SLEEPY HOLLOW Question #3--The Casting of Katrina

For many Depp fans, the casting of a very young and artificially blonde Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel was the weak link in an otherwise outstanding set of performances.

What is your reaction to Christina Ricci’s portrayal of Katrina?


What do you consider her finest moment as an actress in SLEEPY HOLLOW, and what is, for you, her least convincing scene?


Play Casting Director: If you could use magic to erase Ms. Ricci and substitute another actress, whom would you choose to play Katrina Van Tassel?


As always, you can respond to any or all of the above!



Part-Time Poet

Actually I don't think she is that bad, I know people have a problem with her, but as she said herself she is a modern American girl and she found it hard to play the role to get her head around the speech of the day perhaps..
I think the main problem was actually between her and Johnny with their past history or the fact that she had known him when she was 9 . I think its really Christina's awkwardness in the role therefore that is the only problem as such for me.
As to who else could have played the part will have to dwell on that one

Me too.
I agree with you, GG, in every point.


Don't think she's that bad.

I agree with GG, and Moonlight I didn't have a problem with her casting. She was not the best actress, but she did good.

My favorite scene from her is when she found out her step-mother is a witch. My least favorite...I'm actually not sure.

Yeah that's a good one, indeed.


I didn't like her so much in the one scene, where she burns the evidences and then tell Ichabod that she wished he'd never have come to Sleepy Hollow or something like that.
She has a somehow weired chant there.
It appeared a bit "faked" to me; I don't no why.

Agreed, that scene of her seemed fake to me too.

Christina's finest moment was her first scene, when she's at the party, blindfolded, and accidently lands on Ichabod and gives him a kiss. From then on, it's all downhill for me! There just wasn't any meat in her performance...no depth...no emotion. I thought the same thing about her performance in The Man Who Cried. Her blank, wide-eyed look, punctuated by the occasional small furrowing of the brow, makes me crazy. She's playing against JOHNNY DEPP, for heaven's sake! You'd think she could muster a little more in the response category if nothing else! In SH, she's playing a young girl who's living in a period of time and in a place that's supposed to be mysterious, 'bewitching', and fraught with peril...the HH is taking heads right and left, but she comes across as already pretty much headless, IMO.

In thinking about who else would've been better in the part, aside from just about anybody, my mind's eye rests on Scarlett Johnanssen. That would've been a smart match me thinks....

Scarlett Johansson as Kathrina Van Tessel?
No....I personally don't think this would have worked all too well....

I really can't think of anybody who could have played Kathrina in SH....

One person's opinion, mate! As good as any other, savvy?

Yesyesyes....I don't have any problem with the oppinions of other's. Why would I?!?

Personally I think the young lady from the Notebook would be good.

I have to go with the minority here because I didn't like Christina Ricci in the part either. She would have been better if she had left her natural look and not bleached her hair and her eyebrows. It gave her such a washed out look. In one of her close ups it looked like she didn't have eyebrows.
I think someone with a dark haired, dark eyed gypsy look would have been better cast in the part. She was supposed to be a witch so she could have been a bit more mysterious. I think Jessica Biel or Jessica Alba would have been good in the part.

I agree with this 100% gemini...it didn't work for me at all.
I can't think of anything that really made her stand out. Maybe when she comforted him after the nightmere was her best scene.

What is your reaction to Christina Ricci’s portrayal of Katrina?


What do you consider her finest moment as an actress in SLEEPY HOLLOW, and what is, for you, her least convincing scene?


Play Casting Director: If you could use magic to erase Ms. Ricci and substitute another actress, whom would you choose to play Katrina Van Tassel?

While I'm not really a fan of Christina Ricci, and if given the choice I don't think I would have picked her as Katrina, I don't really mind her in the part. She is perhaps a bit too young, but then so is her character, and then that turns out to suit her. She is supposed to be young and old at the same time.

I kind of have trouble with her seeing her stepmother alive again, I have a problem with that whole scene. Actually I have more problems with Miranda Richardson in this film that I do Christina Ricci - MR to me is usually way over the top. But that particular scene plays to me as pretty false.

Her best scenes are when shes trying to tend to Ichabod. She's a young woman trying to play at mother & nurse & struggling with both. I like that very much.

No idea who should have played the part - I think when it comes to Tim Burton films you simply ride with his choices or skip the movie.

Interesting choices of casting all those ladies are actually younger than Christina,Scarlett Johanssan would have been about 15 at the time the film was made.