Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci

Mental illness can, at times, be downright ugly. That's true of depression, and it's definitely true of actress Christina Ricci's portrayal of the disorder in the movie, Prozac Nation.

By PT Staff, published on March 01, 2003 - last reviewed on September 11, 2006

Ricci's idea of family doesn't include her father these days, who divorced her mother, Sarah, in 1995. Christina hasn't spoken to him for several years, and while she won't publicly say why, her thoughts on how children of therapists are influenced by their parents may provide a clue.

"Having someone analyze you or tell you why you're behaving in a certain way or even point out that you have a psychosis does create an unhealthy perspective for a lot of people," she says. "You're not supposed to know these things at a young age."

As a child of divorce, Ricci's life takes on parallels to Wurtzel's, whose own father was often absent after her parents' split. Ricci notes, though, that she didn't much consider these parallels when playing Lizzie: "We could have been from the same exact template of a family, but I honestly didn't analyze it that much." In fact, despite the character's direct mimicry of Wurtzel, Ricci spent only one day with the author and instead developed Lizzie predominantly from the book and her own instincts.

Fractured family trees aren't the only commonality the two women share. Ricci, too, practiced self-cutting as an adolescent. She also grappled with anorexia, an eating disorder that in one-third to one-half of sufferers is associated with depression and anxiety, according to the National Mental Health Association. And while anorexia is not something Wurtzel purportedly faced, Ricci admits that "it is definitely a manifestation of depression," hinting she also has firsthand knowledge of the mood disorder.

What Ricci won't confess to, however, is whether or not she's ever taken antidepressants, despite the press' previous assertion that she has. Here her similarity to Wurtzel—whose book title references her public association with what she wryly considered a mass dependency in the '80s-ends. At that time, Prozac and other psychotropics were still in their infancy, which made Wurtzel hesitant to rely solely on Prozac for relief. And once on it, Wurtzel worried that her evolving emotional stasis indicated a loss of self, a common concern among many psychopharmaceutical users and one not lost on the filmmakers.

"In the book itself, the Prozac side is written as an afterward," explains Miller. "The truth of the matter is Elizabeth did take Prozac and she did feel better, but it's not as simple as that. A clinical approach can help in certain cases, but we were very cautious about not making the movie an ad for Prozac or making Prozac a panacea."

Prozac Nation does well by this goal, introducing the drug with only about 20 minutes of running time remaining. It points instead to Lizzie's social support group and therapist (Anne Heche) as the main contributors to her progress in overcoming depression.

"I think this movie's intentions are good, and I certainly don't want to be irresponsible," says Ricci. "Anybody who's aware of the world around them knows that it's not all happy, that this disease is rampant. Elizabeth described depression in a way that everyone can understand, which is why the book is so powerful. I hope that with the film we're building on what she started."