Anna Faris 'hurt' by sitcom legend's harsh 'Mom' diss in memoir

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Anna Faris is speaking out after learning that Mom creator Chuck Lorre didn’t want to cast her as the lead in the long-running CBS sitcom.

Debuting in 2013, Faris played Christy Plunkett on Mom, a recovering alcoholic struggling to hang on to her job, her family and her sobriety as her mom (Allison Janney), who is also in recovery, moves in with her.

In an excerpt from his new memoir, Sitcom, obtained by Entertainment Weekly and Page Six, Lorre reveals that he didn’t want to hire Faris, 49, for the role.

“A pilot script came together relatively quickly and was sent to [casting director] Nikki Valko. She responded with an email that simply said, ‘Anna Faris.’ I initially said no. I wasn’t sure Anna would be appropriate for this kind of material,” Lorre, 73, writes in the book. “Then I thought about how badly I’d bungled my working relationship with Charlie Sheen.”

After an experience with Sheen that caused some of the cast and crew to be in a “constant state of anxiety” on Two and a Half Men, Lorre conceded that “Someone’s personal life is none of my business. The mom in Mom would be, and should be, Anna Faris.”

But Lorre said that he was right to doubt Faris, who left the show after seven seasons, leaving Janney to carry the eighth and final season on her own.

“As the years went by, it became apparent that my initial reluctance to hire Anna was, in fact, correct,” Lorre writes in his memoir. “After six years, she left the show for mysterious reasons that were not mysterious to anyone on the show.”

‘I really didn’t see that coming’

As Lorre’s bombshell revelation made the rounds, Faris took to social media to address his comments, saying she was “grateful” for the job.

“Yikes. Yes, I read a few things. I really didn’t see that coming. Of course it hurts,” she wrote in an Instagram post.

“Chuck gave me a job I loved, and for seven years I never took a day of it for granted. I’m proud of what we made together, and nothing changes how grateful I am for those people and those years,” Faris continued.

“I’ve been sober for a year and a half. I was on a show about recovery and then I lived it. Now I’m healthy, I’m working, and I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time. If anyone reading this is where I was, I hope that’s useful. It gets better. I’m proof,” she concluded.

Faris did not provide a reason for her exit in 2020, but at the time she called the role “the most fulfilling and rewarding of my career.”

But in the years since, Faris has suggested she was dealing with her own struggles when she walked away from the show.

In an interview with Chelsea Handler this summer, Faris said she was “disturbed by my lack of ambition.”

“I was, in hindsight, I think pretty depressed, like, premenopausal depression without recognizing it,” she said during an appearance on Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast. “I was just having a distant relationship with this city and my career and wondering if I had enough money to retire.”

During another stop on the Happy Sad Confused podcast back in June, Faris hinted that the demands of a rigorous TV schedule and being a mom were too much to juggle.

“I never had a job besides waitressing for over three months before,” Faris said. “I do think the intensity, towards the end, I think I started to lose my focus.”

After CBS announced the show’s cancellation, Lorre issued a joint statement alongside fellow producers Gemma Baker and Nick Bakay in which he said it was a “great honour to bring these wonderful characters to life.”

“From the beginning, we set out to tell stories about recovery from alcoholism and addiction that are rarely portrayed in a network comedy series,” he said. “Whether it was the emotional reactions of the live audience on tape night inside Stage 20, or discussions at The White House regarding the opioid crisis, or the personal stories we continue to receive on social media, we take great pride in knowing Mom has positively impacted so many lives. We are forever grateful to our brilliant cast and guest stars, wonderful writers, and amazing crew for going on this journey with us.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com