Why Misty From Yellowjackets Looks So Familiar
As of this writing, the November 14 premiere of Showtime's "Yellowjackets" is still more than two weeks away. However, the survival thriller/coming-of-age drama series already has the feel of appointment television. Created and executive produced by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, "Yellowjackets" tells the story of a team of talented girl's soccer players who survive a plane crash in the remote wilderness. The series chronicles the girls' descent into warring, cannibalistic factions, as well as their efforts to put their lives back together 25 years later.
While the show features a loaded cast, the adult version of one of the survivors, Misty, is played by an actress who was a child superstar of the '90s, an indie darling, and a goth icon. Namely, we're referring to Christina Ricci, who burst onto the Hollywood scene at the age of 10 when she starred alongside Cher in "Mermaids." That was just the beginning, though, for the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actress.
Ricci's face is one that has been seen in myriad projects for multiple decades now; from the biggest blockbusters to low-budget passion projects. Here are a few of the noteworthy film and television credits that fans will recognize ...
She was in The Addams Family & Addams Family Values
Just one year after her big-screen debut in "Mermaids," Christina Ricci permeated the zeitgeist with her role as Wednesday Addams in the 1991 cinematic adaptation of "The Addams Family." Based on Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons, and the 1960s television show that they spawned, "The Addams Family" also starred Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and Christopher Lloyd and told the story of a macabre, aristocratic family out of touch with the rest of society.
The film was a big commercial success, grossing more than $191 million at the international box office against a production budget of $30 million, per Box Office Mojo. Ricci's efforts were one of the standout aspects of the movie; in a contemporary review for Alternate Ending, critic Tim Brayton wrote, "There was only one year in the entire history of humankind where Christina Ricci was 10 years old, and that's the year when 'The Addams Family' started production. And while I'm sure there's a good version of 'The Addams Family' without Christina Ricci in it, I really cannot imagine what it might look like."
He also added that Ricci's Wednesday "gets the best individual moments, playing an ice-cold psychopath to perfection. She is the one character in this madhouse who feels genuinely dangerous, and she feels that way at every moment." Even more so, this was perhaps the case in the movie's 1993 sequel, "Addams Family Values," in which Wednesday is unleashed upon a children's summer camp.
Ricci appeared in Black Snake Moan
Well over a decade after she became a pop culture phenomenon as Wednesday Addams, a grown-up Ricci — who had appeared in films like "Casper," "Buffalo '66," "Sleepy Hollow," and "Monster" in the interim — went all out for her role as Rae Doole in 2006's "Black Snake Moan." In the film, Ricci's character falls into a self-destructive world of sex addiction and drugs when her boyfriend is deployed with the Tennessee National Guard. She eventually finds herself left for dead on the roadside in nothing but her panties and a T-shirt. At that point, a religious former bluesman, Lazarus Redd (Samuel L Jackson), discovers her and decides to keep her chained up in his house as he attempts to mend her broken spirit.
"Black Snake Moan" wasn't a big box office draw — it grossed less than $10 million, according to Box Office Mojo — but Ricci and Jackson both earned high marks for their efforts on the project. SFGates' Ruthe Stein opined that the film's distributor "should have held off releasing it until later in the year so Jackson and Ricci would be remembered come Oscar time." She added, "Their performances hover just below over-the-top, an admirable accomplishment when you're yanking on a chain for half the movie."
She played the lead role in Z: The Beginning of Everything
"Yellowjacket" isn't Christina Ricci's first foray into the TV game. Over the years, she has appeared in a number of series, but in 2017, she was first on the call sheet for the Amazon Prime series, "Z: The Beginning of Everything." The show, which was created by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, details a fictionalized version of the tumultuous life of Zelda Fitzgerald and her husband, author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was based on the book, "Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" by Therese Anne Fowler. In addition to acting on "Z," Ricci also served as one of the show's executive producers.
The series' first season featured 10 episodes that rated highly with a number of critics. The A.V. Club's Gwen Ihnat noted that "emotionally, [Ricci's] Zelda practically shimmers" and further opined that "for Fitzgerald fans, wannabe Fitzgerald fans, or even people who can appreciate a well-done period drama, 'Z' has a lot to offer, even as it gives us lots to think about."
"Z" was initially expected to continue beyond its first season, which ended with Zelda discovering that she's pregnant. However, it was later cancelled by the streamer, according to Variety.