Christina Ricci is a prominent American actress and producer. She made her film debut at just nine years old in Mermaids, which was then followed up by her breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams family and its sequel, Addams Family Values.

CHRISTINA RICCI BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Christina Ricci was born on February 12, 1980 (Ricci’s age: 43) in Santa Monica, California to Ralph and Sarah Ricci. Her mother worked as a Ford Agency model during the 1960s before later finding work as a real estate agent. Her father had a more varied career, finding jobs as a lawyer, gym teacher, drug counselor, and primal scream therapist.

Early on in her childhood, Ricci and her family relocated to Montclair, New Jersey. She is the youngest of four. Her three older siblings are Dante, Rafael, and Pia. Her parents split up just as she was entering her teenage years, and she has been quite vocal about her parent’s divorce and the troubled relationship she’s shared with her father.

CHRISTINA RICCI BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Ricci shed some light on when she knew she wanted to become an actor.

“Actually, I had a very surreal moment as a seven-year-old where I was in music class and the music teacher told all of us that we were going to be in this Christmas pageant that year and we needed to learn our things. He gave us all scripts and I watched everybody else do these lines, and I was like, ‘oh my god, I totally know how to do this. This is crazy.’ And I had one of those moments where I was like I found my thing. So yeah, right then and there I knew that I had found the thing that I was really good at.”

Ricci has been in over 50 movies including The Addams Family, Yellow Jackets, Casper, Speed Racer, Penelope, and she has even appeared on the new Netflix original show Wednesday, which is a modern take on the original Addams Family that Ricci originally starred in, portraying the main character of Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Ricci spoke about her performance in the film Here After (2020) and what it was that intrigued her about this film.

“Well, I like that this movie was really an exploration of an idea, a concept, a question. You know, I feel like that was one of the things that made the 70s such an incredible era for cinema. So many movies at that time are really explorations of ideas, questions, searching for the meaning of life, the meaning of love, all of these things. And this movie really felt like that to me. Somebody trying to make sense of something through art, and that’s something I’ve always liked to be a part of.”

When asked what she thought the message was about the nature of love and death, here is what Ricci had to say:

“I guess what he learns. Love is reciprocal, love is selfless. Love is more than our earthly fascinations and obsessions and distractions. I think the idea with death is basically, you are left with this feeling that even in death we are not alone and death is not the end. And I would say that was the thing I was really left with after watching this film.”

CHRISTINA RICCI BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Ricci currently lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband Mark Hampton.

Previously, she was engaged to actor and comedian Owen Benjamin after they met on set for a film. However, their engagement was broken off before they even got married. A few years later, Ricci got engaged to film producer James Heerdegen, with whom she was married for nearly seven years before ultimately filing for divorce in 2020. In the filing, Ricci claimed to have been “severely abused” both physically and emotionally and said that a number of these “acts of abuse” had even taken place in front of their son. In April 2021, Ricci was officially granted full custody of her son, while Heerdegen was allowed visitation rights.

Ricci has reportedly struggled with both anxiety and anorexia. On April 25, 2007, Ricci even became the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, an organization she strongly believes in.

 

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