Anna Faris is no stranger to comedic roles. She has appeared in such films as The House Bunny, The Dictator, and the Scary Movie series. Lately, however, she can be seen on the CBS sitcom Mom where she plays Christy Plunkett, a recovering alcoholic mother alongside Allison Janney. It’s a role that Faris feels is “perfect” for her at this stage in her life.

“After I had my baby, I reprioritized my life in general,” she said. “I really wanted to play characters that gave me a different kind of fulfillment. That is a difficult thing to find, especially as an actress.”

One day the script for Mom showed up on her doorstep and, after reading a bit of it, her husband, actor Chris Pratt, told her that she should take a look at it.

Faris’ agent told her, “You know, we knew that Chuck [Lorre] was interested in you. We don’t really know much about the project, Chuck is a pretty, private man and I think he wants to meet you.”

After meeting Lorre, with the creator of the series, the 37-year old actress knew she wanted the role.

“I felt like she was familiar, complicated and messy and starting over in her life,” Faris told Deadline in an interview. “I loved that it was a show about a woman reconnecting with her mother and how complicated that relationship is, as opposed to trying to get a guy to sort of fall for me.”

But for Faris, it was also important that the show was going to be shot in L.A., where she and Pratt live with their 2-year old son, Jack.

Despite being a comedy, Mom covers many weighty topics such as teen pregnancy, alcoholism, and a long lost father.

“Pretty much every week when I get the script I feel like, ‘Really, we are going to do this? We’re going to tackle this? I thought this was a comedy.'” But Chuck told me that he loves the idea of a well-earned laugh and he will kill a joke in a second if it interferes with the emotional story line,” Faris said.

Faris, who has tackled some raunchy female roles in her past, hopes that a shift is coming where females can be “very sexual and still very lovable.”

“I’m hoping that we see a shift in [women’s roles], because it’s honoring women as very full dimensional people with lust and desires and for themselves.”

One of Faris’ next projects will be Tom and Tim Mullen’s Vacation Friends, in which she and husband Pratt will play a wild and crazy couple that bonds with a straight-laced couple on vacation in Mexico.

Image via Wikimedia Commons