| By Fred Topel
In Theaters Feb 24
|
The last time we saw Christina Ricci, she was playing the tormented love interest of serial killer Aileen Wournos in the ultra-serious Monster. Her latest movie is another kind of killer film, but of the lighter teen horror variety. She plays a young career woman bitten by a werewolf in Cursed.
“These kinds of movies are really fun to make,” Ricci said. “I think as an actor sometimes you’re in the mood to be really serious and do something really hard and thought provoking. But then the other side of it is, ‘Oh, but I could just have a great time running around doing action-y types of things and being chased by something.’”
She began Cursed two weeks after wrapping Monster. “One of the reasons that I took this movie was that Monster was so heavy and an emotional journey. I mean, Monster was a great experience because I loved working with Charlize and I loved the director, Patty. But at the same time, when you’re working with material that is that dark, eventually you’re just going to feel a little bit heavy. So I literally landed in LA after filming that, coming back from Orlando, and my agent’s like, ‘Okay, you need to go tomorrow to meet on the Wes Craven movie that you can do starting in two weeks if you want to.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds good, something lighter, like playing a normal person who’s running around and screaming. That sounds good, okay.”
Were she to have her own werewolf powers, Ricci said, “I have a horrible sense of smell so I’d actually like that to be improved a little bit. I’d like to be able to climb up walls. That might be fun.”
Going between serious indie films and light studio films requires a variety of techniques. “I think it really does depend on what you’re going to be playing, who you’re going to be playing. A lot of times, if there’s a lot of technical truths that you need to learn, any kind of training, then you might start there. And that will sort of influence the character and you’ll see how that would change a personality. And then trying to just do whatever the director wants. If he likes to rehearse for three weeks, then that’s how you find it. I think for me it really depends.”
Cursed director Wes Craven made things easy for Ricci. “He’s great. I mean, he’s Wes Craven. He’s incredibly experienced and this is his thing and what he does best, and he’s just very laid back and smart and sarcastic and dry. He doesn’t let anything really upset him too much. We’re there to make a movie, but it’s going to be fun.”
Ricci has recently found herself in the pages of fashion magazines like Teen Vogue for her new, glamorous sense of style. “It’s nice to see that stuff and you’re happy. I mean, as an actress, you’re happy to end up in the pages of magazines. So, you know, there was a period of time when I didn’t dress all that nicely probably. So I’m glad people are noticing.”
She is also looking to make Hollywood her permanent home. She moved out of New York with her boyfriend of two years, fellow actor Adam Goldberg, and the two are looking for a home together in the Los Angeles area. “I’m finding that there’s very little merchandise out there. I’m a little upset about that. But I sold my place in New York and came out here, and now we’re trying to find a place. [We’re looking in] Silverlake, Echo Park. You get more for the money out there.”
Goldberg has romanced Ricci not by making grand gestures on holidays like the just past Valentine’s Day, but by connecting her with long distance friends. “It was my birthday on Saturday [February 23], so my boyfriend flew out my best friend from New York so I’ll be spending Valentine’s Day with two special guys. It was just my birthday, so he doesn’t have to make a big deal out of it either because he just made a big deal out of my birthday. So we get to skip Valentine’s Day really.”
See Ricci in Cursed this Friday. |
