Christina Ricci landed her breakout role at 10 years old, but her star seemed to dim over
the years.
Do you know the role that brought her back onto the scene in 2021?
Here are the tragic details about Christina Ricci.
Growing up in the spotlight wasn't easy for
Christina Ricci.
The actor told IndieWire in 2019, she had a difficult time with fame as well as the
interviews that came with it.
But that wasn't all she struggled with.
Opening up to The New Yorker in 2022, the "Yellowjackets" star said of her difficult
childhood, "I was a troubled, rageful teen who was then
allowed to do junkets and press.
And I didn’t lie about any of it, really."
It was Hollywood, however, that triggered an eating disorder.
Speaking candidly on "The Talk" in 2012, she shared,
"I think it's just really awkward to go through puberty, and go through growing up and becoming
a woman, when everybody is always kind of looking at you."
Particularly difficult for her were fittings, where people were, quote "judging" how things
looked on her, making her feel uncomfortable.
"This is my costume.
I'm a homicidal maniac.
They look just like everyone else."
Ricci ultimately developed anorexia, which she tried to hide, but those closest to her
noticed.
She was put into therapy very quickly and, nowadays, she considers herself lucky, because
her recovery was faster than most.
Ricci's recovery was marred with additional pain, however.
Speaking with Marie Claire UK, she revealed how someone found out about her struggles,
saying, "It was a horrifying thing to do to a 14-year-old
trying to cope with a devastating illness.
And, out of rage, I vowed that no one would ever be able to out me for a secret again.
So I was going to be completely honest in the rest of my life."
As Christina Ricci entered her twenties, she
continued to struggle with fame and identity.
As she confessed to Marie Claire UK in 2012, "It took a while for me to be comfortable
with who I was."
Growing up in the public eye, she didn't immediately accept the fact that everyone might not get
her sense of humor or even like her, so she tried to change.
Recalling her early years in an interview with The New Yorker, Ricci dubbed herself
"nihilistic" and shared how being separated from her peers forced her to find other influences.
In a 1996 Blender interview when she was just 16, she proclaimed about life,
"Nothing feels real at all."
Ricci admitted her nonchalant attitude was actually an act, adding,
"As much as it doesn't seem like I was trying, I was actually trying to be more normal.
I tried really hard for a really long time to be someone who said the right things and
did the right things."
These days, she no longer feels the urge to, quote, "cause destruction" for herself or
others.
It's a sentiment she also shared with Marie Claire UK, noting,
"I’ve never been very Hollywood."
"It's so embarrassing.
Just remember, everyone was a geek once."
What's more, she doesn't miss the old days of trying to fit in and seems to be glad she’s
no longer twenty years old, comparing that time in her life to living in a hurricane.
Christina Ricci has made a lifelong career
of acting, but what many don't know is that she once had another goal that involved a
different aspect of Hollywood.
It was the 1996 interview with Blender that a then-16-year-old Ricci proclaimed,
"If I never do another movie again.
[...] I won't be that crushed."
As she told the outlet, she wouldn't mind giving up acting because she was planning
to go to college the following year and pursue a different calling: writing.
Indeed, Ricci confirmed to The New Yorker in 2022 that her adaptation of Jean Cocteau's
"Les Enfants Terribles"landed her a spot at Columbia University.
Sadly, she had to give up that dream before it started.
She explained, "Well, I was not raised with a lot of money,
and I didn’t have a lot of money even then."
She went on to recall how she and her mother went into debt after having to borrow money
to move to New York for her acting.
When she started getting work in her senior year of high school, she chose stability over
her passion.
She said, "All of a sudden, I was successful in making
money, so I deferred for a couple years, and then it was just like, I'm not going."
Now that she’s older, the actor admitted she regrets the decision and that she’d
probably still be writing if she’d gone to the creative-writing program.
Christina Ricci met and fell in love with
camera technician James Heerdegen on the set of 2011's "Pan Am."
The couple married in 2013 and had son Freddie in 2014.
However, their relationship turned volatile.
In July 2020, the actor was granted an emergency protective order against her husband, after
police received a domestic battery call from the house, according to Us Weekly.
In January 2021, TMZ reported Ricci was granted a restraining order against her now-estranged
husband.
The order kept Heerdegen 100 yards away from Ricci, their son, and their dog, and forbade
all contact.
According to court documents seen by TMZ, Ricci alleged Heerdegen began abusing her
in December 2019 and said she asked for a divorce after he physically assaulted her.
However, pandemic quarantine began soon after and Ricci said she found herself, quote, "trapped
in a house with a violent abuser."
The actor accused Heerdegen of two more outbursts in June 2020, during which he allegedly threw
a chair at her and dragged her into a fire pit.
Ricci said she feared for her life.
In court docs obtained by TMZ, Ricci said, "He said the only way he could feel sorry
for me is if I were dismembered into small pieces."
She eventually filed for divorce in July 2020.
As for Heerdegen, he denied the 2020 allegations and vowed to file his own restraining order.
In January 2021, James Heerdegen filed for
a restraining order against Ricci but it was denied, per Page Six.
In the document, which was referenced in an article by The Daily Mail, Ricci's estranged
husband accused the actor of putting their son at risk and claimed she would drink excessively.
He alleged she once went on a drinking binge during which she admitted to cheating.
Heerdegen also claims Ricci called him vile names and made bizarre threats.
Ricci's attorney, Samantha Spector, fired back, telling Page Six the filing was, quote,
"nothing more than a transparently abusive attempt to silence my client."
The couple was finally legally divorced in July 2021, after deciding on a temporary custody
arrangement, per Page Six.
In the agreement, Ricci would have sole legal custody of Freddie, but Heerdegen would be
granted visitation rights.
Jump to January 2022 and People learned their battle was far from over.
Heerdegen was now requesting child and spousal support and asking Ricci to pay $50,000 to
cover legal costs.
According to court documents, Ricci's ex was in debt and would soon be bankrupt.
In January 2022, Christina Ricci revealed
how she prepared to play Misty Quigley on "Yellowjackets" and, as it turns out, she
simply had to look inside herself.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, she explained, "They’re not stereotypes.
These are real individual characters, people that remind me of girls I went to school with."
Ricci also described Quigley as a small woman and, quote, "so passive-aggressive, so full
of edge."
It's something the actress herself knows all about.
She mused, "I am a small woman who apparently is adorable
to people who like to touch me and not take me seriously and like to assume I'm stupid
before I open my mouth."
Ricci believes people see her as an actress who didn't go to college and therefore assume
she must be dumb.
Ricci shared that she deals with anger just like Quigley and in that same passive-aggressive
way.
The topic of education is also something she touched on with The New Yorker in 2022.
Recalling how she gave up her spot at Columbia University, she said,
"I was resentful of the idea that no one would think I was smart unless I had gone to college."
Christina Ricci kicked off a huge acting career
when she was just a child, but despite early successes like "The Addams Family" and "Casper,"
Hollywood turned its back on her.
As she told the Los Angeles Times in 2022, "But there was definitely a period of time
when I didn't fit into anything that was being made."
This period of her career happened in the mid-2000s, when comedy was the studios' focus.
Recalling how she was continuously being sent to rom-com auditions, Ricci admitted she tried
her best to change to fit into those kinds of parts, but it never seemed to work for
her.
Similarly, she said in The New Yorker, "Comedies were a really big thing then, and
they’d send me in, and they’d always say, ‘Well, they have to meet you, because they
want to see if you’re funny.’"
Her brash, unapologetic personality also made things difficult.
She said,
"I know for a fact that people were a little put off in the industry.
I understand being nervous about casting someone who seems so volatile and uncontrollable."
"I'm an actress and I like drama."
Ricci went on to muse about how the industry saw her as an actress only fit for very specific
roles.
Despite these struggles, though, Ricci is proud of her resume and has concluded that
being "specific" hasn't been a terrible thing for her.
Christina Ricci has referred to herself as
a "natural contrarian" who refuses to be labeled, but as she said in a 2019 IndieWire interview,
"Sometimes it’s terrible and I should really just allow people to view me the way they
want to, but I have a real desire and drive to define myself and to not be defined by
others."
Even so, she's trying her best to let things go and be comfortable in her own skin.
As she told People in 2016, motherhood has helped with that shift.
She explained,
"It’s made everything in my life actually important and matter.
I now have to take things seriously, and I never did before.
I want to succeed for him.
My choices matter more."
Her agent, whom she's had since she was 10, is also to thank.
Ricci called her a "brilliant, grounded woman."
Ricci is also inspired by the changes she's seeing in Hollywood.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in 2022, she highlighted the fact that women are finally
getting to play more interesting characters.
"You've chosen exactly the women you need."
All of these elements have made her acting—and her life—better.
As she confessed to IndieWire, "It took a very long time for me to have enough
real meaning in my life to apply any meaning to the work I did."
Now, Ricci feels more in charge of herself and does things because she fully understands
what life is supposed to be about.
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available.
Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at
1-800-931-2237.
You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.