Christina Ricci never wants to play a mother

Christina Ricci never wants to play a mother onscreen.

The 45-year-old 'Yellowjackets' actress - who has a son from her marriage to James Heerdegen and a daughter with current husband Mark Hampton - has admitted her feelings about being a real life mom are too "personal and precious" to share with the world so she doesn't want to take on a role that would "exploit" them.

She told Variety: "I don’t really ever wanna play a mother on camera. I guess maybe the way I feel about motherhood is to me so personal and precious, and I don’t ever wanna exploit it, if that sounds right.

"I think it’s easier to use emotions that you’re having way after the fact, and right now being a mom and being in it and having so many feelings about it, I feel like it would be too much to actually do anything."

The actress added that she definitely couldn't bring herself to tackle the role of a mother caring for a sick child. She added: "You know, like I’ve read scripts about moms and sick kids. For me, it’s just like too raw."

Christina went on to reveal she believes her acting has improved over the years since she shot to fame as a child star and she now feels able to pour all of her emotions into her roles.

She said: "I understood about being on camera and delivering lines and consistency of takes and eye lines, hitting marks. All that stuff, I’ve always had down.

"I always viewed it as more a mechanical thing because also I had been a child actress, and no one ever talks to child actors about emotion or using emotion ... "

She went on to reveal she only started to really understand the acting process when she went to audition for a part in 1995 movie 'Dolores Claiborne' alongside its star Kathy Bates and in front of director Taylor Hackford - revealing she was overwhelmed with emotion because she "connected" with the part of a young girl having a painful conversation with her mother.

Now Christina feels fully able to throw herself into her parts and sees it as a form of therapy.

She added: " [Now] when I get through really emotional scenes that I actually connect to them and I actually feel all the things that I’m saying and doing, it’s exhausting.

"But it’s that same feeling of relief after you just have a good cry. And even if it’s a rageful scene, it’s same thing. It’s like exercising emotion and having a place to put your emotion that not so many people are lucky enough to have.

"The fact that I get to use my work as a way to work through my trauma and my emotional problems is a gift."