It’s the work, not the lifestyle

At the recent press junket for Dimension Films’ latest and possibly funniest installment, Scary Movie 4, the series’ main leading lady Anna Faris was asked to compare her boxing scenes in the film to that of Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank’s in Million Dollar Baby.

"I’d like to think I’d be up for it but it would take a lot of work, a lot of training," she says. "I don’t know. I really admire her as an actress and I would like to think I could at least take a stab at it but I don’t want to go making that comparison. The original sequence for that boxing scene took a lot longer and they cut it down to like 30 seconds of fighting. It was originally about five or six minutes and they had me really hit the young boxer who played the Mike Tyson character and I found that very emotional. I had a hard time with that."

The naturally-blonde Faris returns to the very lucrative horror-spoof franchise. She reprises her role as Cindy Campbell, which originally was a spoof of the Neve Campbell character in Scream, but this time she is spoofing Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Grudge and a host of other characters from recent blockbuster films.

"I feel very comfortable now playing this role. I approach it with a certain amount of confidence and there is relief to that. And Regina (Hall) and I have become really close friends," she says.

Her character and that of her co-star Regina Hall’s that have remained from the original Scary Movie. Although Hall’s character Brenda was killed at the end of the first movie, somehow, through the masterful tweaking of the genre, Brenda survived and became a stewardess. In the fourth film, they are joined by Craig Bierko, the towering actor who took a beating from Russell Crowe in last year’s Cinderella Man, veteran actor Leslie Nielsen and Carmen Electra.

"I think it’s underappreciated how difficult it is to make people laugh," Faris discloses. "I was never that funny. I was never the class clown. I was always the really quiet kid. I think it takes a lot of trust in the director and the film."

The first two Scary Movie were made by the talented Wayans Brothers. Legendary director David Zucker, who created the movie spoof genre with the first Airplane in the ‘80s, took the reins and directed the third and the current installments.

"I think the Wayans Brothers pushed the envelope with the sexual humor a little bit more than David did. David is a little bit more old school," she observes.

"The thing about improvisation is it doesn’t work very well with this format because we are trying to make it very dramatic and silly but you cannot really acknowledge that it is silly as a character because it would break its effect on the audience. So, we tend to sort of stick to the script. There was no need for us to push the comedy," she says.

"I am pretty good about keeping a straight face because I feel pretty involved in the scene. I worked with an actor (who remained unnamed) who would laugh on purpose to mess with the other performers. I am very considerate about that but he (the director) had a very contagious laugh and we just had a good time."

The Seattle-raised actress started acting in theater at a very young age before she moved to L.A. and landed her biggest break in the first Scary Movie.

She most recently appeared in Lost in Translation and Waiting. She also appeared as the surrogate mom to Monica and Chandler’s baby in the final season of the hit TV series Friends.

"I don’t get recognized that often but when people do, I get the feeling they respect the work I do," Faris humbly reveals.

Asked why she is not as visible as her contemporaries, she says: "I don’t really love being all dressed up, but I think I need to be a little bit more fabulous."

"I don’t think I am really competing with them. I like to think of myself as a little bit more of a character actress. I would love to get leading lady roles but I really just like doing very interesting work. I grew up in dramatic theater and I have a big commitment to acting and playing characters," she adds.

"I choose films because somebody chooses to hire me. I don’t think I am at that level where I can be really choosy but I am getting there. I think I can have a little bit more discretion than I used to and I just love playing really interesting characters whether it be a dramatic movie or a comedic movie."

"I don’t want to be like another actress and be completely dishonest," she says. "There is a financial aspect to consider in doing this movie. It allows me to make money and to work on a film like Brokeback Mountain. I made $75 a day on Brokeback Mountain for a two-day work."

Most days, the actress simply enjoys her domestic life.

"I love being with my husband. I love cooking and drinking wine. I love traveling, too. We go to Italy a lot. We got married in French Polynesia and we go there pretty frequently, like, if we can afford it."

She and her husband, actor Ben Indra, are celebrating their second anniversary this month.

"I love my job and it’s a thrill to be a working actor but I feel I love my life and I think to some actors their jobs are their lives. I think I have a job that I happen to love. I enjoy the work more than the lifestyle," she muses.

Faris will be seen next in My Super Ex-Girlfriend with Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson and in another independent film by Greg Arakis of the hit indie flick Mysterious Skin.

Scary Movie 4 opens today in theaters.