Anna Faris Ready To Tackle Weightier Topics In Her Acting

Anna Faris made a name for herself in Hollywood playing ditzy characters, but said having a daughter changed something inside of her.

The 37-year-old actress shifted away from movies this year to join the acclaimed television comedy Mom, where she plays a complicated former alcoholic trying to be the best mother she can.

Faris said the role came at the perfect time for her.

“After I had my baby, I reprioritized my life in general,” Faris told Deadline in a wide-ranging interview. “I really wanted to play characters that gave me a different kind of fulfillment. That is a difficult thing to find, especially as an actress. There were a few different things that I was circling around and then this script literally landed on my doorstep without any information attached to it.”

After getting the script Anna called her agent, who told her that producer Chuck Lorre was interested in her. Anna said she didn’t know much about the script, but her agent said it was a big deal that the normally private Lorre had reached out to her.

At the time, Anna had a reputation mostly as a funnywoman, something that Anna herself admits. Last year she recounted meeting Warren Beatty for the first time. Anna was auditioning to play the part of a drunk celebrity in Lost in Translation, and was pretending to be drunk and singing karaoke when she first met Warren.

“So Sofia introduces us and goes, ‘Anna was in Scary Movie.’ And Warren looks at me and goes, ‘That was pretty f**king funny.'”

Though Faris had made a name for herself as ditzy characters, capitalizing on her comedic timing and high voice, she said Mom offered the change she was looking for.

“I’m so interested in playing such complicated characters and sometimes you come across a role and it feels like a Cinderella shoe,” she said. “It’s so well written, that it makes your job easier and you have a gut sort-of reaction, you know instantly how you’re going to say each line and that’s how I felt with Christy. I felt like she was familiar, complicated and messy and starting over in her life. I loved that it was a show about a woman reconnecting with her mother and how complicated that relationship is, as opposed to trying to get a guy to sort of fall for me.”

Anna Faris has certainly found a hit in Mom. The show notched solid ratings for CBS and earned a renewal for Season 2.