Christina Ricci Wasn't Fazed By Her First Full-Frontal Nude Scene
We’ve seen Christina Ricci grow up in front of us, going from coolly gloomy Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, to playing legendary socialite and novelist Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Z: The Beginning of Everything. The series, which premieres on Amazon on Friday, also puts Ricci in the driver’s seat as an executive producer, has her mastering a southern accent and features her first full-frontal nude scene.
Plus, she’s gone through major changes off-screen as well: Ricci’s son is now firmly in his terrible twos. Becoming a parent has impacted every facet of Ricci’s life, including her fashion sense.
“I don’t worry so much about how I look anymore in the same way I used to,” Ricci, 36, tells Yahoo Style. “I freak out all the time about how I look when I’m going to red carpets but also there is that part of me in those moments that says, ‘You know this really doesn’t matter. It’s just a dress.’ And that’s not something I used to have; a dress was like the end of the world. So it’s nice to have a little bit more confidence and to feel a little bit more grounded to the earth.”
What inspired your fascination with Zelda and her story?
“I happened to stumble upon the book and I read it and I loved it. I thought it was so incredible. It was fascinating to me that she had the reputation that she had. And I also was sure that I had seen something about her – some movie, TV show, or something, but nothing has been made just about her. So we felt like it was certainly something worth telling. It’s just kind of fascinating. It really brings up a lot of questions, I think especially for me as a woman. Was she ‘just his wife’ Is being someone’s wife not enough? But it wasn’t enough for her. She wanted to be more than that but she wasn’t allowed to be. I wondered how much the time period had to do with the tragedy of her life. It’s just really interesting and I feel like it’s a story worth telling.”
What aspects of her Zelda’s life do you most relate to?
“I think there is a certain recklessness that she has that I have had in my life. I think she was kind of unsure for a very long time. I think I was too. I think that plays into the lack of forethought and the lack of really understanding consequence. I had that way too late, way past being a teenager. And I think that’s also something that Zelda suffered from and it had a lot to do with what went wrong in her life. She lived during a time where you made a decision when you were 18 and there was no changing it later on in life. I am fortunate enough to have been born in 1980. So I made lots of mistakes but was able to change them afterwards.”
You’re wearing a producer hat and acting in the lead role in this project. How does Christina Ricci produce Christina Ricci?
“I probably am the only person that I listen to so that’s good. And now that I know that my ideas are valid, it’s opened up a whole new world for me. So that’s kind of exciting.”
You get to be a fun feisty blonde in this role. What do you like about rocking that hair color?
“Well I am blonde now. I was blonde before the show and I really like being blonde. I had always secretly wanted to be blonde but I didn’t think I could. And then I guess after I had a baby I was like, ‘I don’t care what anyone thinks. I guess I’m going to be blonde.’ And I love it. I’m never going back. I just really like it. I’m a very girly girl. I love unicorns and sparkles and rainbows so blonde hair to me is just really pretty.”
Zelda is super stubborn and she kind of seems like a nightmare to parent. Are you worried about having to eventually deal with the teenage years with your son?
“Apparently teenage boys are not as hard as teenage girls so I’m not as scared. I am though really terrified of the day where he tells me he hates me or something. I think it will break my heart. But if you know it’s coming, then at least you can say, ‘It’s just because he’s a teenager!’ And my husband and I, we were kind of bad kids. So I’m not sure whether he’s going to be really bad or if because we were the way we were, we’ll have this Young Republican. We’ll have Alex Keaton instead of me.”
The dating years are supposedly harder on parents of girls but I’m sure it’s not a cakewalk when you have a boy either.
“Because as a woman you want to make sure your boy isn’t gross. You want to make sure he’s cool to a girl. So I’ve already started with the whole ‘this is how we treat women.’ And he already calls women ladies. ‘Hi ladies. Mama that nice lady.” And I’m just, ‘Mmhmm.’”
How is motherhood going in general?
“He is in his terrible twos. We’ve been talking about that a lot here. We’re doing a lot of traveling for the job and discussing the fact that a 2-½ year old on a plane is not great. But other than that, I absolutely adore him. It’s so fun. I don’t need anything else in my life because he’s so fun and entertaining and fantastic.”
How has your personal style changed since becoming a mom?
“Having a child certainly puts a lot of things in perspective. It also cuts down on time. So I can’t overthink anything I’m wearing or buying. And once you have a child, you don’t spend money on trendy things as much because you have it in the back of your mind that you have to pay for your child’s education and stuff like that. So it definitely forces you to figure out who you are, how you dress, and just be confident in it.”
This show is a lot of firsts for you. You do your first full frontal scene in this series. Were you nervous to do it?
“I almost don’t feel like it isn’t fully nude because the merkin is kind of like wearing a bikini. I don’t know that I would ever go just full on vag. I feel like I’d have to do underwear. It’s a merkin. It feels like you have underwear on.”
What goes into your mind to before shooting a scene like that?
“Not too much. I just make sure that they shoot it first thing so that I can eat afterwards. I’ve done a lot of nude scenes in my life and I feel like at this point, it’s no secret what I look like naked. You can Google me. So I don’t really freak out that much about it. And also, when you’re an actress, if you don’t look perfect on camera, who cares? So that character isn’t perfect? So that character has fat arms. Whatever! It’s not like being a model where you’re supposed to look great all the time.”
This year seems to be all about telling Zelda’s story. We have this show. And then Ron Howard is doing his interpretation of the Nancy Milford biography where Jennifer Lawrence is playing her. And then Scarlett Johansson is set to portray her in The Beautiful and the Damned. Why do you think now is the right time to tell Zelda’s story?
“I think she was very much a person out of place in her time period. And I think before, until we evolved to this place, her behavior was always a mystery to previous generations. But now I feel like my generation is very much the same type of woman that Zelda was; she didn’t just live in the right time period. So I think now there is an understanding of her behavior and a relatability of her behavior now that just didn’t exist before. She was ahead of us, I think.”
With all the issues we are facing today, do you feel like she represents what we need from women in today’s society?
“Zelda didn’t realize she wasn’t an equal until someone told her that she wasn’t. As long as we obsess about women not being equal and we think of ourselves as not being equal and we accept this position of not being equal, we will never be equal.”
You seem to be great at staying out of the drama of the Hollywood limelight these days. What’s the secret to being pulling that off?
“I used to live in LA and I got a lot of paparazzi. But now, I don’t even live in Manhattan. When I was pregnant, I didn’t intentionally avoid people, I just didn’t have a reason to ever be photographed. So people didn’t find out I was pregnant until I came to LA. I just don’t seek it. I think if you genuinely don’t seek out these things, they don’t come to you. No one knew I was pregnant because I didn’t make an announcement; it wasn’t like I was avoiding anything. I think that sometimes, if you’re at the level of fame that I’m at – because I’m not as famous as other people – you can avoid it.”
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