Zap2it: How would you characterize the relationship of sisters Lizzie and Emma Borden on Lifetime’s “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles”?

Christina Ricci: I think it’s a very need-based relationship. Lizzie sort of views her as her property, and Emma’s always taken care of her but it’s not, at least from Lizzie’s point of view, a loving relationship. She’s not really capable of love in a normal way.

Zap2it: Is Lizzie a fun character to play?

Christina Ricci: Yeah, really fun. Anything that is fantastic and sort of extreme is really fun to do as an actor, at least for me.

Zap2it: How did you approach creating her?

Christina Ricci: Well, I think a lot of the character is based on the action, sort of, [which] implies who she is, really. Somebody who is able to take human life like this and actually derive pleasure from it is going to be a certain type of character (laughs). We definitely decided that she was sociopathic, that she either played at the emotions of a normal functioning person but that she probably didn’t have them for herself.

Zap2it: Was shedding her at the end of the day difficult?

Christina Ricci: No not really. I mean, this is a very lighthearted kind of piece. I mean, it’s just supposed to be fun and sort of gory and fantastic. So I think there were like two emotional scenes in the whole series for my character because she doesn’t really experience emotion. So it’s not the kind of thing, a kind of heavy role where you go home and you live with it or are affected by it.

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