Anna Faris and Chris Pratt are focusing on their careers for now, but when the time comes to have kids, the married actors will probably have more than a few.
“We would love to have kids someday,” the What’s Your Number star, 34, told PEOPLE recently as her husband, who plays Andy on Parks and Recreation, 32, stood at her side and nodded in agreement.
“We want a family for sure. Chris wants a big family.”
Even though Faris says her and Pratt’s desire to have kids is “mutual,” it isn’t really possible at the moment.
“It’s timing,” she says. “It’s so hard in this industry.”
We love Anna Faris. And not (just) because she’s the reigning queen of spoof comedy, with appearances in all 51 films in the Scary Movie franchise. Our adoration runs deeper, derived from her ability to consistently deliver the histrionic holy trinity: exuberance, pathos, and fearlessness. (The fact that she does so in the kind of thoroughly entertaining movies that never deign to slaver at Oscar’s auric feet only enhances our appreciation.) We wish she were our sister, or our best friend’s best friend. (If we were straight, we might also want to date her.) So with her new movie, What’s Your Number?, opening on Friday, we leapt at the chance to give her a call to talk chicken fingers, prostitution, lifetime sexual conquests, and her co-star Chris Evans’s perfect pecs.
Brett Berk: Anna! I’m so happy to talk to you again. I’m dying to see your new movie, What’s Your Number? If I remember correctly from our last conversation, in this movie you play a woman who’s unemployed, promiscuous, and drinks too much. Was there ever a time in your life when you fell into all of those categories simultaneously?
I think I’m still in that period! Wait. [Answers a knock on her hotel-room door.] Sorry. I just got room service. Want to know what I got? Chicken fingers. I always order off the kids’ menu because I totally am a child.
So the pop-psychology conceit of this movie is that if a woman has more than 20 partners—that’s the “Number” of the title—she’s unlikely to ever get married. I don’t want to be so crass as to ask what your number is, personally, but is it in the double or triple digits?
I think it’s five.
Five?!?
I know. Don’t you think that’s low?
Um, yes. You’re a beautiful, talented Hollywood star. You’re ruining the world’s fantasies!
Here’s the thing. I was a super-late bloomer. And I had headgear. I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 17. And then I was in two really serious relationships. Then I had a one-night stand. Then I was in a marriage. Now I’m in another marriage.
But in between the marriages, there must have been something?
Nope. I tried. I’m just . . . I don’t have a good understanding of my own sexuality. I can’t believe I’m admitting that to a journalist. Is that going to be the headline? I think it’s more that my parents were very conservative—very liberal in their political beliefs, but very conservative in everything else.
Was it religious?
No. The weird thing is, they’re both kind of atheists. I think they just didn’t want me to grow up too fast. I’m telling you, if you do not want your daughter to lose her virginity, you just get her some headgear.
So is Chris Evans a nice guy or a total vain asshole?
He’s the best. I adore him so much, and we became really good friends. But then, what was incredibly annoying was that Chris Pratt—my husband—and Chris Evans became, like, best buddies.
Ew! Not fair. You don’t want to be triangulated out of that.
Exactly. It was the most frustrating thing. I had the fantasy that they would fight over me. I wanted my husband to be like, “Back off, man.” And Chris Evans to be like, “Dude, she’s funny. She’s fucking cool as shit. You need to appreciate her.” Instead, they were going out clubbing together in Boston, while I was shooting and having to get up at, like, five in the morning.
What? There are no clubs in Boston!
There are, but you do not want to go to them.
Well, you’ll just have to think of another project that you can work on with Chris Evans. Maybe a romantic comedy?
I agree. But I would end up stuck in the annoying best-friend role. Because it would be, like, Megan Fox and Chris Evans.
You could play Megan Fox’s mom! I mean, she looks like she’d be the offspring of, like, a truck-stop prostitute who had her when she was 13.
You know, I’ve always had a fantasy about playing a hooker.
You’ve never played a hooker?
You sound so surprised. I want to play a meth-head hooker. That was essentially the original pitch for House Bunny. I was like, I want to play this totally damaged, ex–Playboy Bunny who’s addicted to meth and has to move back to her Christian town and live with her abusive father. I pitched that to the writers, and they were like . . . Or maybe you’re hot and you go to a sorority.
We need to pitch Meth-Head Hooker, stat! Last question. I noticed that Blythe Danner plays your mom in this movie. When you were doing a scene with her, did you ever get the feeling that she was watching you and thinking, That’s not how Gwyneth would have done that?
No, I didn’t. But now I do! But years ago, I was being interviewed for something, and they asked, What comedic actresses do you admire? And I always change it up, but this particular time, I said, Blythe Danner. And apparently she read that. And she said that she doesn’t take a lot of projects anymore, but that she wanted to take this movie because I said that about her.
Who knew that these interviews had such power? Well, let’s lay the groundwork here. Who else do you want to work with?
Can we go for, like, a Judi Dench? I just worked with Sir Ben Kingsley on The Dictator—the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie—and he’s so formal. Lovely, but completely intimidating. And he was always like [affects British accent], “My leading lady. How are you?” And I was always like, “I’m a leading lady? You really think so?
The new R-rated comedy, “What’s Your Number?” has nothing to do with your telephone.
A young woman panics after reading a magazine article claiming people who’ve had 20 or more unsuccessful relationships have an almost zero chance at finding true love.
Anna Faris stars as a woman who is stunned to learn she’s been way more sexually active than any of her friends.
“I thought guys were the only ones who got together and say ‘this is what I did,’” said Chris Evans. “Girls do that just as much. Girls share just as many details and they are just as raunchy.”
“Yeah you don’t want to know what goes on sometimes,” said Faris.
Evans co-stars as a neighbor who volunteers to help with the quest to find all her old exes to see if one may have been the one that got away.
“If you were dating someone I’d never ask what their number is, that was then and this is now,” said Evans. “How many times have you been in love? How many times have you been in a relationship? I would not ask, I might want to know, but I wouldn’t ask how many people you’ve slept with.”
The film’s sexual subject matter did make for interesting conversations on the set.
“We were all very open,” said Faris.
“I don’t think there was any subject not breached,” said Evans. “We got along and it was a fun cast.”
The film’s R rating also let the cast enjoy a freedom that comes with pushing the ratings envelope.
“I don’t think you want to be gratuitous, you don’t want to swear for no reason,” said Faris. “But I think, especially as a woman, it gives you a lot more room.”
Faris’ real life husband, Chris Pratt, plays one of her former boyfriends. And you’ll also see Blythe Danner and Ed Begley Jr. as her parents.
The film is in theaters on Friday.
Anna Faris has starred in a series of box office hits, but the 34-year-old actress says she almost gave up on her career before it even began.
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“I quit acting in college,” she revealed on The Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday. “I just didn’t think it was practical.”
“Well, it’s not practical,” the 64-year-old host agreed. “For a few lucky folks, it is quite lucrative, but not practical.”
Faris decided to give acting one more shot after realizing she lacked sufficient typing skills. “I don’t really know how to do anything with computers,” the What’s Your Number? actress laughed. “I had no other options career-wise!”
Luckily, Faris’ parents encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a movie star.
“I don’t know why they were so supportive, but they were. Although I don’t think they wanted me to go into spoof comedy,” the Scary Movie actress laughed. “My mom wanted me to be like Amelia Earhart or Joan of Arc. Lofty! Instead I’m queen of spoof comedies.”
This past week, Anna Faris has been busy promoting her new film “Whats Your Number?” in both London and New York City. I have just added 432 HQ and MQ photos of Anna from talk shows and events that she attended promoting the film.
If she were a candy, Anna Faris would be a SweeTart.
She appears angelic, batting those wide chocolaty eyes and reverting to a faux-breathy, beatific voice to discuss whether she made her husband, actor Chris Pratt, audition to play one of her exes in the comedy What’s Your Number? That’s when her caustic side kicks in.
“Of course I did,” she quips, pausing for effect. “In the bedroom.”
Faris, 34, has managed to make bawdy endearing and adorable — and sweetly absurd. And she plays to her comedy strengths in this Friday’s Number, which she executive-produced. Faris is a single girl who panics that she might have bedded too many guys and, with the help of her skirt-chasing neighbor (Chris Evans), sets out to reconnect with her former paramours.
Like Ally in Number, Faris seems unaware of her own charms. “She’s completely oblivious to her own talent,” Evans says. “She’s the first person to make fun of herself. She doesn’t know how pretty she is, how funny she is or how smart she is. If she doesn’t know by now, she never will.”
When told of Evans’ praise, Faris covers her face with mock humility. “OK, come on, tell me more,” she purrs.
Faris says she was drawn to Ally because she’ll always go for the underdog. “She felt like a loser. I loved the idea of someone who was sloppy and a bit of a mess,” Faris says.
To her, they’re more interesting and relatable than the typical impeccably coiffed but inexplicably single overachievers you see in films.
“I feel that we don’t see enough (losers) in Hollywood. It’s always this woman who, if she gets drunk, it’s by accident. Maybe she’s clumsy in high heels,” Faris says. “I’m also not that girl. I have a cat that poops on my bath mats every day. And sometimes I clean it up.”
Faris taps you on the arm for effect. “Are you looking for a cat? She’s 20. She’s a catress. She’s from Stuart Little.”
She adopted the elderly cat so the feline could have pleasant, peaceful final days. And that, Pratt says, is typical of his wife.
“She had a very late growth spurt and for a long time was gangly and awkward. She had to develop a sense of humor. She’s so beautiful and talented and funny and has a heart and empathizes for the underdog.”
If anything, Faris would prefer to camouflage her physical attributes on-screen. She just spent the summer in Manhattan shooting Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy The Dictator.
“I grew out my armpit hair all summer. Have you ever grown out your armpit hair? I hadn’t either. So when they asked me, I said sure. I figured it would be cute and maybe a little wispy and a little blond.
“I don’t know why I thought that — I bleach my hair. It was dark and 3 inches long and super curly. It was so disgusting. I would show it at parties, and people would be too polite to tell me how disgusting that looks. That was the summer of armpit hair.”
Pratt didn’t, ahem, bristle at Faris’ fleece. “It was a huge turn-on — and not because I’m attracted to armpit hair. It’s because she’s willing to go so hard for a joke. That, to me, was really sexy. She was willing to spend the entire summer in shirts that were at least half-sleeve in length — all for one gag. That shows focus and dedication.”
In the wake of this spring’s Bridesmaids, which earned a staggering $169 million domestically without a single male lead, studios are more open to raunchier female comedies, which are Faris’ passion.
“It’s exciting that things are shifting,” she says.







































