The actress made the revelation on SiriusXM’s 'Andy Cohen Live' show.
When Christina Ricci was nine years old, she did not know the meaning of homosexuality. Enter Winona Ryder, who then got Johnny Depp -- whom she was dating at the time -- on the horn to explain it in the "simplest terms."
During an interview on SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live show, the Yellowjackets star revealed that, while shooting the 1990 dramedy Mermaids with Cher and Ryder, there was an incident where the term "homophobic" came up. Ricci was only nine at the time, but she had the presence of mind to ask Ryder about the term.
"There was something going on on-set and someone was not being nice to someone else," Ricci explained. "And they were like, 'Oh, well, he might be homophobic.' And then I was like, 'Well, I don't understand what that is.' And I was in Winona's trailer and she was like, 'I don't know how ... ' so she put me on the phone with Johnny. And Johnny explained it to me."
Cohen, appearing stunned, chimed in saying, "That's incredible."
"Yeah," Ricci continued. "And like the simplest terms ... yeah. He was like, 'It's when a man wants to have sex with a man. And when a woman wants to have sex with a woman' and I was like, 'Ah, OK.'"
At the time, Ricci was on the set of her first movie, meaning that during this time frame it put Depp on the set of 21 Jump Street in his mid-20s. Ricci and Depp would team up nearly a decade later when they filmed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Cohen called Depp's gesture "sweet" while adding, "I bet Johnny Depp explained it well," to which Ricci replied, "Just very matter of factly. Like I just did."
The Watch What Happens Live host then quipped Ricci should have gone to Cher's trailer.
"I love it that Winona Ryder had to put you on the phone with Johnny Depp to get that story, that she couldn't spit it out in some way, or, I mean, you've got Cher in the next trailer!" he joked.
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