"I think he'll see women in a much more layered, complicated way, just by having grown up watching his mom do all this stuff," Christina Ricci said.
Christina Ricci is conscious of the influence her acting career has already had on her young children. The 42-year-old Yellowjackets actress claimed in an interview with The Guardian that her 8-year-old son Freddie "won't be able to avoid" having a feminist stance because of his mother and stepfather. "My husband, Mark [Hampton], is, I hate to say it because it sounds really obnoxious, a feminist," Ricci said. "And Freddie is going to see that, and see his working mother." The Emmy nominee further added, "I think he'll see women in a much more layered, complicated way, just by having grown up watching his mom do all this stuff."
The actress, who presently portrays strong female characters on two different television shows—Misty Quigley on Yellowjackets and Marilyn Thornhill on Wednesday, shared that her son, whom she shares with her ex-husband James Heerdegen, is also acutely aware of how women are seen. "He's asking questions like, 'Mom, is that racist?' Or, 'Mom, is that okay for women?'" Ricci shared. "He's got this whole thing about not calling objects – like boats – she. He'll correct me: 'Women are not objects.'"
For his part, Freddie has actually been observing for quite some time. In an interview with PEOPLE, Ricci claimed that even at the age of three and a half, her son was asking her questions about her career. "He's come home from preschool and been out in the world and said to me, 'Mama, are you a movie actress?'" she recalled. "And I didn't say that to him. People mention it to him, clearly. I have to then explain to him what it is, and we've shown him movies," she added.
The early acting roles for Ricci, who also has a 1-year-old daughter named Cleo with her husband Hampton, were among the films Freddie viewed. "In the beginning, he didn't want to see anything where Mommy looked different and then he started actually requesting [films]," said the star.
After showing her 1995 film Casper to her son, Ricci said that they "realized he hadn't developed that ability to discern reality from fiction." She continued, "He started asking me about my childhood with my best friend, the ghost," she said, laughing, about the family film. "And we were like, 'Oh! Too soon.' For a while, he was asking me a lot about ghosts and living alone with my dad and being a ghost and we were just like, 'Oh no!'"
References:
https://people.com/parents/christina-ricci-is-raising-son-freddie-to-be-a-feminist/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Dimitrios Kambouris
