Christina Ricci has been acting since the age of 10 when she made her debut in the 1990s movie Mermaids alongside Cher. Then she became a household name after playing Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family. So, when Tim Burton created the series Wednesday based on the beloved Addams Family member, he answered fans’ wishes by casting Ricci in the very twisted role of Marilyn Thornhill. Since Ricci has been in the business for over 30 years, she recently opened up about how Hollywood has changed since her early days of acting, including the time she was once threatened with a lawsuit over a sex scene.
As society’s views start to evolve, so does Hollywood. For example, filming sex scenes has changed since the 1980s in that there are intimacy coordinators ensuring the comfort levels of the stars as they engage in simulated intimacy. While talking about her role in Season 2 of Yellowjackets, Christina Ricci spoke on The View about the evolving changes in Hollywood especially when it comes to filming sex scenes.
It’s really great. Us older ladies talk about it all the time. It’s amazing to see that they don’t necessarily have to go through the things we had to go through. They’re able to say, ‘I don’t want to do this sex scene,’ ‘I’m not going to be naked.’ They can set boundaries for themselves that we were never allowed to do. Someone threatened to sue me once because I didn’t want to do this sex scene in a certain way. It’s really changed and it’s great to see.
Ricci did not mention what project she was almost sued for, but she did bring it up during an interview with Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney in Variety’s Actors on Actors. She remarked how a woman’s comfort level is a priority now doing a sex scene compared to when she was younger, and she concluded the Variety interview by simply declaring, “I didn’t do it anyway. And they didn’t sue me.”
In the same interview, Ricci also talked about Black Snake Moan where she stayed naked on the set the entire time. She was told to be nude throughout the movie, yet the cast and crew around her were uncomfortable, making her uncomfortable in turn. So, Ricci made an empowering move by just staying naked the entire time during shooting to help those around her be comfortable with a woman baring all.
Sydney Sweeney, who is known for her roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus, has also spoken about the lack of control she faced in how the internet handled her Euphoria sex scenes. Despite the major obstacles her nude scenes have caused, Sweeney told Ricci that she’s comfortable doing these scenes because of the intimacy coordinator and yoga blocks that can be put between two people. If she changed her mind about partaking in a particular scene, she was allowed to do so. This shows that concerns for young actors today are prioritized a lot more than when Christina Ricci was younger.
The Sleepy Hollow actress is also helping to serve young actresses of this generation today through her involvement in the Netflix series Wednesday. Taking on the iconic role for the dark comedy series is Jenna Ortega, who shared how tough it was to play the role Ricci is also well known for. Fortunately, this young actress felt comfortable talking to the Speed Racer actress about reinterpreting the classic role, and the two have been able to bond over their shared history was Wednesday.
Hopefully, with Hollywood going through changes to place emphasis on the comfort levels of young stars and treating intimate scenes with respect, actors won't have to be treated the way Ricci was as a young performer. You can see Christina Ricci’s performance in Wednesday right on your Netflix subscription, and check out what we know about Wednesday Season 2.
