A funny thing happened when Christina Ricci appeared on the set of "Penelope" without the pig nose and ears that were a key part of her costume.

"Everybody sort of looked at me and then did a double take and kind of went, 'Aaw, you're fine and everything, but we kind of miss the nose.' I was just like, 'Oh, my God, you can't do that to a girl, especially an actress.'

"But, yeah, people loved it and found it very endearing and so they always thought it was sort of so much cuter when I had the nose on."

In the film opening today, Ricci plays the title character, the daughter of wealthy socialites who is afflicted with the family curse. She was born with the nose and ears of a pig, and her parents go to extraordinary measures to hide her away from the world and to try to break the curse.

As realistic as the nose is -- it took 90 minutes of Ricci remaining motionless to apply before she faced another 90 minutes of regular makeup -- the fairy tale isn't about the nose. It's a metaphor.

"It's more about how we can take something small about ourselves and it becomes such a huge, huge insecurity that it emotionally cripples us and keeps us from living our lives," the 28-year-old actress said in a recent phone call. "She has this pig's nose that keeps her locked, literally, inside a house."

Screenwriter Leslie Caveny, whose play "Love of a Pig" about a man who behaved like a pig prompted a flood of pig paraphernalia, heard a folktale about a woman born into a rich family with a pig's face and her parents' efforts to marry her off.

That story ended unhappily ever after, but it inspired Caveny to take the beauty and the beast formula and switch the genders and adjust the ending.

She says in the movie's press notes that she drew upon her own insecure teenage years when she hid out in the girls' bathroom, "feeling like a pig, what with the acne and all of the angst. ... When you really think about it, it's amazing what insecurity can do to a young life."

As for whether the movie changed Ricci's attitude about herself, she said, "No, I think I had already gotten to sort of the place Penelope is in this movie, as much as I can be, at this point." That would be the Penelope who has a revelation about her facial features, not the one hiding from the world.

"I've met and spoken to a lot of people, especially women, who really love this movie because they feel like it has so much to say about insecurities and what we're taught as little girls. I just feel like it's a very important movie for girls, especially, to see."

Even as a child, Ricci rarely took the well-traveled acting paths.

She was 9 when she played Cher's daughter and Winona Ryder's sister in "Mermaids." Her intense looks and attitude were put to good use in "The Addams Family" and its sequel, in which she was morbid Wednesday Addams, who liked to strap her brother into an electric chair.

Her choice of roles as an adult also tilted toward the unconventional, as 2007's "Black Snake Moan" again proved. In various stages of undress, Ricci was shackled to a radiator in a Tennessee farmhouse in the movie co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

By comparison, her next movie will be downright wholesome: a live-action version of "Speed Racer" starring Emile Hirsch from "Into the Wild" as Speed and Ricci as his girlfriend, Trixie, along with Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman.

With its May 9 release date, it will help to launch the summer movie season.

Trixie won't be confined to cheering Speed from the sidelines. "That's one of my favorite things about Trixie, the character I play, is that she does everything the boys do," plus she has fabulous costumes and gorgeous matching pink lipstick.

Asked if there will be a doll or action figure version of Trixie, she said, "I believe I'm going to be in Happy Meals." Not to mention Lego play sets and a Barbie and Ken gift set.

The Barbie version of Trixie has "short bobbed brunette hair, a super cute pink and red outfit, and delightful accessories including pink binoculars and slinky heels," according to Mattel. Ken is "super stylin' as Speed Racer, wearing a white racing jumpsuit, leather jacket, red racing scarf and helmet."

And both have perfectly perky plastic noses.