The Addams Family: Christina Ricci looks back on her bizarre audition for the role of Wednesday

The Addams Family : a classic by Barry Sonnenfeld

Created in 1938 by Charles Addams, The Addams Family has been derived in many forms over the decades. After series, in live version as in animated version, Barry Sonnenfeld decides to embark on a new adaptation in 1991. This new The Addams Family, now cult, thus presents Anjelica Huston in Morticia, Raul Julia in the skin of Gomez, the great Christopher Lloyd in the role of Uncle Fétide or even Christina Ricci in Wednesday’s clothes. A fine team, now emblematic, which returned two years later in The Addams Family Values.

Christina Ricci’s hearing

At the time, when Christina Ricci passed the tests for the role of Wednesday, she was only 11 years old. While she has just celebrated her 30th birthday, the actress reconsidered her experience on The Addams Family during an interview with Bloody Disgusting. She remembers, for example, the macabre reconstruction of an abridged scene of Hamlet, during their performance at school. A scene that served as an audition for the film. Equipped with prosthetics and fake blood, Mercredi and his brother Pugsley fight each other on the school stage. A totally cult sequence for the actress: “It’s one of my favorite scenes of my whole career”. She especially loved the way Barry Sonnenfeld ran her at the time, asking her to be macabre and messy: “Nobody ever asks children to do that”. Here is his full speech:

I thought it was super fun on its own. And then, when we got there on D-Day, we did the scene… We had fencing training before that. It was so much fun. We had tubes running down our legs, and I had this prosthesis… And the tube of blood was gushing out. Blood squirted everywhere it was awesome.

Despite numerous production problems, The Addams Family has been a success with over $ 191 million in box office revenue for a budget of 30 million. And above all, Barry Sonnenfeld did not sacrifice the dark and macabre humor of his production despite pressure from Paramount at the time.

Years later, The Addams Family is always at the center of attention since The Addams Family: A Hellish Ride has just been released to the cinema. Likewise, Netflix is ​​currently preparing a spin-off series centered on Wednesday and directed by Tim Burton. Soberly titled Wednesday, the show will feature a new actress as the girl Addams, in the person of Jenna Ortega. The latter will be surrounded by Luis Guzmán in the role of Gomez and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role of Morticia.