Christina Ricci reveals she escaped from 'physically violent' and 'failed cult leader' father thanks to childhood stardom

Christina Ricci revealed that finding fame as a child star helped her escape from her 'failed cult leader' father.

The Addams Family actress, 44, opened up about her past and her father Ralph Ricci, with whom she is now estranged, while talking to Demi Lovato for the new Hulu documentary, Child Star.

'I had a very chaotic home,' she told the co-director and star of the series about her unconventional upbringing. 

'My father was a failed cult leader,' Ricci admitted. 'And so he had all that same sort of, like, really crazy narcissism that goes along with someone wanting to run a cult.'

The Yellowjackets star — who listed her gorgeous Hollywood Home for $2 million over the summer — also said her dad was 'very physically violent.' 

'There was never any peace in my house,' she recalled. 

During that time, however, she said she was able to 'find peace on set,' which was a direct contrast to her home life.

When she was working on set, Ricci said she felt safe. 

'I knew nothing totally insane was about to happen,' she said about when she began working as a child actor.

'Nobody was gonna get really mad and pretend they were gonna drive the car into a wall,' she said. 'There was this refuge of emotional safety.' 

Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California and grew up as the youngest of four, alongside her siblings Pia, Rafael and Dante, in New Jersey. 

Ricci and her siblings were raised by their father, a primal scream therapist-turned-lawyer, and their mother Sarah Ricci, a model-turned-realtor-turned-stage mom. 

Their parents divorced when she was 13, right after she filmed Addams Family Values.

Many years later, she and her father ended up becoming estranged, she told The Guardian in 2000. 

Ricci, who was age 20 at the time, said that she hadn't been in contact with her father for about five years since she was a teenager.

'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 said. 'Decide that only people who deserve it can be in my life.' 

In the same interview, she also spoke about how the abnormal world of Hollywood normalized her and spoke about her turbulent relationship with her father. 

She said that he was 'a very paranoid man' who taught them that 'there is no such thing as selflessness, no one ever really likes you, people are only out for themselves.'

Ricci made her film debut at the age of nine in Mermaids in 1990 and portrayed Cher's onscreen daughter and Winona Ryder's sister.

The following year, she landed her breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel, Addams Family Values (1993). 

She went on to star in Casper as well as Now and Then in 1995, which cemented her status as a child star.