Christina Ricci talks about her role in the fairy tale 'Penelope'

HAVING MOST recently played a brutalized nymphomaniac chained to a radiator in "Black Snake Moan" (2007), Christina Ricci abandons her chain and torn tank top for a very different role in her new film, "Penelope," which opens Friday.

Based on a Marylin Kaye fairy tale and produced by co-star Reese Witherspoon, the film casts Ricci as a girl who has been cursed with the snout of a pig. In order to overcome her affliction, Penelope must learn the lesson of self-acceptance and come to love herself and celebrate being different.

The actress who, as a child, charmed audiences as Wednesday in "The Addams Family" (1991) and as a teenager played provocative roles in such films as "Buffalo '66" (1998) and "The Opposite of Sex" (1998), has transformed from a dark, brooding, moonfaced kid to a voluptuous pinup for the indie crowd.

Q: In 2006 you told Premiere that "openness is just part of the job" for a movie actor, and that you would let people do whatever they need to do to you in order to achieve the image or visuals required for a film. Did you have any hesitation about wearing the pig snout?

RICCI: I am willing to let people do to me whatever they need to get across a specific message in a film.

I won't do just anything I am told. But if it has merit and if it has value to the story, and to what we are actually doing to the character, then I am very, very open. So I don't want it to sound like I am the good-time girl who will do anything, but it never crossed my mind that playing a girl wearing a pig nose would be not a good thing.

Q: Did you have to audition for this film?

A: This movie I didn't have to audition for. This movie Reese submitted directly to me. So that was great, and very flattering.

I have a lot of respect for Reese. I'd known her for a couple years, and we've had over the years many conversations about the business and about women's issues, how her views of the world have sort of changed ever since she had a daughter. So I was very flattered that she chose me. She's great to work with. She was a great producer for this movie to have, because she was just so strong in making sure that this film always stayed true to its initial intention.

Q: How long did it take to put on the pig nose every day?

A: It took about an hour and a half to put the prosthetic on. Then I would go over into regular hair and makeup and get normal sort of beauty makeup put on over that.

Q: Did that get a little old after a while?

A: Well, generally the hair and makeup trailer in the morning is actually kind of fun. So the only thing that got old was that I had to not talk at all while the nose was being put on my face, because you can't move your mouth with something being glued to your face. So sometimes being silent that long I had a problem with, because I am a compulsive talker.

Q: Did you ever wear the pig nose out in public to see what kind of reaction you would get?

A: I didn't. They were trying to keep the pig nose a secret in the beginning, but then ultimately they decided that wasn't the best approach.

I didn't really walk around with it on. Every once in awhile we'd be on location in London and I'd say, "Why don't we walk over to Starbucks? Oh - because I have a prosthetic pig nose on."

Q: Penelope is chased by photographers. What do you think about the paparazzi, the tabloids and the gossip trades?

A: I think it is a little bit sick, in a way. I definitely am guilty of having picked up those magazines, and I read them on planes. But at the same time I think that they can be really cruel.

And I think that one thing that people don't really understand about gossip about actors is that it can actually have an effect on their career. I think that people tend to take an actor's career, and it doesn't seem as real as somebody's job at a big company or their career as a CEO or any other thing. But the fact is that sometimes, when people are really mean or really slanderous, they are hurting the way in which somebody supports themselves and their family.

Q: Have you had similar experiences with paparazzi?

A: I have a very different approach to paparazzi than I think most people do. I've decided that the best approach is to be friendly and nice.

When there are four cars following me, I like to view us all as a caravaning team. I'll talk to them, I'll pull up and roll down my window and go, "Is there anything specific you're out here for today? Because I'm going to run errands." And they'll go, "No, no, no. We just want some fashion shots. Blah-blah-blah."

But I find that, if you are nice to people, they are generally nice back. It's going to happen anyway, so why allow it to drive you crazy? It is really not that big of a deal, unless you have something you really don't want people taking pictures of.

Q: How do you prepare for a role like Penelope?

A: Unless it's a specific accent, or something about physicality that you have to change, I am generally not such a conscious actor. Usually it's a mix of being on a set and being surrounded by a production unit. Certain production design really informs you of tone. Then reading with different actors and getting a feel of what the story is and who they are, and then your hair and makeup has a huge impact on the way you behave.

So generally I don't do a ton of preparation.

Q: This is not the first time you've taken on a role with fantastic or supernatural elements. What about that type of film intrigues you?

A: I've always loved fantasy. I was a big sci-fi/fantasy geek when I was a teenager, secretly in my room, so I have always wanted to do a fairy tale, I've always wanted to be in a fantasy kind of film or a science fiction.

I am naturally sort of attracted to things that are a little bit out of this world.

Q: Do you have a dream project you would like to work on? Is there something that you have been planning to do that you just haven't had the time yet?

A: I think my dream project would be that Wally Lamb book "She's Come Undone" (about a teenage rape victim who finds solace in food, resulting in clinical obesity). But I am not sure that they are ever going to make that into a movie. I know that they were going to, years ago.

It is such a beautiful story, and specifically one that you don't hear too often. The way in which this woman grows up and expresses her pain is something that is very different from what we normally see in film. And I think that it is because it is considered, in our culture, particularly disturbing.

But this is a woman who is in an incredible amount of pain. I would love to show somebody expressing her pain in the way that she does. But also it is a survivor story, because it goes through how she feels and how she evolves and becomes someone who is good to herself and is good to other people. *