Few actors have navigated the transition from child star to acclaimed adult performer with the grace and artistic integrity of Christina Ricci. The actress, who first captured audiences’ attention as the delightfully macabre Wednesday Addams in Barry Sonnenfeld’s “The Addams Family” (1991) and “Addams Family Values” (1993), has spent the last three decades showcasing her range across independent films, major studio productions, and television series like “Yellowjackets.”
“Yellowjackets” follows a high school soccer team whose 1996 plane crash strands them in the Canadian wilderness, where they descend into cannibalism and ritualistic violence to survive. The dual-timeline narrative alternates between the teenage survivors’ harrowing 19 months in the wild and their adult lives 25 years later, where they remain haunted by the secrets of what they did to stay alive.
Ricci portrays the adult version of Misty Quigley, the team’s equipment manager who transforms from geeky, eager-to-please outcast to the group’s unlikely medical expert and to a dangerous underdog that audiences have championed.
Ricci shares the role with , who plays the younger version stranded in the wilderness. Ricci’s approach to the character’s mindset is very interesting when asked about viewing herself as the young version of Misty when she reads the scripts. “Adult Misty lives in such a vacuum in the present without real connection to her past,” shares Ricci. “She’s plagued with PTSD and one of the effects of that is to not be able to have a linear connection to your past. You feel like you are in the moment and you have no connection to the past or future, it’s one of those self-preservation things that people develop in trauma.”
Going toe-to-toe with Kathy Bates’ Annie Wilkes in “Misery”, Ricci has created a character who has the capacity to commit elder abuse, holds reporters hostage in her basement, and this year deliver the death of her closest friend, Natalie (Juliette Lewis). Ricci’s powerhouse performance in Showtime’s survival thriller earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Simultaneously, Ricci returned to the Wednesday Addams universe in the hit Netflix series, “Wednesday,” which became the platform’s most viewed series to date. Taking on the role of Ms. Thornhill in Netflix’s supernatural wasn’t always in the cards with Ricci’s commitment to “Yellowjackets” and her pregnancy at the time.
“I was about to give birth to my baby and they found a way to make so that at eight weeks old I was able to fly to set and start take on the role,” Ricci recalls. “Honestly, I was just excited to be a part of the series and excited to work with Tim (Burton).”
With “Yellowjackets” returning for a fourth season and Ricci co-starring with Kevin James in Edward Drake’s “Guns Up ,” the year couldn’t be busier as Emmy voting gets underway.
Awards Focus spoke with Ricci about the challenges of filming her final scenes with Juliette Lewis and the unlikely path back to the world of Wednesday Addams.
Awards Focus: I love the attention to detail when it comes to what the look of Misty is, whether it’s her walk or the incredible sense of humor amid all the dark elements of her life. Can you talk about the evolution of Misty from the page to early conversations in season one to now?
Christina Ricci: The character’s physical attributes were in the script, curly hair and glasses, but originally she had gray hair. After three episodes, someone at Showtime decided they wanted me to be blonde and not gray, and so they color corrected the past episodes and I got me a new wig.
I was happy with the gray hair, but people wanted her blonde. In terms of clothes, I always felt that this was a person completely devoid of sort of individual taste and aesthetics, and so she would have held on to sentimental things… clothes from her childhood. Beyond that, everything about her appearance should be very pragmatic and function forward versus aesthetics. I think that she looks at what other people do and assumes that that’s what she’s supposed to do as well.
She’s not naturally inclined to care about aesthetics in any way, is what I always thought. The writers had different ideas about that, particularly with the house where she collects a lot of antiques and old people things. For me, Misty is a brain and a face, and very much lives in her head. So, even the idea of decorating her home, to me, felt like something she wouldn’t have done.
AF: After Misty’s role in killing Natalie (Juliette Lewis), she goes to the storage locker and finds Natalie’s jacket, which you fought to have in the episodes more if I’m not mistaken. And, isn’t the jacket being remade now because somebody had stolen it from your car?
Ricci: Oh yeah, I have a new jacket and Coach was very nice to make me a new one. Natalie’s coat that jacket originally was supposed to only play for one episode and I asked when Misty started to investigate Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) death and her friends role in it, which is something Natalie would’ve done — to then have the jacket play for the rest of the season. It was sort of my idea and decision to continue Misty wearing that coat. It’s something of sentimental value that she keeps Natalie close to her and alive with her and that I felt was really important.
Emotionally, it helps her to bolster her strength in separating from the other women and feeling less alone even though she’s more alone than she’s been recently.
AF: Can you talk about the final week of filming with you and Juliette Lewis doing long night shoots and Misty closing the chapter on Natalie in the series?
Ricci: We knew her character was going to die for a couple of months before that, but we didn’t have the script for how it actually happens. It was the last day of shooting when that happened, and we’d been shooting nights for four days… it was very hard filming that on the last day in the television space.
With film, there’s more of a sense of performances being more protected and sacred, and with it being the last day people were in a celebratory mood. Six cast members were in the background telling stories and Juliette and I had a hard time finding the quiet and peace that you need in order to create those emotions needed in that scene.
AF: It’s been great to see so many fantastic actors join the ensemble and elevates the series. With the close of this season, I was most intrigued about Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Misty’s relationship and how there’s set to shake things up next season. What can you share about working with Tawny and what the two of your characters might have up their sleeves?
Ricci: Tawny is one of my best friends and to be able to partner with her for next season and work with her would be really fun. I love the intensity and drama of the division of the two groups and we see why it’s happening now thanks to reveals that occurred in the wilderness. I would love to shoot that story or whatever is planned in the next season based on the finale.
AF: This is such a unique show in the fact that you get to see characters in vastly different ages and dual stories that evolve simultaneously in the narrative. I’m curious when you’re reading the scripts, do you put yourself in both scenarios or strictly stick to your adult timeline?
Ricci: I make jokes about only reading my stuff, but that’s not true. I read all of it, and what happens in the past usually has an impact in the present in each episode. In terms of young Misty, I don’t view as my character at all. That’s Samantha Hanratty’s character and adult Misty lives in such a vacuum in the present without real connection to her past. She’s plagued with PTSD and one of the effects of that is to not be able to have a linear connection to your past.
You feel like you are in the moment and you have no connection to the past or future, it’s one of those self-preservation things that people develop in trauma. Misty very much has that and she’s not self-reflective… driven by her sort of id and what she wants and how she feels, so I don’t necessarily feel the need to consider the past, except for what actually happened in the wilderness.
AF: Are you able to go fairly linear in the filming of the episodes, or are you doing blocks with overlapping episodes?
Ricci: We shoot one episode at a time, but there’s sometimes a second unit they call it a tandem unit which cleans things up from previous episodes if things weren’t completed.
AF: I wanted to also touch on “Wednesday” because that was such a smash hit. Did you feel like there was a lot of magic reuniting with Tim Burton and seeing his take on a world you inhabited playing Wednesday Addams in the 1990s films? Was it particularly engrossing to be filming in Romania versus green screen?
Ricci: I’m very lucky in that I spent a lot of my time making bigger movies in the 1990s and early 2000s when they did make use of real locations, built real sets, and took on incredible set pieces. It was fun to be a part of and I loved getting to work with Tim again.
The war in Ukraine started about a week after I moved my whole family to Romania and the explosion at that power plant was about seven miles from us. So, I wasn’t thrilled about that, but the shoot itself was really, really fun and they were great.
AF: Was there ever a question about you wanting to take on this role, did they tell you upfront you’d have a villain reveal?
Ricci: Apparently, they were interested in me playing the part that you see from the beginning, but I was on “Yellow Jackets” and then I was pregnant and they had gone with another actor for the role. I actually replaced that actor when they had to leave midway and the role was rewritten. I was about to give birth to my baby and they found a way to make so that at eight weeks old I was able to fly to set and start take on the role. They sent me all the script and so I got to see the arc and honestly I was just excited to be a part of the series and excited to work with Tim (Burton).
AF: There’s such rich terrain to explore with Misty and Shauna headed into next season, I’m curious if you have a favorite moment working with Melanie Lynskey over the three seasons so far?
Ricci: We’ve had so many and they’ve all been memorable. I would say we had a bunch of days this season where it was just us in a car and shooting in the car, and it was great. I’ve known Melanie since we were teenagers, so it was fun to get to spend that time together one-on-one and we were already so connected and close.
It was fun to be with her the whole day and navigating stunts, and, you know, I think we make a good pair on set with the way we work and our performance styles.
AF: The For Your Consideration event at the TV Academy in North Hollywood was really incredible, and I’m just wondering what it’s like to see the packed facility and the immense fandom for the series amongst your peers? What has it meant to you when people come up and talk to you about Misty and what is a common thing you hear?
Ricci: With Misty, it’s the idea of being an outsider, of not ever being able to do or say the right thing, being awkward, of being a social reject of sorts. I think a lot of people feel that way about themselves, even if that’s not the way they present. People root for her because she is sort of an underdog and I think a lot of us feel like underdogs in our circumstances.
AF: In terms of next upcoming projects, what are you really excited about? Is there something we can highlight?
Ricci: Yeah, I have a movie coming out called “Guns Up” with Kevin James and that’s an action comedy that was actually incredibly fun. One of my favorite people to work with is Kevin and when you work on something with people you love working with, you want people to pay attention and find it as an audience.