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Anna Faris is in the works.
The 45-year-old actor recently opened up in an interview with Chelsea Handler on Handler’s Podcast, Dear Chelseaabout her life after the divorce and how she’s “still learning” to accept love in her life.
“Being a stepmom… I’m still learning. I really am,” she said of co-parenting her new husband Michael Barrett’s two children from a previous relationship. “I felt like I wanted to be that wild, new, inconsiderate person in their life at first because I was also going through a divorce.”
Faris married cinematographer Barrett in 2021 after meeting him for the film Over board.
She was previously married to Chris Pratt before they divorced in October 2018. She and Pratt share one son, Jack, 9. Before Pratt, she was married to actor Ben Indra until their divorce in 2008.
Reflecting on how her breakup with Indra changed her perspective on life, Faris acknowledged that “after divorce, that kind of change happens.”
“It hit hard the first time,” she explained. “I became someone I didn’t know. I’ve always been someone who kept my fridge stocked – and I’ve hosted a lot of dinners. That was back when I had friends. But then [post-divorce] I found myself in this apartment with only beer and mustard in the fridge and I was going out all the time. I didn’t have anyone to text or call to say, ‘Hey, can I do this?’ It was incredibly liberating and I came back when I was 17.”
Speaking of the intimate relationship she now has with herself, Faris admits it’s a “slow growth” when it comes to accepting love from others – which she can trace back to her childhood.
“I was afraid that I wasn’t a good lover, especially when I was younger,” she said. “I was so insecure about my body. I didn’t want anyone to see it, but I would dance on the edges. I really wanted to be wanted.”
“My mother never complimented my physical appearance,” she explained. “I was such a late bloomer – I had chubby cheeks, I wore hats for frigging years. I think my parents did this to me because they wanted me to remain a virgin,” he added. “It sure was one of the struggles in my life.”
Faris’ eagerness to please people combined with a desire to be desired by men inspired her to modify her body to accommodate those needs.
“I just got fake boobs and bleached my hair. That was my strategy,” she said, adding that while she finds it easy to accept compliments on her work and accomplishments, she still finds it difficult to accept compliments on her looks. “When you’re on something in Hollywood and everyone looks beautiful and someone says, ‘I think you look so beautiful,’ I don’t take it very well. It’s a bit too much.”
After her second divorce, however, Faris says “it was easier” to accept love, but adds, “I’m still kind of struggling with it.”
While Faris is still learning the ups and downs of stepparenthood, she’s also been open about the realities of co-parenting with Pratt. earlier this year on her podcast UnqualifiedShe spoke openly about the difficulties.
“Chris and I work really hard [to coparent] because we have Jack,” she said. “It’s kind of a long game idea and making sure Jack is really happy, which makes us really happy. We have the luxury of circumstances, so to speak. You know, we’re both in other loving relationships, but it’s like, how do you not sink into bitterness in general?”
Though she admits raising a child with her ex has its challenges, at the end of the day she wishes everyone the best.
“However, I want to reiterate that I fucking acknowledge that we all do, everyone acknowledges that all breakups bring bitterness and pain and hopefully that makes us more human,” she explained. “But the long game, and being the bigger person is just the worst thing. It just is. it sucks Until then what [matters most] that everyone is happy.”
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