On May 9, 2008 the Warner Bros Pictures action drama Speed Racer zooms into theaters. In advance of its release, Speed Racer has become one of the most talked about movies of the year. Written and directed by the filmmaking brothers who brought us the Matrix trilogy – Larry and Andy Wachowski – Speed Racer is the feature film version of the popular anime series created by Tatsuo Yoshida. The Wachowski Brothers are aiming to make a film for the entire family to enjoy together and promise Speed Racer will look like no other movie.

Christina Ricci plays Speed’s loyal girlfriend Trixie and at the Los Angeles press junket for Penelope, Ricci said working on Speed Racer was incredibly fun. “ another example of a great role model character for girls because she’s smart, she’s funny, and she does all the things the boys do. She kung fu fights, she drives a car, she races, and she flies a helicopter. But she has a specific outfit that she wears when she flies the helicopter, and her lipstick always matches something she’s wearing. She gets to be everything. She’s celebrated as a girl and a woman, but she’s also not treated any differently than the male characters are. So, it was so much fun, in that respect. I like being dressed up and I like doing stunts,” said Ricci.

The fact much of her work was done in front of green screens made the experience interesting. “That made it hilarious. We’d walk on set and there would be half a helicopter, and then the rest of the thing was just green. And it’s an ensemble piece, so there’s a lot of other actors to look at and just say, ‘What the hell is that?

What scene are we shooting?’ So, it just made it funny. We would just walk around and be like, ‘All right, so the mountain’s over there, and what is that? Oh, that’s the edge of the cliff. Okay, well, I shouldn’t be over there.’ It was just funny. It made it all really hilarious. And then, towards the end of the day, the green would start to make you feel like you were tripping, so that was also, at times, enjoyable,” laughed Ricci.

Warner Bros Pictures claims Speed Racer employs revolutionary video effects and even Ricci was wowed by the bit of finished footage she’s had a chance to see. “We saw 15 minutes of it. The brothers showed us 15 minutes and it’s just amazing. It looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” explained Ricci. “All the driving stuff is really exciting and thrilling. And then it has this emotional element that’s actually really quite moving. A lot of guys were crying at the end of the 15 minutes because there’s this real guy sad thing. [Laughing] But, also, every character in it is a very specific, funny character. Mom [Susan Sarandon] is always going to have her apron on and Sparky [Kick Gurry] is going to always be Chaplin-esque and funny. Mr. Royalton [Roger Allam] will always be evil. It’s just fun. Everything about the movie makes it feel like an event movie, so that’s exciting.”

Ricci’s only real concern about being a part of Speed Racer had to do with her hair. Trixie sports black hair cut into an extreme bob, which is totally unlike Ricci’s usual look. “I had spent the entire year growing it out, of course, which is what always happens. And I kept calling my manager’s office and saying to them, ‘Will you call and tell them that, if they’re going to make a wig for me, wink wink, they should probably get my measurements or something and start making it now?’ Everyone was like, ‘No, no, no, it’s going to be fine. They’re not going to do anything weird to your hair.’ And then, of course, I got some drawings of what the costumes are going to look like, and there were drawings of what she was going to look like and, of course, it was a short haircut bob-thing. So I just decided to embrace it and go with it. It was the Wachowskis. It’s Speed Racer. I can always ask for a wig on the second one. [Laughing] You feel like, if you do it once, then you’re justified in saying, ‘Okay, I did it, and I don’t want to anymore.’”