By [ad_1]
The Addams Family (1991) director Barry Sonnenfeld reveals how star Christina Ricci helped to change the movie’s ending for the better.
The Addams Family (19991) director Barry Sonnenfeld revealed that star Christina Ricci helped to change the film’s ending for the better.
Sonnenfeld dropped this particular tidbit of information during his interview with The Hollywood Reporter to commemorate the movie’s 30th anniversary. The cinematographer-turned helmer made his directorial debut on the film, itself a dark supernatural comedy inspired by the satirical one-panel comics created by Charles Addams for The New Yorker in the 1930s, as well as the live-action Addams Family TV series from the 1960s. Ricci starred in the movie as Wednesday Addams, the young daughter in the twisted, macabre, aristocratic Addams clan.
“Whenever the cast had a problem they would go to Christina Ricci because she was the most articulate and intellectually gifted of any cast member,” said Sonnenfeld laughingly. As such, Ricci led the charge when The Addams Family cast had concerns about the film’s conclusion.
The Addams Family (1991) revolves around the Addams’ personal lawyer teaming up with a loan shark to swindle the clan out of their fortune by having the latter’s adopted son (Christopher Lloyd) pretend to be the Addams’ long-lost relative and Wednesday’s uncle, Fester Addams. In the end, it turns out the “pretend” Fester is actually the real deal and was suffering from amnesia before a bolt of lightning to his head restored his memory (shortly after he turned against his mother). However, in the original version of the ending, the “fake” Fester was just that, but Wednesday and her family adopt him anyway.
“The cast all gathered in a circle and told all the reasons to Christina why they thought it was a bad idea,” said Sonnenfeld. “She went on for 10 minutes, explaining why it had to be the real Fester. I said, ‘Give us a minute.’ [The film’s producers] and I went into a corner. I said, ‘I think she’s kind of right.’ And [they] agreed. I asked Chris [Lloyd], ‘Do you care if he is the real Fester or fake Fester?’ He said, ‘Meh. I don’t care.’ So we rewrote the ending based on the cast disagreement.”
The Addams Family (1991) went on to become a box office hit that earned mostly positive reviews, with Sonnenfeld and the cast reuniting for a sequel, titled Addams Family Values, two years later. After recently appearing in a pair of animated films, the Addamses are heading back to live-action with the upcoming Wednesday, a Netflix series that Tim Burton is directing, with Jenna Ortega (2022’s Scream) playing the titular character once brought to life by Ricci.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
About The Author
[ad_2]
