Christina Ricci (‘Yellowjackets’) on ‘incredible’ younger cast: ‘We’re not selling them as sex objects’ [Complete Interview Transcript]

During a recent Gold Derby video interview, senior editor Denton Davidson spoke in-depth with Christina Ricci (“Yellowjackets”) about Season 2 of her Showtime thriller drama, which is eligible at the 2023 Emmys. Watch the full video above and read the complete interview transcript below.

The hit TV show’s second season wrapped up in May, with Ricci’s character Misty Quigley reuniting with her fellow plane crash survivors in the present-day storyline at a wellness retreat. The actress earned a Best Drama Supporting Actress Emmy nomination last year, which was one of seven bids for “Yellowjackets” including Best Drama Series.

Ricci found it “incredible” that half the show focuses on 40-year-old women, which are “not glamorized,” and the other half is a younger cast of “talented, talented” girls. “We’re not selling them as sex objects,” she explained in our webchat. “The stories are raw and so emotional and so grounded, and it’s wonderful to see young female characters portrayed in this way. It’s as gratifying as seeing the older characters portrayed this way.”

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DD: Welcome to Gold Derby. I’m senior editor Denton Davidson here with Emmy nominee, Christina Ricci. Welcome.

CR: Thank you.

DD: You’ve been in the business since you were 10 or maybe even a little younger than that, and now-

CR: Younger.

DD: You have Yellowjackets and Wednesday, two of the buzziest, most talked about shows on television. You know what it’s like to have a project take off and then one that doesn’t do as well as maybe you had hoped. Any actor with longevity has been through those dual experiences. Talk about the last couple of years and what it’s been like to have these two shows just explode at the same time.

CR: It’s been really great and I’ve never been somebody who’s able to gauge how successful the project would be while making it. I think as actors, we just put our all into what we’re doing and no matter what it is, and I think with TV, especially the first season, your ultimate goal is to get a second season. So to wish for anything beyond that seems like it’s just not even something that occurs to you or it didn’t occur to me. Maybe if you’re someone who’s had this experience a lot with TV, it would occur to you to want it or expect it or hope for it, but for me, it didn’t, and then it’s just been incredible and I don’t know. It’s something that it’s tangible, but intangible in a lot of ways, but it’s been really, really great and especially last year with the Emmy nominations and going to the Emmys and all that stuff, it was really lovely. It felt really good. It felt really good.

DD: Yeah, seven Emmy nominations, including yourself for best supporting actress as Misty, and best drama series, which is huge, especially for a brand new show like this. What was that recognition like? What do you remember about that night and just all getting together and celebrating?

CR: It was just really fun. I don’t think I’ve had that much fun at an industry event in a really long time. When I was, as you say, I’ve been in the industry a really long time so I had my first blush with success and fame in my twenties, and that would’ve been the 2000s so it was quite some time ago, and things really have changed. So last year for the Emmys, it’s like when I was younger and famous, we didn’t do a week of parties before award shows and now we do. So I wasn’t expecting that, but it was such a lovely thing because it really allowed all of the nominees and all the people involved to get to know each other. And Quinta and I joke that we’re party friends now because we met that first night of parties and then from then on, we’d be like, “Hey.” It was just so fun and I got to meet and know so many people that I admired as colleagues, and the mood was so celebratory and lacked any kind of competition or anything, and then the night of the awards was really just so fun because it just felt like a culmination of a lot of work and a lot of preparation and then people just relaxing and being there and celebrating each other’s success, and it was really lovely. It was one of my favorite nights that I’ve had in my life, I think.

DD: And it’s such an incredible cast that you’ve talked about before. It’s women in their forties. It’s not glamorous. It’s anti-glamorous, if anything. So what’s that camaraderie been like on set and just for you to interact with some of these women? Juliette Lewis too is someone that I grew up watching. Me and you are both the same age, so I grew up with both of you in film.

CR: It really is amazing. I’ve had a few times when I’ve looked around our green room on set and it’s just five… There’s five of us, right? Five women in their forties dressed down, talking about things that matter, talking about the work, the art, and not about hair or makeup or wardrobe or any of that stuff that I think we were really distracted by in former years. And it’s amazing, but I do have to say too, that it’s incredible that it’s half the story is 40 year old women, not glamorized, but also we have this incredible younger cast of truly such talented, talented young women and they also are not glamorized. We’re not selling them as sex objects. The stories are not… I don’t know. They’re raw and so emotional and so grounded, and it’s wonderful to see young female characters portrayed in this way. It’s as gratifying as seeing the older characters portrayed this way.

DD: And let’s talk about Misty. As a kid, she was the equipment manager for this soccer team and she was bullied a little bit, an outcast. As an adult, she is still a loner, a true crime junkie. What’s the most fun about playing Misty?

CR: I think the thing I love the most about playing Misty is that she’s really somebody who I think has accepted the fact that intellectually, she’s accepted the fact that she’s never going to be accepted. She still has those compulsions that she cannot ignore, that compulsive need to try to be accepted, the compulsive need to go after someone and see if they’ll be her friend, but I think deep down, she understands that who she is and the position that she’s been given, and because of that, she leans in almost to… I don’t think she really understands societal norms or the way to behave or any of those things. And instead of fighting that, Misty plays into it, and even her attempts at being pleasing, they always come off as super aggressive because I don’t think she really casually knows how to do it. So it allows me to do a lot of things that in real life, I never get to do. She makes the faces that you’re internally making, but know not to make in a conversation and those things are so fun, and she also, she’s so emotionally stunted that to be able to play this childish character as a 40-year-old woman is pretty fun.

DD: And we’re still in the thrills of season two and Misty’s putting her detective skills to work, and we saw her seeking out Natalie and helping her through that journey with Walter, played by Elijah Wood, and I love this partnership. That brings me back to my childhood. Talk about Elijah coming on board this season and reuniting with him for the first time since working together as teenagers in The Ice Storm.

CR: Yeah, working with Elijah is so great. One, he’s such a lovely human being. He’s also so incredibly smart and talented, and he’s so perfect for Walter and the way he plays the character is just so incredibly charming and thought-provoking and funny, so funny.

DD: And Misty does locate Natalie, and what I love about this whole thing that’s happening is the comedy that comes along with it. In some ways, it’s a very serious situation, but when she gets to this cult or healing center or whatever you want to call it, she calls Tawny and she’s like, “It’s a bunch of granola losers, but the food is great,” and from there, it’s this gathering of everyone coming back together. What is that like for you to balance the comedy and the drama and bring that levity? Is that fun for you because you’ve always had a natural comedic timing even in the films you made as a child?

CR: Well, I’ve never really considered myself funny or a comedian at all. In the 2000s when I was in my twenties, they were always sending us actresses in for comedies and they would say, they just need you to go in the room and just, they want to see if you’re funny. I never left any of those rooms with anyone thinking I was funny, ever. So I’ve just never considered myself to be a comic actress, but I do see the humor in life and especially with a character like this, and I also understand a little bit about the way that a character like Misty creates her own fun in life. Nothing has ever been given to her. She doesn’t depend on friends to have fun. She doesn’t have a social network. So I think she really is somebody who is vigilant about being happy no matter where she is and what she’s doing. So I think naturally when she gets to the cult, of course, the circumstance about the whole experience, but is able to pick out the things that she thinks are delightful like the drumming. She thinks the drumming is great, people are going to cry. Okay. Well, you seem to be enjoying your crying, those sorts of things where she just doesn’t connect as much emotion to things as other characters do and I don’t think she naturally feels a lot of fear and just like how she is with their past, with how they were in the wilderness. She doesn’t have the same guilt and shame that the other characters have about what happened. She just doesn’t connect to it in that way, and I think that allows for her to just pick out what’s delightful in her surroundings.

DD: Well, I completely disagree with anyone who doesn’t think you’re funny, but I love how this show weaves back and forth between the timelines, and I’m curious as an actor, are you seeing these scripts as the younger girls are filming, or are you watching that play out with the rest of us as a fan and a viewer?

CR: Well, we get the scripts a couple of weeks before we shoot, and what was great was in the beginning, we had these Zoom read throughs and so we’d get to see how the younger cast were going to play the scenes and all that stuff, and that was so fun, but then with second season, as the schedule became more… I don’t know. We just got into a bit of a scheduled time crunch thing, which happens. They don’t have the Zoom read throughs anymore or they didn’t, and so I’m seeing how the scenes for the younger cast are playing out as the audience is as well. We read what happens, but you don’t get to see the performances or how it’s going to be executed. So very much, that’s always something fun and exciting for me when I watch the episodes.

DD: And let’s talk about Wednesday. You reunite with Tim Burton here. What’s that like getting back into that Addams family and what do you enjoy working with the most about Tim?

CR: I was so excited to work with Tim again. Not only did I love working with him when I was young, I think I was 19 when we made Sleepy Hollow and I loved working with him then, but I’m such a huge fan of his actual work. His movies are some of my favorite movies of all time. So I was really excited to work with him again and it was a different dynamic because of course, I was 19 the last time we worked together and now I’m 43. So it was more of two adults instead of an adult and a teenager. So that was really lovely. It was lovely to work with him as, I would never call him a peer because he’s so above me in talent and genius, but to be more like two adults collaborating was really fun. I think the thing about Tim is just, he’s so brilliant. You feel so safe in his hands, and Gwendolyn and I always joke no matter what he tells you to do, you’re just like, okay, great, I’m going to do that because Tim told me to do it and it’s probably brilliant. So it was really, really fun.

DD: And you were a late addition to the cast, correct? What enticed you to come back and get involved?

CR: I was really excited. Wednesday is such a huge part of my childhood, my career. I don’t think I’ve ever done an interview where I haven’t been asked about that character ever. Most fans always bring up Wednesday to me, the character that I played, not this series necessarily, and so to be asked to be a part of the new iteration of this character, it really touched me. It really meant something to me. I have a lot of feelings about that character. So I was thrilled to be asked to be involved, and then it really makes sense in a very meta way for me to be the villain, to be the one trying to kill her.

DD: That’s what was so fascinating for me as a viewer because when it started, when I just got into those first couple episodes, it was kind of like, that’s nice. They brought Christina in for a cameo or an Easter egg, but you really get to see that character evolve. What was the fun and joy about playing that character?

CR: Well, the character itself is fun because she’s exaggeratedly cheerful and I like playing things that are just a little bit heightened and tweaked, and they did give me a lot of freedom to ad lib and have fun as the part, and then knowing that you’re ultimately going to make this change and be the villain, I think allows you to really lean into that stuff. I think that sometimes when you don’t know the other thing is coming, as an actor, you can be a little hesitant to play one thing a little too much. But when you know there’s going to be this switch, you really can lean in and have fun doing it, and I loved that, but I also just, I don’t know, in a weird way, to me, she represents old-fashioned ideas that are trying to destroy this youth and progress, and I don’t know, those sorts of things, and it made sense that you would have the old Wednesday trying to kill the new Wednesday in a lot of ways. That, to me, I thought was really smart and clever and I don’t know, it just made sense to me and I really liked it, but I came in very late, I think the last two months of the show and they filmed for eight months.

DD: And you do get to hand that baton to Jenna Ortega, and she’s credited you so much for creating this deadpan Wednesday that people know and love today. What was it like seeing her take on that role and seeing how she flourished with that?

CR: Well, she’s amazing and I have to say, when I met her, I was so impressed with her. She’s very honest and straightforward and intelligent and she stands up for herself, and her take on the character was just really thoughtful and smart and cool and she really brings that sense of the younger generation to the part. You feel the weight of the world’s progress with her playing this part, and I was really happy and I’m also relieved because she’s cool, that this really cool young woman was going to protect the character and play the character in such a fantastic way.

DD: And I just want to go back in time a little bit because you’ve had such a great, fantastic career, but it all started way back. Your first big film was Mermaids, and I just want to ask, what do you remember as being a little kid on that set? First of all, just what your experience was and also were you aware of Cher’s status? Did you understand what iconic status she had?

CR: Yeah. My mother was really great at stuff like that. My mother was not a stage mother, but my mother had a genuine love for movies, for art, for fashion, and anytime I worked with anyone that she was excited about or respected, she would educate me about that person. So when I went to audition for Mermaids, she showed me all of Cher’s movies, including Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Deann, which is a fairly obscure movie. So I had really, I’d seen all of her movies. I knew who she was. I believe Turn Back Time was out at that time. So that video was on MTV and I was really excited and impressed to meet her. And they flew for my, I think it was my second or third audition, maybe my third, they flew me to Boston for the night to audition with Cher and Winona, and I also knew who Winona was because of Beetlejuice and my brothers were older than me and completely in love with her. So I was really excited. It was my first time really meeting a lot of… Well, no, I had had final auditions before with some famous people, but this one, it felt more in depth because I was literally being flown to the location, and from the first moment, they were so lovely to me. I remember Noni and I sitting in the waiting room and talking about our fear of sharks, and then Cher was just so cool with me always, and when I did get the part, ultimately, the time I spent on set was incredible. Cher answered all my questions, she educated me about what was going on. I knew nothing about filmmaking and she was incredible. I remember asking her, watching her cry in a scene and just being like, “I don’t understand. How do we do this,” and she went through all the different things that people use and do and techniques, and it was really an incredible education.

DD: Well, it’s been so fun to watch you in your career since then and so much fun chatting with you today. Christina Ricci can be seen in Yellowjackets on Showtime and Wednesday on Netflix. Best of luck with the upcoming Emmys for the cast and crews of both shows this year, and thanks for chatting with Gold Derby today.

CR: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

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