Christina Ricci's Career Blossoms

Christina Ricci, at 21, is one of the few actresses successfully making the transition from child star to adult star. So it's ironic that, on screen, she finds herself caught in the past.

Last seen in the 18th century New York of "Sleepy Hollow" - as a woman in danger of losing her head - she now plays an endangered heroine in Nazi-threatened 1930s Paris in "The Man Who Cried." But if she fears getting pegged as a period actress, it's not apparent in an interview.

"(The film provided) a rare opportunity, especially as an American actress, to play not the antsy 21-year-old but to deal with such a different character," she said. "In Europe there is this overwhelming sense of history that spurs your tone and what you're doing."

Directed by Sally Potter ("Orlando"), "The Man Who Cried" is an old fashioned World War II melodrama that eventually could find itself at home on a video shelf next to "Pearl Harbor." The film, made in Europe and opening Friday in Boston, also features Johnny Depp as a romantic gypsy and Cate Blanchett as a Russian dancer hunting for a rich husband.

"The Man Who Cried" is the dramatic telling of a girl's odyssey from 1920s Russia through Nazi persecution in Paris and finally to a reunion with her long-lost father. The R-rated film reteams Ricci with "Sleepy Hollow" costar Depp and contains her first love scene.

"This was my first movie with sex scenes. But now that I'm 21 it's not as big a deal now," Ricci said. "And I've known Johnny so long, he's protective of me as an older brother."

The Ricci-Depp connection began on the set of the 1990 film "Mermaids," in which Cher played the mother of sisters played by Ricci and Winona Ryder. At the time, Depp was engaged to Ryder. The idea of casting Depp for "The Man Who Cried," Ricci said, came up during filming of "Sleepy Hollow." "Someone told me Sally Potter met with Johnny," Ricci said. "I said, 'They can't cast him in another movie I'm doing!' But they did. But it's comfortable. We know enough about each other to laugh at it and he said it was like we were rooting around together like pigs. I don't know if we can do it again, it might get crazy."

Less familiar was Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky, who plays her father. "He doesn't speak any English and I don't speak Russian and we had a translator," she said. "But that last scene when we meet, we really communicate with emotions. Even between takes and everything. He's an amazing actor, his presence is so strong, you feel his presence through the whole movie. He made it very easy for me to do what I needed to do in that final scene."

Ricci, already a veteran of 26 films, has made a remarkably seamless transition into adult roles. "Now I've been acting 11 years and, oh yeah, there's a big difference," she said. "When I was little, I thought it was the most ridiculous profession on earth. I couldn't believe I'd get paid for this.

"When I did press I'd say I was going to grow up and get a real job. I didn't think it was artistic but I liked the attention. Now as I'm getting older I take more pride in my work, and I feel movies have power and can do really good things and you can influence people with them."

She has "no regrets" about her career in a business that has a history of devouring its young.

"It's individual and depends on the kid," she said. "I was the kid who needed to work and that outlet and the attention and the structure of it. I always found it so satisfying. The things I was exposed to and the people I met make up for everything. Everything. Everything I gained."

That she has made the transition from child to adult star, she calls "really lucky. That had a lot of do with certain directors taking a chance and hiring me. Certainly because I was so young I wasn't the most natural choice for 'Buffalo 66' or 'The Opposite of Sex'. They took the chance. Those directors were able to see me in those parts and that helped me through.

"I've always been so lucky, with amazing guidance and incredible representation. All the people in my career are close to me and I've been with them so long. I see other people who are with people who don't care about them - and I never realized how lucky I was until I saw that."