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Christina Ricci tells Kelly Clarkson why she’s glad social media wasn’t around when she was a teen
"It would have been a real bad situation for me," the Yellowjackets star says of social media.
Christina Ricci doesn't regret not having social media as kid, when she was already killing it in films like Mermaids, The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, and Casper. Growing up in the public eye, she couldn't imagine having to deal with the added pressures of social media, she said on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week.
Clarkson said that she was so glad that social media wasn't around when she young. "Oh my God, me too," Ricci responded. "I was like a feral creature as a teenager, so it would have been a real bad situation for me. I don’t see how everybody is handling it all so well.”
The daytime talk show host on NBC, whose show also streams on Peacock, said that her kids "hate" her because she won't allow them to have phones at this point. "That’s a big thing with Freddie as well, my son," Ricci said. "He’s so mad that he can’t have a phone.”
Watch Christina Ricci talk about childhood fame on The Kelly Clarkson Show:
Ricci — who's currently starring in Showtime's Yellowjackets, which just kicked off its second season on Sunday — added that her son will try to sway her by letting her know that his friends already have phones. "And I’m always like, ‘Well, you can’t have one. I’m so sorry.' ... Then he was talking about someone having a phone, and I was like, ‘Well, If you were walking home from school, yes, I might give you a phone for emergencies.' And he’s like, ‘Well, I’ll walk home from school then.’"
Ricci also discussed the burden of being in the entertainment biz at such a young age, explaining that she started when she was just 7 years old.
"My son is 8 and I’ll always use it against him," she joked. "He’ll tell me he can’t do something, and I’ll be like, ‘Well, I was working 12 hour days outside in the cold when I was a year younger than you. So guess what? I know you can do it!'"
Ricci added that filming was actually fun as a kid, and it wasn't until later on in life that she realized the full toll it can take.
"I really enjoyed escaping from my home life and I didn’t like going to school and I didn’t like being a kid," she explained. "And getting to go to set and be good at something and to be encouraged, and to be successful at something — I liked the actual day-to-day work and everything. And it wasn’t until I was older and a teenager that I really kind of felt the effects of fame. And it was the fame aspect that I didn’t like. I loved the work itself, but I didn’t really enjoy all the specific attention of fame.
"It’s really hard too, when you don’t even know who you are yet," she added. "Like, how are you supposed to present yourself to the world, when you don’t know who you are?"
In Yellowjackets, Ricci plays the adult version of Misty Quigley, who was bullied as teen. The teen version of Misty is played by Sammy Hanratty in this show that follows a group of teenagers (and later their adult versions) involved a 1996 plane crash, who must then must survive in the wilderness before getting rescued. "There’s a supernatural element to it, but you’re not sure if that’s just them freaking out and seeing things or if it’s really happening," Ricci said of the series.
You can catch The Kelly Clarkson Show weekdays on NBC or streaming on Peacock.
