When Anna Faris' college roommate first saw Faris in her breakthrough role in "Scary Movie," the ex-roomie called the actress in surprise and told her "That's so weird that you were cast, because you are not funny." Hollywood has continually disagreed with that assessment, casting Faris in several projects where her comedic skills-subtle or, if Faris is to be believed, even unintentional--were allowed to shine.
An actress and performer since age six, the naturally blond, Seattle-bred beauty began her acting career in the independent horror feature, "Lover's Lane." In 2000, she received her breakout role as the hapless Cindy Campbell in the Wayans Brothers' horror spoof feature "Scary Movie". It was during the filming of "Scary Movie" that Faris decided to dye her blond tresses to black in an attempt to make her character look more like Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt in the "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" features, the already-self-aware slasher hits "Scary Movie" was primarily parodying. The consistently amusing, often crude but good-natured spoof was a surprise hit--with much deserved credit going to Faris for her vanity-less performance (an admiring Hewitt sent her a bouquet of roses after seeing the film)-and the actress returned again under director Keenan Ivory Wayans' guidance for the lesser 2001 sequel "Scary Movie 2" and its 2003 non-Wayans follow-up, "Scary Movie 3" (with her clueless character promoted to the full lead and parodied Courteney Cox rather than Campbell).
Faris' performance in the low-brow Rob Schneider comedy "The Hot Chick" (2002) was also singled out as one of the film's few redeeming features, and she bowled critics and audiences over with her brief but potently hilarious supporting turn as the vacuous actress Kelly, who visits Japan in director Sophia Coppola's "Lost In Translation" (2003). Faris admitted to basing her improved, empty-headed performance on a real-life Hollywood actress, but emphatically denied much-circulated Internet rumors that Cameron Diaz was her inspiration. While hoping to avoid Hollywood flavor of the month labels and explore more challenging and dramatic indie fare, the actress also shrewdly took on another major comedic role with much mainstream exposure when she was cast in a three-episode stint during the final season of "Friends" in 2003-2004, playing the birth mother of the baby Monica and Chandler plan to adopt. In the low-budget comedy "Waiting" (2005), Faris played a seductive waitress at a restaurant full of misfits, including two cooks (Luis Guzman and Dane Cook) who do disgusting things to the food, a waiter (Ryan Reynolds) whose only care in life is partying, a dishwasher (Chi McBride) who likes to wax philosophical and another waiter (Justin Long) who hates his dead-end job.
Weeks after the release of "Waiting," she reunited with Reynolds in "Just Friends" (2005) for another brilliantly funny out-there character, the spoiled socialite, diva and magazine pin-up girl Samantha James, whom formerly fat Reynolds is charged with turning into a pop-singing sensation just as he's reunited with the high school best pal (Amy Smart) he's pined for all his life. She then had a brief but scene-stealing turn as the too-chatty Southern trophy wife LaShawn in director Ang Lee's award winning and much ballyhooed "Brokeback Mountain" (2005). She next revived the clueless Cindy Campbell for the inevitable sequel, "Scary Movie 4" (2006), this time seeking a career in home healthcare that leads her to a creepy old lady in a creepy old house where she encounters innumerable phenomena-horrific plane crashes, alien sphincters and even Oprah. "Scary Movie 4" took the number one spot on an opening weekend with little competition, taking in a whopping $40 million only to drop almost 60% the following week. |
