Though she’s well known for comedy, Anna Faris would argue that What’s Your Number? is something of a departure for her.
“I had never really done a romantic comedy before,” says the actress, who first rose to fame in the Scary Movie franchise.
“Usually I get offered these roles that are crazy and broad, that don’t seem like very real characters. And this seemed like a very grounded character. And it was such a strong script.”
The new film also marks the second time (after 2008’s the House Bunny) that Faris has served as executive producer on one of her projects — but she doesn’t think you should read too much into that.
“I came on as an executive producer, which really doesn’t mean much. They pretend to ask your opinion,” she says with a laugh.
“Sometimes they listened and sometimes they didn’t.” One of the areas where they apparently didn’t listen to Faris was on her character’s look.
“I had a look initially that I wanted to present as Ally. I wanted her to be a little chunky and a brunette and a little just sloppy — like unemployed, tennis shoes. But then there was a lot of disagreement about that element,” she says.
“I understand that visually, it’s fun to wear nice clothes and nice heels, and I get that she has a rich mom so that’s how we justified her Prada shoes, but I don’t know. I’m sort of yearning to play the sloppier characters and to play characters that are a little more real.”
And it’s becoming more likely to see those characters on screen, Faris is happy to say, thanks to the surge of female-fronted comedy led by Bridesmaids, the summer’s surprise hit.
“Bridesmaids had women pooping in the streets. The world’s our oyster now,” she says, laughing proudly.
