What’s Your Number?, in which Faris stars and serves as executive producer, has been touted as a potential breakout film that does justice to her comic skills. In the movie, directed by Mark Mylod (Shameless, Entourage), Faris plays Ally Darling, a woman in her early 30s who reads an article in Marie Claire magazine that says women who have slept with more than 20 men are likely to stay single. Since she has almost hit that magic number, Ally decides to review her past lovers to see if she can rediscover Mr. Right.
Last April, The New Yorker offered a profile of Faris in the context of the prejudices and hurdles against making an R-Rated comedy with a female lead. The article, written before the raunchy Bridesmaids became a hit, presents an usually bald version of Hollywood cynicism, with studios seeking the comedy kill-zone between titillation and offence.
As it happens, apart from the use of relatively clinical words like “douche,” “vagina” and “penis,” What’s Your Number? is only disturbing in its painful predictability.
Based on Karyn Bosnak's novel Twenty Times a Lady, the script by TV writers Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan fits the rom-com formula, portraying Ally as a sweet and vulnerable mess. Ditched by her boyfriend and fired from her job in the opening reel, she gets bombed at her sister’s bridal shower, gets bombed again, and ends up accidentally adding to her lifetime sex score.
Convinced that her problem is promiscuity, and not the more obvious alcoholism, she begins to retrace her romantic steps to find out which former boyfriend might be marriage material.
First, though, the film short circuits its own premise by introducing her across-the-hall neighbour Colin (Captain America’s Chris Evans). He’s a cocky womanizing musician with hot abs and a convenient talent for sleuthing learned from his detective dad.
On a deeper level, Faris was attracted to the underlying message of the story. "This is a woman who's changing herself for everyone around her. She's trying to figure out who she is in terms of how people see her. Hopefully, the movie is about finding yourself."
Faris also served as executive producer. She says, off-handedly, "Well, it doesn't really mean much. The studio pretends to ask your opinion. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn't."
Clearly, this is a good time for women in comedy. "Oh, it's a really exciting time. When I used to pitch projects to studios, the first question was always, 'Well, is it R-rated? If it is, it has to be changed.' And, then the next question was always, 'But is this character loveable? We will fall in love with her?'
"That puts so much pressure on your performance and limits your comedy because it means you can't be flawed."
A lot has changed in a few short years. "Yes. In Bridesmaids women were pooping in the streets."
With the ability to make the audience laugh and cringe simultaneously, it's her fearlessness that has separated her from other actresses. It's this quality which attracted Sasha Baron Cohen, who cast her in his upcoming movie, The Dictator, which she is sworn to secrecy about: "But I can say that watching Sasha is watching a comedy genius in action."
Faris is married to actor Chris Pratt (from sitcom Parks and Recreation), who also features in What's Your Number as one of her boyfriends. "I loved working with my husband although it was pressure in that I was really nervous to act in front of him because I respect him so much. I suppose I don't mind strangers judging me, but it's tough when it's your partner," she says. "Actually, I was hoping he'd be a little jealous of Chris Evans, but that didn't happen. I thought, 'Finally, I'll have two men fighting over me'.
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