Christina Ricci gave life to Wednesday Addams when she was just a child and since then has tried both horror and more independent films.
Long before Tim Burton decided to create his own version of The Addams Family, focusing on the devilish Wednesday, Christina Ricci had already played the character when she was just a child.
The actress who gave life to Wednesday Addams, and who will reunite with this peculiar family in the Netflix series, is especially known for her darker audiovisual projects that are far from the mainstream. But let's better start at the beginning.
How Christina Ricci Became Wednesday Addams
Christina Ricci was born in 1980 in Santa Monica, California. With an Italian ancestry diluted by the passing of generations and with a mother who was a model, Christina Ricci debuted in the world of cinema at a very young age.
At just 10 years old, Christina Ricci had her first role in the 1990 film Mermaids, in which she was able to act alongside such notable actresses as Cher and Winona Ryder. Surely the young Ricci still did not imagine that within a short time, her name would also be remembered and that Winona Ryder would end up becoming a good friend of hers.
A year later, Christina Ricci became Wednesday Addams for the feature film The Addams Family (1991) directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. The film was based on a series from the sixties, but it managed to shine its own light thanks to its new story and a report in which we remember the names of Anjelica Huston, Raúl Julia, and Elizabeth Wilson.
Barry Sonnenfeld's film was a success and its sequel, The Addams Family, soon followed. The Tradition Continues (1993), which brought back the cast of the previous film.
After her unforgettable role as Wednesday Addams, Anjelica Huston's partner stood out in another family horror film called Casper (1995), which focused on the story of a mischievous ghost with a light bulb head.
“If you look at Casper with a critical eye, you will see that I am terrible,” the Casperaños actress said later. “I know that for people it is like a treasure from his childhood but I am terrible in the movie. To be honest with you, I don't think I tried too hard in my performance.”
What happened to Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci was establishing herself as a child actress, like other stars of her time that we have already reviewed in this section, such as Danica McKellar or Frankie Muniz, but she continued fighting to push her film career beyond adolescence by collaborating with renowned directors. and in more independent projects.
The truth is that the former Wednesday Addams did not stop making films while she continued her studies, and she attracted the attention of the media with her appearances in advertising and her cameos in television series such as The Simpsons.
In the same year that the film Pecker (1998) was released, in which she acted alongside Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci had her first Golden Globe nomination for her role as Dedee Truitt in The Opposite of S*x (1998) directed by Don Roos.
Gaining increasing recognition, Raúl's former partner Julia was able to embark on two very special projects that were released in 1998: on the one hand, the feature film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, directed by Terry Gilliam, and on the other Sleepy Hollow, directed by Tim Burton.
In both films, Christina Ricci acted alongside Johnny Depp, and she returned to star with him in Sally Potter's The Furious Lives (2001). While Johnny Depp has had her ups and downs since those days, Ricci has never been involved in controversy and the only thing that can be said about her career is that she began to fizzle out.
Without being completely forgotten, Christina Ricci starred in some more hits such as Monster (2003), in which she acted alongside Charlize Theron, Woody Allen's comedy Everything Else (2003) or her return to family cinema with Speed Racer ( 2008) by the Wachowski sisters.
