"I don't think about what other people think of me": Actress Christina Ricci reflects on self-acceptance and growth

American actress Christina Ricci, during an interview with People Magazine at the Yellowjackets season 3 FYC event, opened up about her self-acceptance and growth journey.

The 45-year-old actress has been working in Hollywood since she was a child, in films like Mermaids (1990) and The Addams Family (1991). In the recent interview, she also opened up about how her relationship with her body has evolved,

"I think what I learned was that it doesn't matter if I'm beautiful or not by anyone's standards. I am myself. I view myself as a face and a brain. I don't think about my body. I don't think about what other people think of me."

The actress also mentioned that her daughter, Cleo, 3, helped her understand the importance of separating her appearance from her identity.

"If you tell her she's cute, she'll say, 'I'm not cute. I'm Cleo.' And I think that's so important. We are who we are and we don't need to be defined in these other ways."

"It made me really uncomfortable" - Christina Ricci talks about growing up in Hollywood

In a 2008 interview with Time, Christina Ricci mentioned that movie sets made her feel "very safe" and were a "really positive place" where she felt validated. However, while speaking to TODAY Parents in September 2022, the actress opened up about "things that happened" when she was younger that, in hindsight, "sound totally crazy."

"People would basically all get together and look at you and decide how to fix everything that was wrong with you. And I never enjoyed those days of everybody talking about my flaws."

Christina Ricci mentioned developing an eating disorder while she was going through puberty, and how older men discussed her breasts in detail.

"When I was 12 or 13 and started to have boobs, they would talk about how to make me look less womanly. It made me really uncomfortable. I did not enjoy that."

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The actress mentioned that since in Hollywood "the production - the movie being made" was considered more important than the individual's feelings, people didn't care about her feelings, which posed to be a problem when you're a child.

Christina Ricci later recovered from anorexia at 15, and mentioned that she wants her children, Freddie and Cleo, to have a healthy relationship with food and know that they "eat for nutrition" to grow and to be healthy, and remember that their biggest asset is their mind.

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