Life on the set of Penelope was a little bit of life imitating art, says star Christina Ricci. Liker her character, she kept behind closed doors and only stepped out disguised with a scarf.
Why all the secrecy? Filmmakers feared the public and paparazzi would catch a glimpse of Ricci’s prosthetic pig snout before they were ready to reveal it.
“I’d want to go to Starbucks, or something, and they would just panic,” Ricci explains. “I’d walk out of the trailer and you’d see the P.A.’s panic and say, ‘Does she have her scarf on her face?’”
In the film, it is Penelope’s parents who are fighting to keep her in hiding, tucked away in their mansion until they can find “one of her own kind” to fall for her and lift the family curse. Fed up, Penelope takes off on her own, with only a scarf to protect her identity.
Hollywood.com caught up with the child actress-turned-movie star to find out more about Penelope, her upcoming film Speed Racer, and more.
Hollywood.com: This film is rated PG; what message do you hope young people take away from it?
Christina Ricci: I really hope that the strongest message that’s taken away is self-acceptance and self-love, and that you have to learn to love yourself and you have to accept who you are…A lot of our society is based on, “I’ll be happy once I have the right man,” or changing yourself a little bit, or a lot, depending on who you’re with. The things women do to be with different men is just ridiculous. So, I think it’s important that we have young girls that are growing up learn to be really strong and independent and have the right sort of priorities.
HW: What was your biggest insecurity growing up?
CR: My sister and I have two insecurities, which are pretty funny. You know how everyone has something?…Whenever we go out, me and my sister always ask each other, “Do I look butch?,” and “Do I look crazy?” [Laughs] Those are the two things we’re both terrified of. We’re terrified that we look crazy, and then on other days that we look like boys.
HW: What about putting on the pig nose, any insecurity there?
CR: The first one they put on me was a little bit too hideous and scary and kind of nasty looking…and then, all the girls in the room were like, “Uh uh. We want that one that looks like Miss Piggy and is cute.” And so, somewhere in the middle, we found it. It just looked like me with a fake nose on. It didn’t really disturb me, in any way.
HW: Did it take a long time to put it on every day? Was it uncomfortable?
CR: It took about an hour and a half. It’s not fun to have something glued to your face. It just isn’t…I had a rule that I wasn’t allowed to really acknowledge how irritating it was or touch it or scratch it or complain until we only had like three hours left of the day because I knew that if I started in the beginning, I would just be irritated all day long and want to rip it off my face. So, I felt that, if I started late in the day then I could tolerate three hours of being really irritated.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: Penelope spends a lot of time in her room, it is kind of her own little world, were you like that growing up?
CR: Yeah. Penelope was encouraged to be very expressive and, of course, she couldn’t leave her house and I could actually leave my room, so I didn’t really feel as much of a need to do that. But, yeah, I was very much one of those kids that would go in my room and lie down on the carpet and daydream a lot, and talk to myself a lot. Penelope is definitely like that.
HW: Did you have your favorite things on the walls?
CR: Yes, I did. I shared a room with my sister for a really long time, and then I finally got my own room and it was just ridiculous looking. I got my own room when my oldest brother went to college. It was this little room, and I wanted to decorate it any way I wanted to because, living with my sister in the same room, she got to do whatever she wanted to. I don’t know why my mother even allowed this to happen, but I picked green and pink, and this horrible Laura Ashley duvet cover, and rose pink carpeting. I mean, honestly. But, the room I lived in before, with my sister, was purple, and now, every house I live in, I have a purple room, so I guess those were the more formative years for me.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: It is so different to see you as a blonde; did you dye your hair for a new role?
CR: For Speed Racer it was cut into a very extreme bob, and it was black. And then, I came home and wanted to grow it out…I thought putting it back to brown might be better, and I softened it up a little bit because it was a little extreme.
HW: Were you nervous at all, to cut your hair so short?
CR: Yes. I had spent the entire year growing it out, of course, which is what always happens. And, I kept calling my manager’s office and saying to them, “Will you call and tell them that, if they’re going to make a wig for me–wink, wink–they should probably get my measurements, or something, and start making it now.” And, everyone was like, “No, no, no, it’s going to be fine. They’re not going to do anything weird to your hair.” And then, of course, I got some drawings of what the costumes are going to look like…and, of course, it was a short hair-cut bob thing. So, I just decided to embrace it and go with it…I can always ask for a wig on the second one. [Laughs] You feel like, if you do it once, then you’re justified in saying, “OK, I did it, and I don’t want to anymore.”
HW: Was the role of Trixie very physical for you, or will they just CGI everything?
CR: No. Speed Racer was the most fun ever. That’s another example of a great role model character for girls because she’s smart, she’s funny and she does all the things the boys do. She kung fu fights…she races and she flies a helicopter. But, she has a specific outfit that she wears when she flies the helicopter, and her lipstick always matches something she’s wearing. She gets to be everything. She’s celebrated as a girl and a woman, but she’s also not treated any differently than the male characters are. So, it was so much fun, in that respect. I like being dressed up and I like doing stunts.
HW: You still had fun, even with all the green screen?
CR: But, that made it hilarious. We’d walk on set and there would be half a helicopter, and then the rest of the thing was just green. And, it’s an ensemble piece, so there’s a lot of other actors to look at and just say, “What the hell is that? What scene are we shooting?” So, it just made it funny. We would just walk around and be like, “All right, so the mountain’s over there, and what is that? Oh, that’s the edge of the cliff. OK, well, I shouldn’t be over there.” It was just funny. It made it all really hilarious. And then, towards the end of the day, the green would start to make you feel like you were tripping, so that was also, at times, enjoyable. [Laughs]
HW: Have you seen any of the final footage?
CR: The [Wachowski] brothers showed us 15 minutes, and it’s just amazing. It looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before. All the driving stuff is really exciting and thrilling. And then, it has this emotional element that’s actually really quite moving. A lot of guys were crying at the end of the 15 minutes because there’s this real guy sad thing. [Laughs] But, also, every character in it is a very specific, funny character. Mom (Susan Sarandon) is always going to have her apron on, and Sparky (Kick Gurry) is going to always be Chaplin-esque and funny, and Mr. Royalton (Roger Allam) will always be evil. It’s just fun. Everything about the movie makes it feel like an event movie, so that’s exciting.
