Anna Faris tells TARA BRADYwhy this summer has been a victory for women, and why she had to get proactive about her career
BACK IN THE DAY, when Hollywood was still in the business of manufacturing movie stars, Anna Faris might reasonably have expected to be bigger than The Beatles or Jesus. Dizzyingly ditzy on screen with exquisite screwball timing, the 34-year-old belongs to the same hallowed comic genus as Jean Harlow, Claudette Colbert and Marilyn Monroe.
But the studios no longer make pictures like I t Happened One Night,so Faris has instead found a calling in stoner comedies. As the headlining star of the Scary Moviesfranchise, she wowed critics, even when the films most definitely did not. In theory, the billion-dollar spoof franchise ought to have opened doors; in practice, it became a millstone around the young actor's neck.
"After four Scary Movies,it was hard for me to get cast in anything," says Faris. "I couldn't even get auditions for dramatic stuff. It used to really, really bother me. Now I think, What do I have to prove? I love comedy. So why should I have hang-ups about it?"
Plenty of comic actors carefully deconstruct characters off screen and never crack wise. Faris is not one of them. Today, dressed in black and chilling out at her London hotel suite, she radiates sunshine and hilarity.
Despite Hollywood prejudice against tomfoolery and pratfalls, Faris has already proven her dramatic worth in the Oscar heavyweights Brokeback Mountainand Lost in Translation and has lately moved into production and script development.
“It’s come to this,” she says. “Five years ago comedies for women were few and far between. So I had to make a decision. Do I want to continue to act? Because if I do I need to get more proactive about it. I had to take charge of my career and choices. As a producer, I’m still not quite sure what it is I’m supposed to be doing. But I love being involved in the development process. And I love collaborating with writers.”
In this spirit she's out on the road as the star and architect of What's Your Number?The bawdy romantic comedy about a woman who thinks her number of lovers is way too high follows Faris on an odyssey to hook up with all 19 ex-boyfriends, just in case she missed Mr Right first time around.
“I love this girl, because she’s such a loser and a mess,” says Faris. “We’ve seen so many movies – and I’ve read so many scripts – and they’re always about type A women. They’re always crazy successful and beautiful and they’re just missing this one element in their life – usually a baby or a man – whereas this girl gets fired right away and she didn’t even like her job in the first place. That spoke to me.”
Like Friends with Benefits, the recent Mila Kunis flick, What's My Number?sounds a death knell for the kind of romantic comedy Hollywood has mass-produced since Nora Ephron first banged out When Harry Met Sally. Four summers ago, Knocked Upstar Katherine Heigl inspired ructions when she complained to Vanity Fairthat women provided shrill voices of reason while their male counterparts went out to play in Judd Apatow comedies. This season, the goofball ladies of Bridesmaidshave grossed more than any other film at the Irish box office, including Harry Potterand The Hangover 2.
"This summer has been a great victory for women," whoops Faris. "I've always hated that in romantic comedies when a woman gets drunk it's by accident. Before now, drunken, flawed, swearing women could only happen in the independent sector. For the longest time Hollywood thought that women wanted to see a certain kind of film. It is such a relief that movies like Bridesmaidshave done so well because it confirms that women want to see women who are sloppy. So suddenly the studios are a lot more open to ideas they wouldn't ever have considered 10 years ago."
Born in Baltimore to Karen, a special-education teacher, and Jack Faris, a sociologist at the University of Washington, the young Anna Kay never watched movies growing up. The family moved to Seattle when Anna was six, but even in a happening grunge town, the rules remained the same.
"My parents are really liberal but they're also really strict," says Faris. "On school stuff, very, very strict. I wasn't allowed to watch TV. I wasn't allowed to watch movies. No women's magazines. My mom basically didn't want me to grow up. She wanted me to be a kid for as long as possible. I wasn't allowed to get my ears pierced. I wasn't allowed to wear skirts. Then I moved to Hollywood and the first gig I got was Scary Movie, so my parents had to suck it up a little bit."
Her folks were, nonetheless, keen that she develop her dramatic instincts. She gave her first professional acting performance aged nine at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and has only occasionally looked back since.
“My parents definitely encouraged me to do theatre,” she says. “So I did a lot growing up. They were always very encouraging about it. In fact when I decided to give up acting at college – I wanted to get into marketing – they were kind of disappointed.”
Marketing?
“Come on! It’s still my back-up plan.”
Faris’s parents are still hoping for Ibsen “or something historical” but for the moment, their daughter is happiest when she’s clowning.
Thirtysomethings loved her as the surrogate for Chandler and Monica in Friendsand as Ryan Reynolds' sparring partner in Waitingand Just Friends. Twentysomethings appreciate her efforts in the cannabis-friendly Smiley Faceand on TV sensation Entourage. Children know her as the pretty one from Yogi Bearand recognise her voice from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs(and, soon, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked).
A fearless comic performer – just look at the amount of food she's prepared to shove into her mouth in What's Your Number?– Faris has just finished filming The Dictatorwith Sacha Baron Cohen. Going toe-to-toe and improvising with a "comic genius" was scary as hell, she says.
“It was an amazing experience. But man was it frightening. With drama there’s no right or wrong but comedy is absolute. If you say a joke and it doesn’t land it’s the worst feeling in the world. That’s why comedians get so insecure.”
She's currently developing Gold-diggers,a satire about two marriage-hungry sisters. Meanwhile, outside office hours, she and Chris Pratt, the star of the television gem Parks and Recreationand the sports movie Moneyball, eloped in July 2009. They married in Bali, sidestepping "all that archaic wedding crap".
"He's awesome," she gushes. "I'm just crazy about him." Pratt appears in What's Your Number?as Disgusting Donald; husband and wife sport matching fat suits for the occasion. "That's how we see each other," she says, guffawing. "Isn't that great?"
She’s hoping to eventually move into production on a permanent basis as a way to “develop projects for other women”. And she no longer cares if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences comes a’ courting.
"I've got a Stoney at home," she says of her Stoner of the Year award from High Timesmagazine. "It's a working bong. You can't top that."
But does What's Your Number?– a potty-mouthed rom-com but a rom-com nonetheless – spell the end of her glittering career as the female Cheech or possibly Chong? "Oh no," she cries. "I'm just getting started."
5 of the funniest:
Tara Brady picks her favourite funny girls
Madeleine Kahn
Could deliver the goods both on screen and off: “Mel Brooks is sensual with me. He treats me like an uncle. A dirty uncle.”
Joan Rivers
“I blame my mother for my poor sex life. All she told me was the man goes on top and the woman underneath. For three years my husband and I slept in bunk beds.”
Marilyn Monroe
“Hollywood’s a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and 50 cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the 50 cents.”
Anna Faris
How does she keep a straight face in The House Bunnywhen her washed-up playmate advises a lame sorority to smarten up: "Remember girls, the eyes are the nipples of the face."
Sarah Silverman
On Catholic boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel: “If my boyfriend and I ever have a kid, well just be honest with it. Well say that Mommy is one of Gods chosen people, and Daddy believes that Jesus is magic!”
