Here’s a story right out of Hollywood, with deep local roots. When popular comedian and movie star Anna Faris told Jimmy Kimmel some crazy stories about her family life on his late-night TV show recently, it was all the more interesting because Faris grew up here starting in the first grade.
And since she brings her family into the stories, they too are getting famous for more than the recognition they have received in their own right as part of our region’s civic and business community
Let me establish a little bit about her family before I go into Faris’ short, memorable interview on Kimmel: Jack and Karen Faris, Anna’s parents, have lived in Edmonds for 30 years. Jack Faris is well-known in the community and in business for his work in health, education, advertising and more. Currently chairman of the advisory council for the University of Washington’s Clean Energy Institute and senior consultant for the Fearey Group, Jack Faris was CEO for the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute, president of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, vice president for university relations at the UW, director of community strategies for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, executive vice president and general manager of advertising agency Cole & Weber, and an associate professor of sociology at Towson State University in Maryland.
Mom Karen stayed home when her children were small and then became active in the community, in education, when they reached high school.
Anna’s brother Bob Faris is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, and has been on Anderson Cooper’s CNN TV show, for his notable study on bullying. “Bob is another star,” Jack Faris says of his son. “I believe he is the world’s only fourth-generation sociologist,” he says, explaining that his own grandfather and father were both distinguished in the field and both presidents of the American Sociological Association in their time. His father was a sociology professor at the UW for 24 years.
That said, the glamorous blonde Anna Faris, in a bright red dress and high heels to match, launched into the fact that her brother Bob and her husband, Chris Pratt, are into “harvesting squirrels” and did so for Thanksgiving dinner in Edmonds a few months ago.
“It’s a thing,” she says, adding that the two men were made to barbecue the squirrels outside, “because my mother refuses to have the smell of cooking squirrels in her kitchen.” And, she added, the two guys season them heavily to disguise the taste.
Jack Faris corroborates his daughter’s story. “It’s true,” he tells me. “Bob and Chris go to great lengths to make them edible. I don’t think they succeed,” he says. Apparently the only ones who will eat the catch are the two hunters.
Anna Faris told Kimmel that her mother is the kind of mom and now grandmother who sends newspaper clippings and alerts, covering such topics as choking hazards, giving a self-Heimlich maneuver, the latest sunblock, norovirus information and the importance of cleaning garbage disposals.
Jack Faris says it’s true, but reveals that his daughter then, for fun, sends postcards to her mother with risqué pictures on the front and funny messages on the back. “I’m hoping the mailman doesn’t really see them,” he says.
Anna Faris is now starring in director/producer Chuck Lorre’s CBS hit sitcom “Mom,” as a newly sober single mother, and says she loves acting with co-star Allison Janney. “Anna has filmed all over the world for her movies,” her father says, “and she loves being home now with their baby. The studio is minutes from their house. This is perfect, because she can be a full-time mom to their son, Jack, who is a year and a half old.”
Husband Chris Pratt — yes, that Chris Pratt — met Anna Faris on the set of a film. Pratt, a Washingtonian like his wife, is from Lake Stevens. Some of his most popular films to date are “The Lego Movie” (voice of the lead Emmett, the nobody who saves everybody), “Moneyball,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Her” and the lead role in the much anticipated “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which will open in August. Jack Faris says the pair is headed to Hawaii with their baby in March for the filming of “ Jurassic World,” in which Pratt has the lead role. I told you it was story right out of Hollywood.