I
have no idea what a “Black Snake Moan” is, but I do know
what “Christina Ricci naked and chained to a pole” means.
It means that I will be seeing this movie. The fact that BLACK
SNAKE MOAN also stars Samuel L. Jackson and is directed by Craig
Brewer (HUSTLE & FLOW) is nice, but they had me at
“Christina Ricci naked.” Ricci
recently stopped by the Hyatt Century Plaza in Los Angeles to talk about going all the way to the edge in BLACK SNAKE MOAN.
Check it out.
Christina
Ricci
What
was it about this character that made you decide to go so far?
Well,
I think there are millions of women like Rae out there and the link
between childhood sexual abuse and promiscuity in women and low self
worth and post traumatic stress and low self esteem. That link has
been well established. And when I read the script, she was such an
honest representation in a way without judgment on that kind of
person and I thought, ‘oh, it’s so great to see someone who’s
not sugar coated’ because that implies judgment.
Then
when I started doing more research about survivors of childhood
sexual abuse and really understanding and reading testimonials and
statistics and really understanding what she would be suffering from
and the pain and fears and anxieties that were really her motivating
emotions. I just felt so much compassion for her and felt really
compelled to kind of protect her by playing her.
How
comfortable were you with playing a person like that?
Well,
it’s not uncomfortable when you’re playing them. It’s
uncomfortable to get into character because for me that’s somebody
who expresses themselves and views the world in a polar opposite way
than I do. But once I did all that research and I really understood
where all these behaviors were coming from, those emotions are so
strong that they’re kind of the easy ones to get lost in because
they are so strong and overwhelming. So it was difficult to kind of
get into that mode of always seeing everything through this anxiety
and this fear. But then once I was in that place, all the mannerisms
and everything were really motivated from all that emotion and then
once I was there, it wasn’t that hard.
Sam
Jackson mentioned that he eventually got used to having you hanging
around the set almost naked all the time. Did you ever imagine
that’s something people could get used to?
Well
they had to. It was really necessary for the crew to be used to it
because I was playing someone who has no sense of her body and
places no value on her body. Her body has never done anything but
cause harm and she has no regard for herself so she wouldn’t care
if she were clothed or not. And as an actress, when you’re playing
someone like that, I think it’s inappropriate for you to have any
kind of vanity.
And
I needed to lose any sort of self consciousness because I feel
sometimes you can see self consciousness in a performance when
somebody is naked or in a nude scene and I really needed for that
not to be there so to help me, I stayed the way I would be for the
scene all the time in order to get the crew really used to seeing me
that way so that I was comfortable — not only was I comfortable but
I would look at anybody’s face and not see them uncomfortable —
because if someone else is uncomfortable, it makes you feel like
you’re doing something wrong.
How
long did it take for you and Sam to establish the level of trust you
had with each other?
It
was pretty immediate. He and I, immediately once we were doing
rehearsals, kind of realized that we were going to work really well
together and that we could really trust each other. I was so
flattered by that because I’ve loved him for so long and I was
kind of intimidated and kind of felt like, “God, I hope he
likes me and I hope he thinks I’m a good actress.” So when I
realized that he trusted me and respected me and I, of course,
already trusted and respected him, it was amazing and to be able to
rely on each other like that and know that we were in each other’s
hands and in really good hands and you can be really vulnerable with
that person, it was such a great feeling. It’s rare to have a
partner like that in those scenes where you can just lose yourself
because you know you’re in someone’s hands who cares about you
and will take care of you.
What
kind of research did you do?
I
have read over time and you see a lot about this occurrence, and
this sort of phenomena of women being created this way unfortunately
and having this be the response to sexual abuse. The first thing I
wanted to look at was this nymphomania idea and so I did research
online and found out that nymphomania is basically a defunct word
and any psychiatrist worth their salt will tell you that it
basically means nothing now except that it’s a male fantasy. There
is sex addiction but nymphomania is really not something that’s
really widely used. It’s like calling someone “crazy.”
It doesn’t mean anything really.
But
then I went back and looked at, okay, what is she probably suffering
from? And what she would have been suffering from, what fits the
description, post traumatic stress is the thing which best fits what
she’s going through. And if you think about it, if she’s a child
who everyday is being sexually abused, then everyday she’s living
with this dread and fear knowing something’s coming, knowing
it’s going to happen at some point. And ironically the only time
that she experiences relief or calm is after the abuse has occurred
because it’s when at least she can relax knowing it’s not going
to happen again until the next day.
So
when someone’s suffering from post traumatic stress, they’re
experiencing the same emotions long after the event has stopped. So
it could be 40 years ago but you still feel that same kind of
anxiety and stress of waiting for the abuse to occur. And if the
only way she ever found relief before was from the abuse, now
she’s an adult with this horrifying, crippling anxiety and fear.
She’s got to then become almost her own abuser because no one’s
ever taught her another way to get any kind of relief or release
from her pain.
So
she creates these situations of degrading, anonymous, painful sex
and that’s her way of abusing herself and creating at least
momentary relief. And also, when I was reading tons of testimonials,
there’s a lot you read expressed by many individuals that they’d
rather die than ever be raped again. And so you can kind of
understand her saying this is never going to happen to me again and
it’s not going to happen to me again because I’m going to do it
to myself first.
What
was it like working with Justin Timberlake?
I
thought he was great and Justin is so much fun to be around. He’s
really silly and goofy and we had a great time on set. And I was
really, really impressed with his acting. He was great. He really
connects with other actors in the scenes and he could do a lot of
things that took me years to learn how to do. (laughs)
He
used to make fun of me because I can’t dance and I asked him to
teach me how to “pop and lock,” and apparently popping and
locking are two different things. So that’s nonsense basically —
popping and locking. And I was like, “Oh, okay, well then never
mind.” (laughs) So I never got my dance lesson because popping
and locking doesn’t mean anything. It’s nonsense.
How
about that world of the South that the film inhabits? How did you
prepare for that world?
Before
I went down there I learned an accent, as one does. My assistant at
the time was born and raised in
Memphis
and her sister happens to be a linguist, so even for my audition she
put all my dialogue on tape and I listened to it. And then when I
got the part, she read the whole script onto a tape and I listened
to the scenes before I’d go out and do them. But when you’re in
that situation, when you’re down in the South and you’re
surrounded by Southerners every day and working, you start to just
act like and speak like and feel like a Southerner and there’s
definitely a different kind of calm and laid back. It’s just
different. I don’t know how to express it really. I’m totally a
Northerner through and through, but when I was down there and
surrounded by people, it’s very infectious.
How
would you describe the relationship between Rae and her mother? Do
you think that’s the cause for her being how she is?
Well
not only was she abused her whole life, but she was abandoned by the
one person who was supposed to love her and that abandonment would
have occurred when her mother allowed her stepfather to do what he
did to her. And then to not be validated in what happened. That’s
also extremely abusive to not validate somebody else’s painful,
abusive experience. So that has a lot to do with her not ever having
experienced any unconditional love and that’s really the thing, I
think, that Lazarus gives her is this sort of unconditional love and
respect and the basic respect that you just give another human being
which she’s never really been given. And I think that’s what
enables her to stop identifying herself with her past and sort of
see a different person, see the person he sees.
Was
it an easy decision to make this movie? Did you just decide, “I
want to do this movie?”
Yeah,
I did. I felt so strongly about Rae and about the experience that
she and millions of others have survived and I felt a huge moral
responsibility to do this and to do it right and to give it really
the attention and the weight that it deserved. And also I wanted to
give her the dignity that had been stripped from her. In reading
testimonials, one of the biggest things that I read over and over
again is that what these people felt as children was rage at this
humiliation. All of a sudden their dignity was taken from them. And
then the rage continues and how can you expect me to behave with any
dignity when you’ve stripped me of it. So I really wanted to give
that back to her in a way and protect her by playing her.
Did
you learn anything from Craig in regards to his vision of the South?
I
know he’s very influenced by Tennessee Williams and I’ve always
been a big Tennessee Williams fan so we talked about that and how
that’s a big influence on the way he sees the South.
Was
it hard to decompress from playing such a damaged character?
It
was harder to get into character. Once you’re coming out of the
character, I think that’s something that just slowly happens the
more you start to look like yourself again, the more you’re in
your own home again. And it was kind of funny because, you know,
I’m a prude and I do not like walking around naked and I was in my
bathroom about two months after the movie finished and I was
brushing my teeth and I was in my underwear and I looked down and it
was like, ‘oh, god, put something on.’
And
then I just stopped and thought, ‘oh my god, I was half naked for
two months and my ass was on camera.’ So I called my sister and I
was like, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe… Is it okay? I’m
freaking out’ and she’s like, ‘no, no, it’s okay, you were
playing a part.’ But it’s so interesting how when you come out
of character and you become yourself again, you’re sort of like,
‘oh, wow, uh… I guess that’s okay.’ (laughs)
Are
you concerned that some male viewers might watch you in that role
and get kicks watching it when they should instead be feeling sorry
for the character?
Yeah,
I mean that is my concern but because those kinds of men exist, we
have child rapists and rapists and those are the people who create
this problem and so I have concerns about them even beyond how they
react to this film.
You
looked great. Did you do anything special to get in shape physically
for this role?
Oh,
thank you. I actually wanted her to look really unhealthy and like
someone who didn’t take care of herself. The more you get into
character, the easier it is to neglect yourself because she neglects
herself. Someone mentioned something about looking like you’ve
only been fed sugar your whole life so I started to eat only sugar
and it kind of worked because I look really unhealthy in the movie.
(laughs)
What
kind of things did you eat?
Sugar.
(laughs)
What
do people say to you about the poster and the kind of image that it
portrays?
Well
I feel like this movie has to be dissected from the inside out and
at the very heart of this film is a story about two people who are
in an incredible amount of pain who, by finding each other, manage
to help each other heal. And then, as an actor, that’s how we look
at it. And then the director comes and has a certain kind of style
and vision that he wants to shoot the movie in…One of the themes
for me making this movie — and I know I talked to Craig about it
and he agreed – was this idea of the exploitation of women.
And
what I thought was so important about this film and what this film
showed really well was how she’s been exploited her whole life to
the point where she swallowed the exploitation and now as an adult
she’s exploiting herself. And we used iconic images to sort of
dress her in reference to these iconic, exploitive images. It’s
showing how women are now regurgitating the exploitation that they
are being put through. So that’s a lot of what that kind of thing
in the film is about and I think that’s what the poster is about
as well.
Questions?
Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at thomasleupp@joblo.com.