Allison Janney, Jaime Pressly React to Anna Faris Leaving ‘Mom’: “It’s A Huge Loss”

After Anna Faris left Mom last month, some of her costars are opening up about her exit. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mom stars Allison Janney (Bonnie) and Jaime Pressly (Jill Kendall) called Faris’ exit “a huge loss” for their show, which returns for Season 8 this week on CBS.

“It’s a huge loss for the show to not have Anna because she was part of creating a character, Christy, that everyone fell in love with, who was so lovable and warm and gullible and funny and we will miss her so much,” Janney said. “I think I’ll miss the most, for me, the relationship between Bonnie and Christy, even though that will still continue. But she won’t be present. That’s what I’ll miss.”

Pressly added that the show has changed because of coronavirus, too. “It’s a whole different set right now,” she said. “But I do want to say that it feels like she’s still here because we do talk about the character all the time. And [Janney’s] character is always calling her or vice versa.

“We still hear the name, we still talk about her. She’s not gone as far as we’re concerned, and we all spent so much time together over the years and love each other and support each other and we all want each other to be happy, so we’re happy for her and we miss her no matter what.”

So what’s next for Mom Season 8? Well, without Faris, the show plans to focus more on Bonnie and her relationship with her husband, Adam (William Fichtner). As Janney explained, her and Fichtner’s characters “find that we have more time to discover our relationship and that we in fact do like each other very much. In fact, we think we’re so good at being in a relationship that we decide we can give advice to other people in relationships.”

News first broke of Faris’ Mom exit in September, just days before production began on the latest season. At the time, a source close to the show told People that the star’s departure was a total shock to everyone on the series. “It was a surprise to hear that Anna was leaving. None of us are happy about that,” they said, adding, “It was sudden and unwelcome, and it left the entire network scrambling. This is not a good thing at all.”

Mom Season 8 premieres Thursday, Nov. 5 at 9/8c on CBS.

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