Christina Ricci Opens Up About Dealing with Paparazzi as a Child: ‘I Was Never Really Comfortable With It’ | Christina Ricci | Just Jared: Celebrity News and Gossip

The 45-year-old actress, who rose to fame at the age of 11 in 1991 by playing Wednesday in The Adams Family movie, opened up about the negative effects of receiving unwanted attention from a young age.

“I did not enjoy that, just because people, they’ll follow you all the way home. And I lived by myself, and that felt very threatening,” she said on a recent episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, referring to the paparazzi.

However, she also gave a shoutout to a kind business owner who she remembered helping her out.

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“I found there was a liquor store on the corner. Rick was this guy who always worked in there, and he was always smoking a cigarette. He’s the only person I would ever let call me Chris. And If anyone ever followed me, I’d pull into the liquor store, and I’d go tell Rick, and Rick would come out and chase them off,” she said.

The Yellowjackets star also revealed a clever way she used to cope with strangers disrespecting her boundaries.

“I played this mental game where I pretended that my dad was just this doctor that everybody loved in town, and I was just like, ‘Oh, Dr Ricci‘s daughter,’ and that’s why everybody was being nice to me, but not that I was famous. And that everybody just really wished me well,” she said.

While it paid off at first, she eventually had to find other ways to protect herself.

“It worked. I became very comfortable, but then to the point where I didn’t have my guard up enough and I had to be like, ‘Well, we have to end that now,’” she said.

She also recalled a scary incident where a random man would wait outside her home and leave notes on her car, so she and her sister “would turn the lights off and wait until he left.”

Discussing her A-list status, Christina also talked about mourning her privacy once she was launched into the spotlight.

“I get into any restaurant and I never had problems getting into clubs and all that stuff. But also there were logistical and security issues that, to me, loomed larger in my mind than the actual fun of being famous,” she said.

She continued, “I never really felt famous. I still forget a lot, and I was never really comfortable with it. So for me, it didn’t feel like power. It sort of felt like something I had to navigate.”