Before she was an A-list star with a squad of famous friends, Anna Faris was a regular
person just like the rest of us. Curious to know more about what makes the actress tick?
This is the stunning transformation of Anna Faris, whose life trajectory is the stuff
of dreams.
Anna Farris has a pretty humble origin story, albeit a bit idyllic. Her mother, a special
education teacher, and her father, a college administrator, moved their family from Maryland
to Washington state when she was a kid. Faris explained to Women's Health that she had,
quote, "a very healthy upbringing" alongside her brother, who grew up to become a sociology
professor at UC Davis.
While her brother followed in their father's footsteps, Faris was exploring her creative
side at an early age. Her mother signed her up for drama classes, which helped kick-start
her lifelong love of acting. People noted that just three years after Farris started
acting, she, quote:
"Was performing onstage with a Seattle repertory company, in nationally broadcast radio plays."
But Faris remembers being awkward as a child.
"I fundamentally feel like I do not belong there or anywhere else."
She told Men's Journal:
"I was a quiet, weird kid who wore headgear, and I think most people can relate to that
awkwardness."
Faris did more than acting growing up, thanks to the natural beauty of Washington state.
She spent a lot of time out in fresh air with her outdoorsy father, who brought her and
her family on day trips. She said in an interview with Women's Health:
"My dad took us hiking in the mountains every weekend. I had a passion for it early on."
Faris said she wasn't allowed to bring any of her friends on her family hikes, which
made her both more appreciative of nature and closer with her parents.
And Faris wasn't afraid of any of the wildlife around her. She revealed in Men's Journal:
"My mom used to be afraid of bugs. Relatives told her to never pass that along to her daughter,
and so I grew up holding spiders and snakes."
Faris' love of creepy crawler creatures endures to this day, as she still collects bugs for
the fun of it.
While Faris loved acting from the start, it was a career trajectory that she wasn't sure
she should follow. She explained to The Seattle Times:
"I knew at a young age it was a difficult profession. My parents were so supportive
and believed in me 100 percent."
Faris continued acting all the way through high school, where she found a sense of purpose
in drama club.
Faris' drama teacher encouraged her to keep acting after graduation. But when she enrolled
at the University of Washington in 1994, for a time she considered quitting acting altogether.
She told Men's Journal:
"When I was going to school, I decided to give up acting because I didn't think I could
ever make it. I worked at an ad agency as a receptionist and thought, 'Maybe I'll work
in advertising, and one day I could maybe publish a short story.'"
But after earning her degree in English, Faris continued to pursue acting in London for a
time and then moved to Hollywood for a shot at film and TV.
Like the iconic scream queens who came before her, Faris got her big break in a horror film.
Well, a comedy horror film. In 2000, Faris was cast as Cindy in the horror spoof Scary
Movie, which catapulted her to overnight success. The wildly popular film made nearly $300 million
at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo. An according to The Seattle Times, it
was Dimension's highest-grossing movie at the time and Faris stated:
"That's pretty amazing. I'm flabbergasted at its success."
Scary Movie might not be Oscar fodder, but the film was groundbreaking at the time for
other reasons, according to Faris. She told The Seattle Times:
"There aren't many comedic roles out there for women. I never realized how much fun I'm
having."
After the success of the Scary Movie franchise, Faris appeared in films like Lost in Translation,
The House Bunny and Just Friends.
When Faris was 22 years old, she started dating her first husband, Ben Indra. The pair got
married in 2004 after meeting on the set of the indie film Lover's Lane. But the marriage
wasn't built to last and the couple split four years later.
After her divorce and after years of having what she described to Women's Health as a
"negative-A cup," Faris decided that she wanted to feel positive about her body, so she made
the choice to get breast implants. She admitted:
"I wanted to fill out a bikini. What would that feel like?"
Faris surprised herself at getting the surgery. She identifies as, quote, "a staunch feminist"
who didn't want to cave into societal expectations. But she realized there's no shame in getting
cosmetic surgery. She told Women's Health:
"I wish that we were more supportive of each other. I think that people should be able
to do whatever they want, whether it's getting braces, bleaching their hair, getting extensions
or getting a nose job."
In 2007 Faris fell in love with actor Chris Pratt on the set of Take Me Home Tonight,
in which they played a couple. As Faris tells it, their chemistry was so insanely palpable
that she called her first husband on the phone and broke up with him so she and Pratt could
finally be together.
The self-described twin souls got married shortly after Faris's divorce and for years
were head-over-heels in love with each other, as noted by Pratt. The Guardians of the Galaxy
star admitted in a Reddit AMA:
"Our relationship has made me believe in divine intervention and destiny, just as much as
my crazy career and the way I fell into this life. She and I grew up 20 minutes away from
each other but never met until we met in LA."
After several years of marriage, Faris and Pratt had their son, Jack, in August of 2012.
And since Faris became a parent, she's said she would be the first to admit that parenting
is anything but easy. She told Rachel Ray:
"I feel much more in control at work. I don't know, do most people feel that way? I feel
less powerful at home, because I still feel like I don't have a handle on how to be a
perfect parent."
It's not to say that Faris is proud of being more confident with acting than she is chasing
toddlers. She admitted:
"I say that with a little bit of embarrassment, I guess, but I think there's truth in it.
How do you know how to become the perfect mom? And does anybody?"
While Faris has enjoyed a successful career on the silver screen, in 2015 she decided
to branch out into the land of podcasting. The reason? She explained to Vogue:
"I started like everyone else: listening to Serial. I became a huge podcast fan — an
obsessive one."
And her podcast, Unqualified, was born. Faris chats with everyone from actors to chefs to
her own relatives and gives listeners intimate details about her life.
Faris says she was just looking for something to do and never expected it to blow up the
way it has. She said:
"When I first started it I really thought this would be a Sunday afternoon hobby. It
turned out to be a lot more work than that, but it's really fun."
Faris added that she hopes she can keep podcasting for a long time, and noted that Unqualified
had an unintended impact on her. She explained:
"It feels therapeutic and liberating to be in control of my story. It was a side effect
that I didn't really expect."
It truly seemed like Chris Pratt and Anna Faris were destined to be together forever.
Fans of the couple were devastated when they learned the pair were splitting up in 2017.
But the split was amicable. Faris told People:
"It's understandable that people seemed so invested in our happiness together. All I
can say about that is, it's all true, that we truly adore each other, and we love each
other, I think it still comes through."
But the amount of coverage Faris and Pratt received when they divorced took some getting
used to, as Faris explained to Marie Claire:
"It feels like it's more dramatic than it is. Chris and I have a great friendship and
Jack is so happy and so loved."
The couple has since moved on, with Faris dating cinematographer Michael Barrett and
Pratt tying the knot with Katherine Schwarzenegger.
After her marriage to Prat dissolved, Faris celebrated a major accomplishment in 2017
-- publishing her first memoir titled, Unqualified, named after her very successful podcast. Unqualified
gave readers an inside glance at Faris' experiences, from her love life to her cosmetic surgery
to her motherhood follies.
"I hope it's a book that people read but it's probably a book that nobody should read because
my like, I know nothing."
While her book focuses a lot on her marriage to Pratt, the couple had split up just before
its release. But Faris made the decision to publish it regardless of personal events.
She explained to The New York Times:
"At first, I was really nervous about the idea of the book coming out and coinciding
with these major life changes we were having, but Chris is amazing."
Pratt even wrote the forward! She continued:
"I've never done anything like this. I get to hide behind characters."
And for that alone, she should be proud.
In 2018, Faris landed the role of a lifetime, playing the role of Kate in the remake of
the '80s classic Overboard. Faris was a huge fan of the original, and she even got together
for dinner with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell to talk about the remake.
She told Today:
"By the end, Goldie said, 'Okay, we give you our blessing.'"
Faris also had some hesitation about the remake of the classic comedy.
"I just, I felt like like you know, I was touching, you know, like approaching their
project."
But she also stated that by the end, she was happy to be a part of it.
Faris also shared with Marie Claire that:
"I had these kind of complicated feelings about the project, but really, I was very
honored."
The 2018 version of Overboard also flipped the script to a certain extent, swapping the
gender roles of the two leads, and that gave Faris a chance to dig deeper into her role,
as she could really inhabit the character. She added:
"I like the idea that, even though I play desperate, broken women, that there's still
a lot of pride behind who they are. They wouldn't want their kids to see a weaker version of
themselves."
One of the roles that Faris is best-known for throughout her entire extensive career
is Christy on the hit sitcom Mom. Alongside powerhouse actress Allison Janney, Faris kept
America laughing for years, even when the times got tough.
But in September of 2020 after an impressive run on the beloved series, Faris decided to
part ways with Mom and begin the next chapter of her life. She said in a statement via The
Hollywood Reporter:
"The past seven years on Mom have been some of the most fulfilling and rewarding of my
career. I'm so thankful to Chuck, the writers, and my amazing cast mates for creating a truly
wonderful work experience."
But of course Faris will continue to support the series that brought her into millions
of living rooms every week. She added in her statement:
"While my journey as Christy has come to an end, allowing me to pursue new opportunities,
I'll be watching next season and rooting for my TV family."
Given that Faris has been working in Hollywood for over two decades, she's no longer a spoof
scream queen, but she's now a fully blossomed actress with both life and career experience.
And while the pressures of aging in Hollywood are real, Faris isn't sweating about things
too much. She revealed to Women's Health:
"Now that I've passed 40, I do wonder about being premenopausal — and sometimes I feel
like my eyes can't focus quite as well. But the larger picture is that I feel happier
as I get older."
When Faris was younger, she used to worry about how it would feel to actually age. And
while it used to fill her with dread, with maturity came a more nuanced perspective on
life. She explained:
"You know how in your twenties and thirties you think, That must be so miserable? But
I don't have as many hang-ups now. There's a wonderful liberation."
There's hope for us all, then!
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