Anna Faris Is Older, Wiser & Happier Than Ever

THE ACTRESS GETS CANDID ABOUT HER NEW MARRIAGE, CO-PARENTING AND LAUNCHING THE NEXT PHASE OF HER CAREER ON HER OWN TERMS

- ERIC ANDERSSON

Anna Faris fondly remembers letting the good times roll in New Orleans when she and Ryan Reynolds were filming the cult 2005 comedy Waiting... "We were out every night," recalls the actress. "It was incredible." Flash-forward to 2022: Faris returned to the city to film her new movie The Estate. This time those Big Easy bar crawls from years ago were replaced by trips to family-friendly tourist spots with her husband, cinematographer Michael Barrett, her parents and her 10-year-old son Jack, whom she shares with ex-husband Chris Pratt. Though they had plenty of fun, Faris, 45, admits with a laugh: "I did feel old!"

Older but happier. Faris has been savoring life at a slower pace since 2020, when she surprised fans by leaving her hit CBS sitcom Mom after seven seasons. She took more than a year off from acting, eloped with Barrett, 52, in 2021 and has been spending time with their blended family (Barrett has two teen children from a previous marriage). "It felt like the first time that I didn't have my foot on the gas," says Faris, who rose to fame in 2000 with Scary Movie and spent the next two decades chasingjob after job while "feeling competitive, feeling comparative." Stepping away from that was a relief-so much, in fact, that Faris contemplated leaving her Hollywood career in the rearview mirror: "I was like, 'Do I have enough [money] to retire?""