A couple of months ago we posted an interview with actress Christina Ricci when she was doing press for Penelope. In the interview, Ricci revealed that she had already been on the set of Speed Racer and she shared one of the funniest on-set stories we've ever heard about her first encounter with the chimp that plays Chim Chim. With Speed Racer about to roar into theaters on Friday, May 9, Christina Ricci was recently making the rounds on the press junket tour where she recanted her hilariously bizarre encounter with Chim Chim. With the memories if her first day on set now well in the past, Ricci also shared her thoughts on getting to know the well-established Trixie, honing her martial arts skills, her favorite outfit in the movie, and what it's like to see a child playing a younger version of herself.

Christina Ricci on her bizarre encounter with the real Chim Chim:

"The chimp jumped over and grabbed my left breast and hung off of me in the middle of the first take I was in on the first day of shooting. And they were all turned around towards the door so to not get the chimp any crazier and for it to stay cool. I just sort of said, 'Help! Help! Owe! Owe!' John [Goodman] thought that was hilariously funny and proceeded to imitate me for the rest of the film, which I can appreciate.

Ricci on getting to know Trixie:

With Trixie I was curious about a lot of things that didn’t get explained in the movie. Like how did she learn to fly a helicopter? What does she do when she’s not hanging around? Since you’re playing the character, do you need more? I mean, they wrote this character and she made sense to me, this is her car culture. And you gotta think he raced a lot of rallies in his young racing life and she’s part of the team and that’s what she does. It’s the whole family’s life.

On utilizing martial arts and whether she already had skills:

"That’s true, I had to do some Kung Fu. No, I didn’t and a lot of the script was action sequences with pages of just describing the races and action sequences. I didn’t read those pages because it was a little dense and I had to audition in like 24 hours. So when I got to set and the stunt coordinator came to see me, he’s like, ‘So you’re going to be doing some Kung Fu?’ I was like, ‘What? Really? I fight in this?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, you fight in this.’ I’m like, ‘Right. Of course, I totally forgot about that.' They started and I had a couple of training sessions, it was rally fun, and the stunt guys were awesome and really fun to deal with and work with. I had a really good time. I love that kind of thing, so it was great. I tend to be very competitive and athletic, so it was awesome."

Ricci on acting with green screen and having to fill in the gaps later:

"They explained as much as they could. You were certainly able to go and find out as much as you wanted to, or you could know as little as you wanted to. You’re right, though there’s really no way of really knowing exactly what it’s going to be like because it’s very much in their heads. Larry and Andy [Wachowski], it’s their personality. It’s their ideas and vision that’s stamped all over the movie. But the thing is, with directors like them, is that you get such a great feeling of the fact that they know exactly what they’re going to be doing. They have this world worked out completely. You can ask them any question about minutia in the world and they would know. Of course, they’d have the answer. So when people are like that, it tends to inspire a lot of confidence and a lot of trust. Also, this idea that if I argue with them, I have no ground to stand on because I have no idea what’s in their head. So it’s not like you could say, ‘I don’t think this goes with what’s happening in the background,' because you don’t know what the hell is happening in the background. So you’re kind of really in a place where [you say] I’m gonna do what they tell me and if I don’t do what they tell me I probably will not fit with the rest of the film."

Ricci on her favorite outfit of Trixie's:

"I really enjoyed my helicopter outfit. But I also liked my Lover’s Lane outfit a lot, too."

On whether she had many wardrobe changes:

"Oh yes, I did. I was like the main girl in it, so I was their doll. They just dressed me up and sent me out there to do things. It’s a great feeling. It’s fun, because when somebody is just using you as their dress up doll, there’s something about that that’s incredibly endearing and fun."

Christina Ricci on what it's like to see a child playing her on screen:

"That’s always a weird thing, because people know what I looked like when I was nine. Sometimes people will choose people who really don’t look like I did and I’m sort of just like, ‘Okay. You do know that there’s footage out there of me, alright?’ But in this case, they chose a girl [and] she looks pretty much like me, you could imagine. She looks like the character, she looks like Trixie."