Christina Ricci: From Mermaids to Pan Am

Mermaids: Playing Cher's daughter in the 1990 big-screen family film not only plucked Ricci from obscurity but also gave her a foray into period dramas. Ricci played Kate, the younger sister to the film’s narrator, who moved with her family in 1963 to a rural town and promptly fell into a river and almost drowned while the elder women of her family were more focused on their individual relationship issues. Since it was a family film, and one that came out at the start of the everything-must-have-a-message '90s, Kate (and Ricci) came out almost all right in the end. But having all five senses intact is overrated, right?

The Addams Family / Addams Family Values: It can be a tall order for an 11-year-old to take on such an already iconic character as Wednesday Addams, but that's exactly what Ricci did in the 1991 telling of the tale (and the 1993 sequel). It was the first time we got a real sense of her dry, almost sardonic sense of humor, as she so simply took pleasure in trying to decapitate her new baby brother and then twirled one of her pigtails so innocently in the next beat.

Casper: While many girls her age were experiencing secret admirers and crushes from their schoolmates, Ricci was of a much different type. In this 1995 live-action version of the popular comic book, Casper the Friendly Ghost developed a crush so deep on Kat Harvey (Ricci) that he ends up giving up his only chance at becoming reanimated as a person in order to save her only family member, who has had an unfortunate fatal accident. There have been many great love affairs told on film, but how many of them featured a sacrifice that great? We'd say none!

Now and Then: Tapping into her tomboy side, Ricci was Young Roberta Martin to Rosie O’Donnell's present-day version of the character. Yet another period piece, Now and Then was told primarily in flashback during a pivotal summer for a group of friends. The film saw Ricci blossoming into womanhood and her character fighting it at every turn. But as much as the character may not have wanted to accept her fate, Hollywood was happy to start to see the actress as much more grown-up, as evidenced by the next slew of roles she began to get offered.

The Opposite of Sex: It took until 1998 for Ricci to break out of her "cute kid" typecasting to play a much darker role and therefore show off her range. But once she started here with narcissistic, manipulative, and all-around bitchy Dede, the floodgates were open, and she found a new niche, staying in that seductress role for quite some time.

Sleepy Hollow: Working opposite Johnny Depp in 1999 had to be a turning point for Ricci on a personal level, even if the film was only a moderate success among critics and longtime fans of the story. Heading back in time to the 18th century on-screen, Ricci portrayed the mysterious young woman Depp’s Ichabod Crane became infatuated with and rescued from the killer before riding away to New York. And for that, this role, more than any others she held before or since, made women across the globe wish they had Ricci's career.

Monster: In the 2003 biopic on infamous female serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Ricci didn’t actually play a real person but instead a fictionalized lover to Charlize Theron's version of Wuornos. Some would say that is the tougher job, then, to have no documents from which to draw in order to understand the psyche of a character who could be so intimate with a sociopath. For that kind of powerful performance, Theron called Ricci the true (though unnoticed) "hero" of the project.

Grey’s Anatomy: Though Ricci only appeared on Shonda Rhimes' medical melodrama for two episodes in 2006, it was an award-worthy performance. Literally. She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series that year. And though she lost to Patricia Clarkson, surely she saw lucrative future possibilities in the medium. She'd return to TV just a few years later.

Penelope: Perhaps to keep her indie cred after going "mainstream" with a Shonda Rhimes project, Ricci took on another big project in 2006: the Reese Witherspoon-produced fantasy rom-com about a woman born with a pig nose (thanks to an ancient witch's curse) who learns to love herself for who she is. It was an on-the-nose (no pun intended) story for an actress who has always marched to the beat of her own drum and embodied the message of not caring what anyone (let alone Hollywood) thought.

Speed Racer: Starring as Trixie, girlfriend of the titular Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), Ricci was relegated to the supportive on-the-sidelines female in a man's (or, well, boy's) world, helping him win his race, being his moral support, and ultimately being one of his best prizes when he ultimately defeats the bad guy. Though it might seem odd that such a strong actress would take such a fluffy role at this point in her career, Speed Racer is an institution from all of our childhoods, so we have to imagine the lure of its lore was just too great.

Pan Am: Come fall 2011, Ricci will be seen on ABC once again, this time as a somewhat disheveled stewardess during the airline’s 1960s heyday. "Every time we step on a plane, we are excited just like the passengers are," Ricci said of her new role. "And it's glamorous, and these stewardesses were looked at as really glamorous sort of symbols. It's something that we have so much pride in, welcoming these passengers onto the plane, and they have so much pride in travel.… I always remember when I'm playing a scene on the plane, you know, just to imbue everything with that sense of excitement."