Christina Ricci calls her father ‘a failed cult leader’: Here’s why

Christina Ricci has recently called her father “a failed cult leader” as she recalled her upbringing in a “very chaotic home”.

Speaking with Demi Lovato for the Hulu documentary Child Star on September 17, the Addams Family star said, “I had a very chaotic home. My father was a failed cult leader, and so he had all that same sort of, like, really crazy narcissism that goes along with someone wanting to run a cult.”

“And he was very physically violent. There was never any peace in my house,” remarked the 44-year-old.

The Monstrous actress revealed she “found peace” on movie and TV sets.

“I knew nothing totally insane was about to happen,” explained Ricci.

The Percy actress told Lovato, “Nobody was gonna get really mad and pretend they were gonna drive the car into a wall. There was this refuge of emotional safety.”

Earlier in an interview with The Guardian in 2000, Ricci shared her parents got divorced when she was 13-year-old and had just finished filming Addams Family Values.

“I know it sounds cold, but it was one of the first things I ever did in my life—to take care of myself,” she told the outlet.

Ricci mentioned, “Decide that only people who deserve it can be in my life.”

The actress opened up that her father was “a very paranoid man” who taught his children there is no such thing as “selflessness, no one ever really likes you and that people are only out for themselves”.

“I think he thought that because he was like that, so was everybody else. He was passing on his little secret to his children,” she stated.

Ricci added, “I don't think it affected me because I decided it wasn't true. No way. Life couldn't be that way.”