Christina Ricci on How She Learned to Care Less About Her Looks (Exclusive)

• Christina Ricci spoke to PEOPLE exclusively at a Yellowjackets season 3 event at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif.
• Ricci, 45, shared that she has learned to separate her external appearance from who she is as a person — and that she tries to impart this outlook on her 3-year-old daughter, Cleo
• The actress said: “I think the biggest trick that’s ever been played on the female race is keeping us so preoccupied with our appearance that we can’t focus on what’s really important”

Christina Ricci isn’t about defining beauty by anyone’s standards except her own.

The actress recently spoke to PEOPLE exclusively at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. for a Yellowjackets season 3 FYC Event. During the conversation, she touched on everything from what it’s been like working on the hit Showtime series to how her relationship with her body has evolved over time.

“I think what I learned was that it doesn’t matter if I’m beautiful or not by anyone’s standards,” Ricci, 45, says. “I am myself. I view myself as a face and a brain. I don’t think about my body. I don’t think about what other people think of me.”

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The Yellowjackets star went on to share that her daughter, Cleo, 3, helped her separate her external appearance from her true identity. “If you tell her she’s cute, she’ll say, ‘I’m not cute. I’m Cleo.’ And I think that’s so important. We are who we are and we don’t need to be defined in these other ways,” the actress says.

She also shares that she actively works to encourage her daughter to have a strong sense of self, emphasizing that it’s what’s on the inside that makes us who we are.

“I talk about how strong she is, how hard she tried, how smart she is, how funny she is — all the things that have to do with personality […] and identity because I think the biggest trick that’s ever been played on the female race is keeping us so preoccupied with our appearance that we can’t focus on what’s really important,” Ricci says.

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The Wednesday actress has opened up about the challenges of growing up in the spotlight in the past — and the toll it took on her body image.

In a 2022 interview with Today, Ricci shared that costume fittings were some of her least favorite days on set because of the constant scrutiny surrounding her looks. “People would basically all get together and look at you and decide how to fix everything that was wrong with you,” she told the outlet. “And I never enjoyed those days of everybody talking about my flaws.”

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“When I was 12 or 13 and started to have boobs, they [older men on set] would talk about how to make me look less womanly,” she continued. “It made me really uncomfortable. I did not enjoy that. […] The production — the movie being made — is more important than any individual’s feelings, so they didn’t have to consider my feelings. That can be a big problem when you’re a kid.”

Ricci, who is also mom to son, Freddie, 10, additionally told the outlet that she developed an eating disorder during puberty —  which is partly why she works hard to ensure her kids have a healthy relationship with food. “I don’t want any weirdness [around food]. We eat for nutrition, we eat to grow, we eat to be healthy,” she said.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, The Alliance for Eating Disorders provides a fully-staffed helpline at 1-866-662-1235, as well as free, therapist-led support groups.