Anna Faris dishes on "Mom" and Super Bowl team
Anna Faris stars in the TV show "Mom," is a real-life mom and is famously close with her own mom. Faris, who is the spokesperson for Lay's Flavor Swap contest, talked to CBS News about the best advice she got from her mom and who she'll be cheering for on Super Bowl Sunday.
How did you end up partnering with Lay's Flavor Swap?
The people at Lay's know how much I love potato chips, and they asked me to partner with them to help launch the four new flavors that are competing with four older flavors. People can vote online on which flavors to keep and the lucky winner will win $250,000. Starting Feb. 8, people can vote, so it's just in time for Super Bowl season.
Which flavor is your favorite?
I'm a cheese lover and I gotta tell you right now: Lay's Cheddar and Sour Cream is going against Lay's Smoked Gouda and Chive and you can hear the sadness in my voice over the idea that one of them may be eliminated, because I love them both very much. I gotta go with the Smoked Gouda and Chive as my favorite new flavor, but I got to try all the flavors yesterday.
Is Chris [Pratt] a chip fan? What's his favorite flavor?
He likes spicy food, so I think it's the Flaming Hot potato chips. I can't handle the spice like he can but he just loves football and beer and potato chips.
If you love snacking so much, how do you also stay so fit?
That's really sweet of you to say. I have a three-year-old little boy who is incredibly active and so I just spend all day running after him. With my show, "Mom," it's a multi-cam world, which is really physical, so Allison Janney and I are both really active. Between my crazy schedule and everything that I get to do, I don't feel like I have to be eating lettuce all day long.
Speaking of "Mom," how do you and your husband divide parenting duties?
Well, Chris is shooting in Atlanta, and we fly out every chance we get. He's such a great dad. He's incredibly attentive, changing diapers at 4 in the morning. I'm so lucky that Jack and Chris are so close. We just trade off and love being together as a family and he's great. He's such a great, happy kid.
You posted a honeymoon photo of your mom recently that went viral and you wrote that you were doing it secretly. Did your mom find out?
No. She doesn't know. [Laughing.] My dad knows because he sent me the photo and I said, "Dad, I'm going to tweet this because she looks so crazy gorgeous," and my parents are still very much in love, and no, she still doesn't know. It's always fun to embarrass your mom.
She must not be very tech savvy.
Oh no, she's not. She has no idea. I think a couple Thanksgivings ago I live-tweeted our Thanksgiving because my mom is also filled with advice and all kinds of -- she's always talking about salmonella and whatever, all kinds -- so I live-tweeted it and she was like, "What are you doing on your phone?" And I said, "I'm live-tweeting everything that you're saying and she just said, "Oh."
She didn't know what it was.
No.
What's the best advice she ever gave you?
She gives me tons of advice on all different kinds of things, like how to fold laundry and how to clean your coffee filter or whatever, what sunblock I should buy -- everything. But I was just talking about how as far as bigger issues, it was always really important for her that I would be able to support myself and not depend on a man and for me to be independent. I'm grateful for that.
She also told me that I should always be selfish in love, which just took me years to understand what she meant. I think what she was saying is, find a partner who really truly loves you and respects you and I did. The most frustrating part of my mom is that she's never wrong.
You and Allison Janney have received lots of praise for "Mom." It's an interesting show because it's a comedy but it tackles plenty of serious issues like alcoholism and cancer. What's your favorite thing about the show?
I love it for those reasons. While we are a comedy, we are grounded and rooted in problems that many Americans face, whether it's being a single mom or addiction or financial issues, cancer. It's very rewarding as an actor that we sort of get to have these moments that are heavier and then we get to let the audience off the hook by finding humor through the pain.
I love working with Allison Janney and Mimi Kennedy and Jaime Pressly. It's not very often that four women get to work together in our industry like this, so we are really, really close. I get to work with my best friends every day and Chuck Lorre is incredible -- I feel like he gets to tell a different story with this show -- so I feel really fortunate.
Which football team are you rooting for on Super Bowl Sunday?
Well, we're big Seahawks fans. We sadly lost to the Panthers, so we are out, but the Panthers -- they've had an amazing season and they're really exciting to watch so even though we watched them defeat the Seahawks. I think I'm going to be rooting for the Panthers.
