Gold Coast
April 11-12, 2026
Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre
Nineties icon Christina Ricci played a massive role in the childhood of many, with the Casper, The Addams Family and Speed Racer star giving fans at her Supanova Adelaide panel a unique insight into her prolific career.
Casper or The Addams Family?
“I liked The Addams Family more. In Casper I was kind of a teenager, so I had all kinds of angst, but when I was doing Wednesday I was just a little kid having a good time and it was so much fun; I had the most amazing time on it.”
The work she’s the proudest of
“[Buffalo ’66] is the movie I’m most proud of being a part of. If I weren’t in it, it would be one of my favourite movies. It wasn’t the most fun movie to work on, but it was the most artistically fulfilling because it really is such an amazing movie.”
On bringing Wednesday Addams to life
“When I went to audition for the part, they specifically said, ‘We don’t want an impression of the TV show Wednesday, we want an interpretation of the Charles Addams character from the comic books.’ That little girl was just a very morose little creature and so that’s what I wanted to do.”
On the struggles of being a child actor
“I don’t think that children should be allowed to be famous. I think that not protecting your child from the world and presenting them up for people to criticise, saying anything they want to, exploit their personalities; I think it’s a kind of child abuse, frankly.
I would have been happy to do the work and I loved acting, but if I could go back and change anything, I would have had my parents say, ‘She’s not allowed to do press.’ Because a talent is a talent and can fill a child with incredible self-esteem and good feelings, but a child shouldn’t be held up for adults to criticise, or to turn into whatever they want. I had a very hard time being famous, and I think that it’s probably a normal thing to be a child and not do well with being famous.”
Favourite Aussie films
When quizzed on her favourite local films, Ricci offered up Dead Calm, Mad Max and Chopper.
Why she won’t be doing much swimming in Australia
“I think I saw a shark in the water from out my window this morning, which was very exciting. I thought it was dead, but my husband said maybe it’s just lurking, waiting to eat dogs, because there were dogs running into the water and then it did swim away, which was horrifying.”
Thoughts on Casper’s ending
“I thought it to be very sad – I mean, the whole story is very sad…This kid who loses his life to illness and just spends forever wandering in loneliness. It is very sad and we can only hope that he and Kate remained friends, but at least he got his moment, and the point is, he can hold onto this special thing that happened to him forever.”
The power of socks
“I used to have a weird thing about my sock and I would get emotionally attached to my socks and not want to put them in my hamper for days.”
Favourite actor to work with
“I have worked with some amazing people, so it’s difficult to pick one, but I think because I just spoke about Monster, Charlize [Theron] is in my mind. She and I had the best time working together; we laughed non-stop.”
Lead image by Ewan Ly
