[4] At 17, she moved into adult-oriented independent projects such as The Ice Storm (1997), Buffalo '66, The Opposite of Sex, Pecker (all 1998), Prozac Nation (2001), Pumpkin (2002), Monster (2003), and Black Snake Moan (2006).

On television, Ricci played Liza Bump on the fifth and final season of Ally McBeal (2002) and had a guest role on Grey's Anatomy in 2006, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination.

[21] That same year, she starred in the children's adventure movie Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain and played tomboy Roberta in the coming-of-age drama Now and Then.

[22][23] Ricci then played a supporting role in Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), the directorial debut of Anjelica Huston, whom she previously worked with on the Addams Family movies.

[26] Later that year, she made a shift into "legitimate adult roles" with her portrayal of the troubled, sexually curious Wendy Hood in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm,[27] a drama about dysfunctional family relationships.

[28] In his review for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers wrote, "The sight of the [film's] young stars ... fiddling with each other may shock '90s prudes, but Lee handles these moments with dry wit and compassion ...

[30] Next up was John Waters' satirical comedy Pecker, where she played a hard-nosed laundromat worker, followed by Don Roos' dark comedy-drama The Opposite of Sex, where she headlined as the acid-tongued, manipulative Dede.

[31][32] In his review of The Opposite of Sex for Variety, Todd McCarthy described Ricci's portrayal of Dede as "deadly funny" and felt that she delivered her dialogue with "the skill of a prospective Bette Davis".

[34] In 1999, Ricci headlined the Tim Burton gothic horror film Sleepy Hollow, receiving the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Katrina Van Tassel.

The film—Ricci's first outing as a producer—received mixed reviews, but critics agreed that Ricci was the highlight, with Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine describing her as "splendid".

[40] Later that year, she co-starred in the comedic British thriller Miranda and guest-starred on the fifth and final season of Ally McBeal, appearing as attorney Liza Bump in seven episodes.

In his review for The Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote, "Pumpkin is alive, and takes chances, and uses the wicked blade of satire in order to show up the complacent political correctness of other movies in [its genre].

[49] The following year, she appeared as a paramedic in two episodes of Grey's Anatomy, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

[51] Empire called the film a "lovely fairy tale",[52] while Andrea Gronvall of The Chicago Reader felt it was "a worthy vehicle" for Ricci.

[53] Similarly, David Rooney of Variety felt that Ricci gave "the fanciful script more grounding than it might otherwise have had",[54] and critic Eric D. Snider said it was "fun to see her in the most light-hearted role she's played since... well, almost ever".

[61] Ricci appeared alongside Jackson for the second time in another 2006 film, Home of the Brave, an ensemble drama following the lives of four soldiers in Iraq and their return to the United States.

Though she admitted to suffering from extreme bouts of stage fright during the show's four-month run,[68] The New York Times described her portrayal of Mandy as "confident" and "appealing".

Writing for Variety, Andrew Barker called it "one of the most astonishingly unfunny films of this or any other year", but commended Ricci, who he felt gave her role "more than it deserves".

The series garnered generally positive reviews,[71] but, due to a decline in viewing figures during its initial run of 14 episodes, the producers decided not to proceed with a second season.

[68] Next, Ricci adopted a British accent when she co-starred as a promiscuous young housewife in Bel Ami (2012),[73] a period drama based on the 1885 novel of the same name.

[74] She headlined the Australian film Around The Block the same year, playing an American drama teacher who befriends an Aboriginal boy during the 2004 Redfern riots.

[76] Writing for The New York Times, Neil Genzlinger described her as "gleeful and ruthless",[77] while Keith Uhlich of The Hollywood Reporter felt that she and co-star Clea DuVall had "a delectable rapport not too far removed from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford at their hag-horror peak in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

", adding, "There's a winking self-consciousness to [Ricci's] portrayal of Lizzie that works to the character's advantage; she's like an out-of-time avenging angel, a feminist icon (before there were words to describe it) lashing out at patriarchy the only way she knows how".

Though this series also casts Ricci as the less-famous half of a notorious coupling, the actress gets the title role this time around, and she tackles it with exuberant zest.

[82][83][84] Her next film projects were The Matrix Resurrections (2021), in which she re-teamed with the Wachowskis to play a colleague of Thomas Anderson, and the 2022 supernatural thriller Monstrous, where she starred as a mother trying to protect her son from evil forces in 1950s California.

But her natural gift is her ability to act with her eyes; a single glance, a slight twitch, or a dead-on stare do more to communicate [her character's] feelings and situation than any piece of dialogue in the script.

[85] Commenting on Ricci's performance, Digital Spy's Gabriella Geisinger called it "nuanced and dynamic", adding that it "winds sadness and strength together with ease and is as captivating as it is bananas".

[90] A substantial ratings success when it premiered in November 2022,[91] the show received critical acclaim,[92] with Collider saying of Ricci, "[she] plays [Thornhill] so well you can't help but be glued to her every move when she's on-screen".

[95] Charisma Madarang of Rolling Stone described the video as "a stunning flex of macabre", noting its homages to classic horror films.

[5] She wrote an article for The Huffington Post in 2009, where she spoke about how her work with the organisation had affected her: "[Victims] tell me of the struggles they face every day", she said, "and the hurdles they've had to overcome.