Now they’ll probably scare up another one
Five years ago, there were more than a few moments when Anna Faris was ready to bid farewell to the “Scary Movie” franchise.
The first “Scary Movie,” the Wayans brothers’ slasher parody, was a smash hit. But the hastily made “Scary Movie 2” earned savage reviews and less than half of the box office of the original.
“I think after the second one, it was just really one day at a time – I never really imagined even when we were shooting the second one that there would be a third,” Faris admits.
Not only was there a “Scary Movie 3,” but now a “Scary Movie 4,” which opened Friday.
”Regina (Hall) and I are the only ones who have been in in all four and I keep thinking, ‘It’s because probably I’m pretty reasonable still, cheap for the studio to hire back,’ ” Faris says.
Her Cindy Campbell has become the series’ centerpiece. Originally just a winking take on Neve Campbell‘s “Scream” character, Cindy has evolved into her own blissfully brainless entity.
“With Cindy, it’s really important to play her very sincerely, and she obviously has no sense of humor, which I think is funny in itself,” Faris says.
“The main difficulty in playing a character that’s not the brightest girl is just the sense of vanity,” she adds. “There are people out there who think that I’m very much like my character and that’s a bit of a hard pill to swallow, but I really do have a great time and I think that doing comedy in general is having a lack of vanity and trying not to have too much of an ego.
“Especially for a young woman, it’s easy to be like, ‘Oh, I really want to look good. I wish I could look sexy.’ But that’s not very funny.”
Outside of the “Scary Movie” films, Faris has done a lot of small parts, though some have magically grown. A case in point would be the recent “Just Friends,” in which her goofy pop star became the focus of the film’s commercials after audiences responded to the character.
With her memorable supporting turns in “Lost In Translation” (as a young starlet who Faris swears wasn’t based on Cameron Diaz) and “Brokeback Mountain,” she’s been in best picture Oscar nominees two of the past three years.
But Faris doesn’t show up at parties and she doesn’t attend random premieres. She’d rather spend time with her husband (actor Ben Indra).
“I really do hate that part of the industry, but I think it’s probably true that I should go to some of these things and do some of that stuff,” she says. “But at the same time I feel – and maybe this is very naive – a little bit like my career is a bit ahead of my publicity, which I appreciate.
“I feel like there’s room for surprises. I can still make interesting choices and I’m still a bit of a mystery and it’s nice. I feel a little bit like a chameleon.”
She stops, perhaps enhancing that mystery. Then she lets out a big smile.
“And I’m also a little bit lazy.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Bobby Vinton is 71. Actress Ellen Barkin is 52. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 43. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 41. Actor Jon Cryer is 41. Actor Peter Billingsley (“A Christmas Story”) is 35. Actor Lukas Haas is 30.