A-list actress, saying she tends "to look really small on camera". She has also said that she believes she does not have much control over her career, specifying that she still has to audition for film parts.

Ricci's 2007 film Black Snake Moan received mixed reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes tallying an overall score of 66 percent. On the television program Ebert & Roeper, filmmaker Kevin Smith, filling in for Roger Ebert, described the film as the best of the year thus far and called it Ricci's best performance.[citation needed] Richard Roeper also gave the film a "thumb up" rating. The film earned $4 million, putting it in eighth place for the highest earnings in its opening weekend. For her role in Black Snake Moan, Ricci was required to lose several pounds and wore a 40 lb (18 kg) chain during filming.

In 2006, Ricci starred in Penelope, a modern fairytale; and in 2008 she played the female lead in the Wachowskis' feature film adaptation of Speed Racer. She also signed on for three episodes of TNT's crime drama Saving Grace during its second season. Ricci played a young detective who temporarily partners with Grace, played by Holly Hunter.

Ricci appeared with Liam Neeson and Justin Long in the psychological thriller After.Life which had a limited release on April 9, 2010. She made her Broadway debut as Mandy in Time Stands Still, resuming performances on September 23, 2010 at the Cort Theatre, alongside original cast members Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James and Eric Bogosian. She replaced Alicia Silverstone, who played the role of Mandy in its Manhattan Theater Club engagement.

In September 2011, Ricci began a starring role in the ABC television series Pan Am, set in the 1960s. She returned to the stage in April 2012, playing Hermia in an off-Broadway revival of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2012, Ricci flew to Sydney to begin work on an Australian film called Around The Block. In January 2014, she starred in the title role of the Lifetime original movie "Lizzie Borden Took an Ax" in which she portrayed Lizzie Borden who was accused, tried, and ultimately acquitted of the murder of both her father and stepmother in the summer of 1892. A year later, she reprised the character in a limited series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, also on Lifetime.

Other ventures Ricci is listed in several art publications as one of artist Mark Ryden's muses. Her image has appeared in over 10 of his oil paintings and numerous sketches.

Charity work Ricci is the National Spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

Personal life "It's such a different world than it was when I was coming of age. I don't know how these young people keep it together with all the demands on them with social media and the internet. I had normal growing pains and issues and it was difficult but not disastrous. But I feel like if I was trying to do that in this environment, the way that society is now, I would probably be a total disaster."

Ricci in June 2014 Ricci began dating actor Owen Benjamin in 2008 after they met on the set of the film All's Faire in Love. They became engaged in March 2009, but ended the engagement two months later. In February 2013, Ricci announced her engagement to dolly grip James Heerdegen, whom she met while working on the series Pan Am in 2012. They married on October 26, 2013 in Manhattan, New York. They have a son named Freddie (born August 2014).

After making the top of PETA's worst-dressed list and receiving a letter from them, Ricci decided to give up wearing fur.

Ricci has tattoos of a lion on her right shoulder blade (a reference to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a favorite novel of hers as a youngster), an Edward Gorey figure on the inside of her right wrist, a pair of praying hands on her left hip (this tattoo was originally a bat), the name "Jack" on her right thigh for a deceased pet, a sparrow on her right breast, and a mermaid on her left ankle. She also had the words "Move or Bleed" on the left side of her rib cage, as well as a bouquet of sweet peas on her lower back.

Christina Ricci Actress - Date of Birth 12 February 1980, Santa Monica, California, USA

Nickname Squant

Height 5' 0¼" (1.53 m)

Mini Bio (1) Precocious, outspoken child-teen starlet of the 1990s, Christina Ricci was born in 1980 in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of four children of Sarah (Murdoch), a realtor, and Ralph Ricci, a lawyer and therapist. She is of Italian (from her paternal grandfather), Irish, and Scots-Irish descent. She made her screen debut at the age of 9 in Mermaids (1990), in which she worked with Winona Ryder and Cher. Her breakthrough adult role was in The Ice Storm (1997), in which she plays a nymphet who skillfully seduces two brothers. She worked with Johnny Depp and Casper Van Dien in the Tim Burton film Sleepy Hollow (1999).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom McDonough / Marshall Oliphant

Spouse (1) James Heerdegen (26 October 2013 - present) (1 child)

Trivia (60) Her parents divorced after she filmed Addams Family Values (1993). She has not spoken with her father since.

Is on the national board of VOX-Voices for Planned Parenthood, which works to promote the mission of Planned Parenthood to young adults. She will also be appearing in national ads for Emergency Contraception.

Had to turn down the role of Ronna in Go (1999) because of scheduling conflicts.

Her father, before becoming a lawyer, was a lay practitioner of "primal scream therapy"--wherein it was believed that patients could purportedly scream their way to a psychological breakthrough. While growing up, Christina could hear the screaming coming through the the vents in her room (her father did his therapy sessions at home), and would act them out in front of her mother.

On December 4 1999, she appeared on Saturday Night Live (1975) as the guest host, in which she parodied Britney Spears and the Olsen twins. During one of her skits, she accidentally punched actress Ana Gasteyer in the face. The skit was a parody of the Sally Jessy Raphael (1983) show, in which she played a 13-year-old runaway who sleeps with dogs, and required her to fake- punch Sally (Gasteyer), but accidentally hit her for real. While she initially reacted by putting her hands over her mouth in surprise, she maintained her professionalism and quickly fell back into character.

Was originally slated to play the lead in Ghost World (2001), but by the time it was filmed she was too old for the part and had moved on to other projects. Thora Birch took over the role.

Co-hosted a 10 volume educational video series entitled "Bug City" in 1998.

Nicknamed Squant by her siblings because of a childhood fascination with the Native American hero Squanto, who helped the first European settlers in America.

She was the fourth child of Ralph and Sarah Ricci. Her siblings are Dante, Pia and Rafael.

Her best friend is actress Gaby Hoffmann.

First nude scene was in the movie Prozac Nation (2001) in which she requested a closed set and had co-star Michelle Williams present to ensure that she did everything properly.

Auditioned for the role of Young Amy in Little Women (1994) and Claudia in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). Both roles went to Kirsten Dunst instead.

Never formally studied acting.

Wore braces when she was younger.

Underground Hip-Hop heroes Sean Daley (of the group Atmosphere, who makes many references to her in his lyrics) and MURS have released a collaborative album entitled "Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci".

Audtitioned for the role of Ellie Creed in the film Pet Sematary (1989), but lost the part to Blaze Berdahl.

Her paternal grandfather was of Italian descent and her paternal grandmother was of Irish descent. Her mother has Scotch-Irish ancestry.

Finnish doom metal band Reverend Bizarre song "Goddess Of Doom" is a tribute to her.

Was roommates with Michelle Williams while filming Prozac Nation (2001) with her.

Originally had the part of Desi Brable in O (2001), but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. The part ended up going to Julia Stiles.

Was considered for the role of Velma Dinkley in Scooby-Doo (2002).

Is good friends with her Sleepy Hollow (1999), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and The Man Who Cried (2000) co-star Johnny Depp.

Pennsylvania rock band Anthrophobia has a song about Christina on their 1999 release, "In The Zero To 3 Movement." The song is called "Ricci" and it appears as track 3.

Auditioned for Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002).

Her favorite movies are My Own Private Idaho (1991), Pulp Fiction (1994), The Lord Of The Rings, Gangs of New York (2002) and The Hours (2002).

Her favorite actress is Amanda Plummer and her favorite actors are Viggo Mortensen and James Woods.

Her favorite shows are The X-Files (1993),Law & Order (1990), The Simpsons (1989), Friends (1994) and Will & Grace (1998).

Was turned down four times for the role of Lolita in Lolita (1997), which eventually went to Dominique Swain.

Turned down the role of Lauren in The Rules of Attraction (2002) because of the rape scene in the beginning, which she found gross and offensive. Shannyn Sossamon took over the role.

Finds comfort in falling asleep watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

Says that The Ice Storm (1997) was the first role she really wanted and eventually got.

Turned down the role of Dora Diamond in Loser (2000).

Attended Glenfield middle school in Montclair, New Jersey.

Lived in Montclair, New Jersey when she was younger.

Briefly attended Morristown-Beard School, an exclusive preparatory school in Morristown, New Jersey. (Other attendees include former "Bachelor" star Prince Lorenzo Borghese).

Is a muse for artist Mark Ryden and appears in many of his paintings including one entitled "Christina".

During filming of Black Snake Moan (2006), grew close with co-star Samuel L. Jackson. The two remain good friends to this day.

Suffers from botanophobia (fear of plants). Admits to being especially afraid of houseplants.

(October 26, 2013) Married her boyfriend of 2 years James Heerdegen following a year-long engagement.

Suffered from anorexia as a teenager.

Lives in the popular Los Angeles neighborhood of Silverlake. Other Silverlake locals include Beck, Bo Barrett, Jason Lee, Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.

Joined RAINN (Rape Abuse Incest National Network) as a National Spokesperson in April 2007.

Was allegedly stalked by Gerard Way, later of band My Chemical Romance, when she lived in New Jersey. Way stated that it was just that they shopped at the same record shop and he was really "into her".

Pop Punk band The Adorkables perform a popular tribute song entitled "Christina Ricci" on their album entitled "...She Loves Me Not". Christina has said that she likes the song.

Was engaged to Owen Benjamin (March-June 2009).

Her last name is pronounced, "Ree-chee".

Appearing in a school play a columnist saw her and suggested to her parents that they should get her a manager which led to some commercial work and a role in her first film Mermaids.

Detroit, Michigan filming a movie set in the time of the U.S. War of the Rebellion. [June 2010]

Los Angeles Premiere of Paramount Vantage Into the Wild (2007). [September 2007]

Women's Guild 50th Anniversary Gala [September 2007]

© Murakami Gala at MOCA, Hosted with 'Louis Vuitton'. [October 2007]

In Germany filming Speed Racer (2008). [July 2007]

DKNY Delicious Night Fragrance Launch Party [November 2007]

6th Annual Tribeca Film Festival - "Two Days in Paris" - [April 2007]

Gave birth to her 1st child at age 34, a son named Freddie Heerdegen in early August 2014. Child's father is her husband, James Heerdegen.

Returned to work 3 months after giving birth to her son Freddie to begin filming The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015).

Both she and her Mothers and Daughters (2016) co-star Eva Amurri Martino were 9 months pregnant with their 1st children when they completed filming the movie. They had their babies in August 2014.

Tried out for the part of "Flora MacGrath" in Jane Campion's The Piano (1993) but lost out to Anna Paquin.

Born on the same day as Sarah Lancaster.

I spend a lot of time with my mother. When I'm doing movies, she's always with me. We spend days being bored in an apartment together waiting for someone to call and say I'm needed for a shot. Because we're together so much, we have to get along. We have to find ways to get to know each other. We've gone through a lot of stuff, you know, and I think we're pretty close.

[in 1995] I can be young and cute when I want to be, and I can be really mature when I want to be. It's kind of weird, like I'm the incredible changing girl, which is good because I can relate to adults and to people my age.

If I hadn't gone into acting, I would have been one of those weird runaways on Hollywood Boulevard. No, it'd be uglier. I'd probably be dead.

I'm very shy. I can't even act that well when the camera's not on. I get really embarrassed.

I don't have any training, and I don't believe in training. Of course, people who don't have any training always say that.

[about Marilyn Manson's band] I hate the things they preach. They found a gimmick that sells. The fact that they're making money off all these teenage kids who actually believe in their message is disgusting.

For years, I hated myself. I covered the mirrors in my house. I literally couldn't have a mirror in my room. I still can't sit in a restaurant or someplace where I can catch my reflection. I get so paranoid.

I certainly hope I'm not still answering child-star questions by the time I reach menopause.

I'm not perfect-looking and I don't say the right things, I'm a little different, nothing really special, but I guess I come across as a little more real to people and that comes through on the screen. I know I look young, but with the right make-up I can look older. I definitely feel older.

My dream role would probably be a psycho killer, because the whole thing I love about movies is that you get to do things you could never do in real life, and that would be my way of vicariously experiencing being a psycho killer. Also, it's incredibly romantic.

I like playing people who are so afraid and ashamed 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 don't think I'll be reformed until I'm well into my fifties.

You have to excuse me because I AM a teenager, so I'm allowed to sound illiterate and make stupid comments like 'I'm not into hard-core feminism'.

I think the main reason a lot of child stars don't make it is that it's hard to see someone as cute and then all of a sudden see them as having more depth. I guess I was just lucky that, when I was little, nobody thought I was that cute.

[on smooching Johnny Depp] We actually had some sex scenes, which was very strange. In front of 20 people on the set, with someone who was 27, who you met for the first time when you were nine. It was a little weird.

[about her crush on Josh Hartnett] I know he's got a girlfriend, but I could so corrupt him. He would be a hot date, and that is what I need right now. I have met him, so I know what I am talking about here. He's a nice, home-loving boy with a great body and great eyes. And when he reads this, he's probably going to run a mile.

There are two sides of me. One is the professional side. When I'm working, I'm not a kid - and can't be. Otherwise no one would take me seriously. When I'm not working, I think I'm a normal 15-year-old.

Remember who you are. It's really okay to be who you are.

My first kiss was with the most chivalrous little boy I ever met in my life. It was in kindergarten. There was this kid who was really a jerk, and he wouldn't let me get on the school bus. He was about to hit me when this little boy named Nicky shoved me down, stood up and took the blow. So Nicky instantly became the kindergarten stud. The day he got hit for me, I lined up all the little girls, and everyone kissed him. That was my way of thanking him.

I'm not mainstream-looking. I'm not very skinny. I'm not ...like....beautiful. The point of mainstream movies is to cast someone that everyones' going to love. Because of my persona, I'm controversial. I don't do anything in my real life to deserve that. I don't drink, I don't do drugs. But studio people don't want to put me in their movies. They think I might offend.

I never did drugs - they made me feel awful physically. Of course, I experimented, but soon I thought, 'This is not worth the shame spiral the next day'. I'm the kind of person who, if I went to a slumber party and smoked a cigarette, I assumed my parents were going to die as punishment. So I'd have to call my mom, tell her I'd smoked and feel really bad.

Things were all about appearances. We were supposed to be socialites when we grew up. She's not like that now, but my mother used to say things like, 'When you're older, you can go on a scotch-and-steak- diet'. My dad was also very image-conscious. [on being brought up by her parents]

Everybody asked, 'How do you feel about playing a bitch?' And I'd say, 'If you knew anything about human nature, you'd realize that for this girl, being like that is a total front for being unhappy'.

All my other relationships have been three months. I used to always cheat on my boyfriends. For no reason...Just to create a little drama. And now I don't need that. I don't need that. I don't need any more drama.

I remember when I was little, all the mothers saying once you're 13 you have to stop working because there are no roles for teenagers. But I think I was lucky because just when I got to be a teenager, there started to be a lot more roles for kids my age. For a while it did look like I would have to keep doing kids' movies to stay in the business, but then when I was 15, The Ice Storm (1997) came along.

I got ugly. Throughout my childhood, my favorite rejection was 'She looks too healthy.' They wanted that really gaunt, runaway girl kind of look. I was like, 'Mom, I thought you could never be too healthy.' She said, 'Ignore them'.

I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to play catch up or being half-heartedly enthusiastic about a project. I really want to do things that actually make me happy, instead of feeling like I'm whoring myself out. So I'm really considering doing television, because I'd probably get to play a much more satisfying role on a regular basis, as opposed to getting one great part every couple of years.

[on going to college] For a while I wanted to go, but I didn't like people telling me that I had to. It was as if I had to prove I was intelligent by going to college. That really pissed me off. So I applied and got into a really good college - Columbia - and that proved it. I said, That's fine, I don't need to go for four years to prove to you people that I'm smart. It seems to me that so many young actresses do that - it's like we're told that the really smart actresses took four years off and went to school. But they're not such smart actresses. They just did what they really wanted to do in life for those four years. Everyone talks about Jodie Foster going to Yale. Yeah, she's amazing. But I don't need to prove that I'm intelligent by doing the same thing someone else did.

[on fame and Hollywood] There's a part of me that really loves it. I like going to fancy hotels. I like it when you feel glamorous, someone dresses you up and you go to the big premiere. The other stuff is kind of icky. I have a friend who does casting. Someone will walk in and he'll say, "So good to meet you," and then they'll walk out and he'll say, "She's a little big around the middle." That part of it is disgusting.

I stopped feeling fabulous around age eleven. I got much less confident and more angsty; I think it had to do with boys not liking me.

[on how the Black Snake Moan poster was exploitative of women] 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...All they [marketing bosses] cared about was college-age boys going to see it.

Prozac Nation (2001) $1,000,000

Miranda (2002) $5,000,000