There’s a glowing profile of Anna Faris in this week’s New Yorker, an occasion to consider both Faris’s particular comedic gifts and the extent to which Hollywood has become Apatown, a not-particularly-welcoming place for funny women. (“The reality is, I’m a dude and I understand the dude thing, so I lean men the way Spike Lee leans African American,†says Apatow.) The writer of the piece, Tad Friend, observes that to win over an audience, comediennes have to be funny, beautiful, and adorable (men just have to be the first) and structures it accordingly, making the case for Faris on all three counts — especially the adorable one.
Disarming, charming, relatable tidbits about Anna Faris!
• “When [Faris and her husband, Parks and Recreation’s Chris Pratt] began dating, he gave her a tour of his apartment, and she almost broke into tears when she saw that he had a giant African stick bug framed on his wall. He worried that it was a deal breaker, but it turned out that she, too, collected peculiar insects. Their bedroom is now lined with giant bugs.â€
• “She calls 1-800 ‘How Am I Driving’ members to praise truckers. (’Truck L359 is doing great work — he let me in!’)â€
• She recently served peanuts on a Virgin America flight “just for fun.â€
• She is always, always on time.
• “Every month or so, Faris sends her mother a vintage postcard of a buxom starlet emerging from a waterfall, or unzipping her top, with an impish note on the back: ‘Hey mom — trying to make it as an actress in LA — met this great photographer, and he says I’m going to be a star!’ ‘It gives me such joy,’ Faris told me, ‘because I know how mortified my mom is going to be that the postman has seen them.’â€
• “She’s been preparing for the inevitable question when she begins to publicize [her new film What’s Your Number, in which number refers to the amount of people you’ve slept with]: So Anna what’s your number? ‘Here’s my answer,’ she said, preparing a sincere face. ‘It’s five … hundred thousand.’ Watching me, she said, ‘Maybe it’s better as five’ — a longer beat, a sudden realization — ‘hundred thousand. Better?’ After a moment, she added, ‘The truth is — and it’s kind of embarrassing because I’m thirty-four, but I’ve been married twice, so I’ve been out of commission for a while — the real number is five.’â€
• “A Trader Joe’s Employee once gave a 7, not knowing I overheard him.†And? “That seemed a little high.â€
• As a child, “She wore purple gloves for a three month period when she was eight or so, lest she leave fingerprints and be framed for murder by parties unknown.â€
And two more fun Faris facts: Topher Grace weirdly insists on doing 50 push-ups in front of her, and she goes with it, while finding it weird. And when making Lost in Translation, Bill Murray kept telling Sofia Coppola, “Why don’t I have more scenes with her.â€
Funny Like a Guy [NYer]