Christina Ricci’s work-life balance was practically nonexistent while filming “Yellowjackets.”
The actress, 44, candidly shared on Shannen Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast Monday that her shooting schedule for Season 2 of the Showtime series prevented her from building a close relationship with her daughter, Cleopatra, who was only an infant at the time.
“Last year, I was commuting back and forth to Vancouver for ‘Yellowjackets.’ She didn’t know me. We had no bond. So that was very upsetting,” she said.
Ricci admitted Cleopatra, now 2, and her son, Freddie, 9, “do not like it” when she travels.
“When I’m away, I try to take my son with me as much as I can,” she said, noting that work trips for her whole family can get expensive.
“If you’re a series regular, you have to pay for everything, so … every time I go up and down, I can’t pay for four people, four flights, you know, and the rooms that you would need and all … it’s just too expensive to travel with everybody all the time,” she added.
The “Casper” star shares Cleopatra with her husband, Mark Hampton, and Freddie with her ex-husband, James Heerdegen.
While Ricci cannot take her daughter everywhere, her son has been able to tag along at times now that he is getting older.
“The thing that I learned, especially with my son, is mixing him into my work life,” she said. “Why can’t he come for the weekend to a convention and see what it’s like?”
However, that was not always the case.
“My son was never sleep-trained because I had to go back to work when he was 2 months old,” the “Addams Family” star recalled.
Ricci also took a shot at Heerdegen, saying he “wouldn’t help [her] at all with anything” as it pertained to taking care of their son and that she had Freddie sleep in the bed with her so she could “get enough sleep to be able to work the next day.”
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The Emmy nominee praised her current husband, though, for his help with their daughter as she returned to work this time.
“I went and shot ‘Wednesday’ in Romania when she was 2 months old, and Mark did every single night, all night long. Like, I just slept and worked the next day, and it made such a huge difference. It was so much easier this time around. You know, you have to have a good, supportive partner,” she said.
Ricci and Heerdegen finalized their divorce in December 2022.
The “Speed Racer” star separated from the cinematographer in July 2020 and subsequently received a domestic violence restraining order against him.
Ricci married hairstylist Hampton in October 2021. They welcomed Cleopatra that December.
