Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41, but what happened next?
Christina Ricci will star in the Lifetime original film "Lizzie Borden Took an Ax," a story about one of America's deadliest daughters, who became famous for murdering her parents in 1882, The New York Post reported.
Borden was acquitted for both brutal murders. Ricci told USA Today that the film gave her an opportunity to explore the woman behind the murder.
"I'm interested in people who are troubled," she said. "Their behavior comes from their neuroses. I loved the idea of living inside someone so villainous and trying to express the person everyone can relate to.
"What I thought was interesting about playing this part was the question of, 'How does a person behave once they're accused of this in trying to convince everyone they're innocent?'" she said.
The Post reported that the film is a mix between horror and documentary. In the film, Ricci's character tries to convince police that she and her sister are not responsible for her parents murder.
"The best people can do is put all the elements together and hypothesize. [Based on the timeline], there was no way she could have gotten rid of her clothes. So one of the theories is that she committed the crimes naked," Ricci said. "I'm a pragmatist, so I thought it was smart. You can wash blood off your body, but it's harder to get it out of clothes."
"The Black Snake Moan" star said very little is known about what went on in the family, expect that Borden was a troubled girl and a jury could not see it within themselves to convict her.
During an interview with NBC's "Today," Ricci said she really enjoyed swinging an ax in the upcoming film but the scenes later became too physically demanding for her.
"My arms got tired because the axe was heavy," Ricci said. "You film scenes from a million different angles, and for every take I did 12 chops with the axe. My arms were ripped for about two days after. I didn't like getting fake blood in my hair though."
But the cast and crew were reportedly surprised by her ability to swing the aforementioned weapon while filming the flick.
"I'm surprisingly strong. Everyone was impressed with my ax-swinging skills - until I swung the ax backwards, and it was so big and heavy that I hit myself on the back of my spine," Ricci said. "It made quite a horrendous sound. I didn't know my spine would sound hollow if you hit it with a big chunk of metal."
