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Christina Ricci Goes Hollywood with Speed Racer
Christina Ricci pilots rocket-fast cars in Speed Racer, the new film from the Wachowski brothers. It’s an experience that tested her physical fitness as well as her ability to keep her partially-digested breakfast from making a guest appearance on the set.
The driving scenes, Ricci says, “were rough, very herky-jerky—all over the place. At one point I did have to get out and vomit and then get back in the car. But I love all that, so to me all that stuff is: How tough are you?”
“I like to prove my toughness,” continues Ricci, 28. “I like to be the tough guy whenever possible.”
“Tough guy” is not the first description that comes to mind when one thinks of the petite Ricci. But if you consider how difficult it is to evolve from child stardom to a successful career as a serious adult actress, you’d have to concede that Ricci is more resilient than most.
Long before she was even eligible for a driver’s license, Ricci was appearing on screen alongside Cher and Winona Ryder in Mermaids (1990), starring as Wednesday in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) and hanging around with a benevolent spirit in the little-remembered Casper (1995).
As the professional trajectory of many child stars has demonstrated, it isn’t easy to grow up on screen and ultimately be taken seriously in one’s post-adolescent years. Ricci, however, has done this as well as anyone in contemporary Hollywood. In her late teens she began to appear in strong independent films like Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (1997), John Waters’ Pecker, Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ‘66 (both 1998) and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).
After big, enviable roles in movies like Woody Allen’s Anything Else, Patty Jenkins’ Monster, in which she shared the screen (and her lips) with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, and Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, which saw her chained to a radiator by a sweet but misguided blues musician (Samuel L. Jackson), Ricci is now making her first turn as the star of a big summer blockbuster.
Larry and Andy Wachowski, the writers and directors of The Matrix movies, chose Ricci to star alongside Emile Hirsch and Susan Sarandon in their big-screen version of the 1960s anime series. As Trixie, she’s a skilled driver who also happens to be very cute.
Ricci, speaking from her home in California, says the chance to make a movie with the Speed Racer team made her choice an easy one. “What really interested me about it was the Wachowskis,” she says. “I’ve wanted to work with them ever since I saw the first Matrix. I’ve wanted to do a bigger action film for a while.”
Because of her skin tone, dark hair color and big, round eyes, “for years people have actually been saying, ‘You look like anime. They’re going to make a movie of Speed Racer; you should play Trixie.’ So it’s kind of funny that I got the call to go audition for it.”
“It was just one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had,” she says of the production, which took place last year in Germany. “It was such a fun movie to make. We got to do so many different kinds of things, like stunt work and fight scenes. They even had us soldering a car.”
This is surely the first time Ricci was asked to do auto body work on a movie set, but her career has been full of other interesting turns. As a child she took obvious roles for actresses her age; as an adult the roles open to her have broadened, an invigorating development for a performer with a curious spirit.
“For a long time I was taking what came along and just keeping a steady pace in my career and work,” she says. “Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten to a place where I feel like it’s very important for me to be more selective. I was just lucky up to this point that most of the things that were seen by audiences and that are memorable to people happen to be kind of cool movies. But a lot of that was not by design, a lot of that was just luck, and now I’m at a place where I’m being more choosy.”
Ricci’s professional growth has been accompanied by the recent influx of moviemakers who might lack her experience but happen to be part of her generation.
“What’s happening,” she says, “which is sort of interesting and making me think about it more, is that the people who are in positions of authority or are people who have arrived with where they want to be with their careers—young directors—they’re now my age. So now that I’m sort of the same age as the directors and casting directors and writers, I hear a lot of people saying: ‘I grew up with you.’
“I think that older directors had a harder time understanding what kind of actress I was—or what I was in general—but the younger ones, the ones my age, get me a little bit better. There’s never that whole ‘Is she weird?’ They’re just like, ‘No, we grew up with her, we know who she is.’ So that’s a great thing that’s happening now.”
Read the full interview with Christina Ricci in MovieMaker Magazine’s Spring 2008 edition, on newsstands now. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up today at the discounted rate of $9.95 for one year—available to MovieMaker.com readers only at https://www.moviemaker.com/subscribe/online_only.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Captain_Keith on 5/15/08 at 12:49 pm
She’s done some good stuff that’s been forgotten or ignored.
All the best to her.- Comment by Anime on 5/29/08 at 9:44 pm
Cool. I just got into anime, any suggestions?
- Comment by fitness on 6/11/08 at 3:27 pm
that image does not look like a real person
- Comment by glyconutrients on 7/31/08 at 7:39 am
great stuff. I wish Ricci all the bets in the times ahead.!
- Comment by IT certifications on 9/07/08 at 11:51 am
image is a real one, its just have some photoshop effects i guess. Awesome stuff!!
- Comment by NorCal Cars on 12/28/08 at 10:43 pm
She made a good Trixie
- Comment by Free music world on 6/10/09 at 3:02 am
I am shocked after read your blog, If the hero drives the car very fast but in he drives secure mood and its your words upon, So why you vomit. don’t take tension and listen some good music tracks.
- Comment by Erik GH on 7/09/09 at 7:53 am
Speed racer was just way to computer generated for me. I like realistic car movies, I think it would of been better if they made the movie more realistic. I did like Christina Ricci in it though, she’s a looker.
- Comment by Grand Rapids LASIK Eye Surgery on 7/17/09 at 9:20 pm
I used to have a huge crush on Christina Ricci… not so much anymore though :)
- Comment by muffin9129 on 8/17/09 at 4:01 pm
I like her, and she has not been in a lot of movies lately do I hope this helps her career, wow does she ever look good in that picture, almost plastic.
- Comment by Pat.R on 8/27/09 at 4:38 pm
I do not really mind her. She has done some good movies, but I think she has cleaned up er act recently. She almost looks fake in that picture though.
- Comment by Phone Counseling on 9/05/09 at 8:17 am
Christina Ricci is a fairly accomplished actress outside of the mainstream movie industry. Glad to see she is still out there working on great films.
- Comment by Charles on 2/21/10 at 10:09 pm
Speed racer was a real fun movie to watch, I just wish it had more realism to it. Even this picture of Christina Ricci doesn’t look real, she kind of looks like a cartoon or something. Overall it was a still fun movie to watch and I love car movies, no matter what type of movie it is.
- Comment by Pass Guide on 2/25/10 at 12:32 am
she is good actress & also perform very unique role in many movies
- Comment by Price per Head Services on 3/13/10 at 10:58 am
I like that girl
- Comment by facebook backgrounds on 7/18/10 at 11:17 pm
What is the name of the song in the International trailer for the Speed Racer Movie. There are three songs but I want the last song played...right after Christina Ricci Says “Speed Racer what are you thinking” and then a chic with orange hair fires a gun in the air. Here is the link to that trailer below...I NEED TO KNOW THAT SONG...I’m guessing its Es Postemus but I’m unsure. Again...its the INTERNATIONAL TRAILER song I’m looking for not the first trailer...that song was Iron Fisted Mutha…
- Comment by Actinic Keratosis on 8/17/10 at 10:07 pm
Really shes looks so tall and great and wet look of eyes and skin tone, dark hair color and big, round eye and I think shes maintaining a good branded creams to show up.
- Comment by Miami Mimi on 9/28/10 at 10:05 pm
Her best part hands down was as the wastiod in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
- Comment by Waterproof Socks on 10/06/10 at 7:20 pm
Damn, whenever I saw clips of that cartoon I thought the red-shirted character was a dude.
- Comment by Car Fans on 10/12/10 at 10:01 pm
cool, act as Speed Racer.
- Comment by kall on 12/06/10 at 3:26 pm
I recently saw some glimpse of the Speed Racer production, Christina is awesome and the movie is a tribute to the car speed racing around the world. Sure, we already know the drill: don’t try anything like this at home!
Kall, car covers- Comment by AllanBrouwer on 6/30/11 at 8:05 am
I haven’t seen the movie but I’m looking forward to seeing it. I love everything about cars and speed including movies related. I want to get a new car but I haven’t decided what type yet. I don’t know what to do with the old one. I heard of a car donations system. It’s a good idea to help others.
- Comment by allie_valenza on 6/30/11 at 8:43 am
The movie is great! Cool cars, beautiful woman, nothing more to be said. That movie convinced me that it’s high time I saved some money for a new car. My class B van is kind of old, but it’s a very good care and I might keep it as well. Yes, two cars will do!
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This story was published in the Spring 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Christina Ricci Goes Hollywood/The Indie Screen Queen Gets Tough in Speed Racer
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