Christina Ricci says child stardom helped her escape from ‘failed cult leader’ father
Christina Ricci opened up about how her traumatic upbringing has continued to haunt her to this day.
The actress shared how her childhood fame helped her escape from her "chaotic home," and especially from her father.
"My father was a failed cult leader, and so he had all that same sort of, like, really crazy narcissism that goes along with someone wanting to run a cult," Ricci, 44, claimed in the documentary "Child Star."
CHRISTINA RICCI SAYS SHE DOESN'T REGRET HER CHILD STAR YEARS
"He was very physically violent. There was never any peace in my house."
Ricci admitted that she had found "peace" while working on television and movie sets at a young age.
"I knew nothing totally insane was about to happen," she explained. "Nobody was going to get really mad and pretend they were going to drive the car into a wall. For me, there was this refuge of emotional safety."
During the "Child Star" documentary, created in part by Demi Lovato, Ricci confessed that she was "really unhappy in her home life."
"And at school, I was really bored . . . I was getting into really crazy trouble, at 7."
The "Casper" actress continued, "As soon as I started going on auditions every day with my mother, all that stopped, all the trouble, everything."
"But what I really loved was getting to go with my mom on the bus to New York . . . my mother was kept in a place in my home where she was not present."
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Ricci went on to say as soon as she and her mother escaped their "chaotic" home, her mother's "personality" started to shine through. The actress added that the two became "very close."
She additionally shared that she "loved" childhood stardom, since she "finally" had something she "knew she was good at."
Ricci added that she had received "positive reinforcement" for succeeding in her young acting career.
While Ricci explained how her childhood stardom had impacted her life, during a sit-down conversation with Lovato, multiple video clips of the young actress played in the background.
Ricci rose to fame after her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in 1991’s "The Addams Family."
Her parents divorced when she was 13, and she hasn’t spoken to her father since she was a teenager.
In 2022, Ricci spoke at a luncheon for The Family Place, the largest domestic abuse support provider in Texas, and claimed, "I was a child in an abusive and violent household and then repeated that mistake as an adult," according to CBS.
In 2021, the Hollywood actress accused her ex-husband, James Heerdegen, of physical abuse.
She filed for a restraining order that year, citing "severe physical and emotional abuse," which Heerdegen has denied. Ricci filed for divorce in 2020.
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Despite calling child acting a positive "escape" for herself, Ricci previously told the New York Post in 2018 that she wouldn’t put her own son into the industry.
"I feel it’s child abuse to make your child famous," she said of then-four-year-old son Freddie. "Once he’s an adult, and he studies, and he understands that it’s an art form, then he can pursue an acting career if he’d like."
She added, "Being famous is not good for children, it’s just not. We have a million examples of why it’s not good for children. I’m just not going to risk it. Why would you put the most precious thing in your life up for that?"