After Anna Faris responded to Mom To co-creator Chuck Lorre’s professional critiques, Jaime Pressly weighed in.
The actress, who played recovering drug addict Jill Kendall on the CBS sitcom, defended her co-stars as “an incredible group of women” after Lorre wrote in her memoir. Situation comedy that he “was, in fact, right” about his reluctance to cast Anna Faris in the lead role as Christy Plunkett.
“I was there for seven years, but there were eight seasons,” she told E! News. “I came in the second season, but I had seven wonderful years working with an incredible crew and an incredible cast of women, all of whom were as beautifully imperfect as our characters on the show were.”
Pressly continued: “And I think I really, really enjoyed being able to go to work with girlfriends every day. All of us of a certain age, it was nice. It was refreshing.”
In an extract from Situation comedyLorre wrote: “I wasn’t sure Anna would be appropriate for this kind of material. Then I thought about how badly I had ruined my working relationship with Charlie Sheen.”
Allison Janney, Mimi Kennedy, Beth Hall, Jaime Pressly and Anna Faris in ‘Mom’
Cliff Lipson/CBS/courtesy Everett Collection
After his experience with Sheen on Two and a half menLorre remembers conceding: “Anyone’s personal life is none of my business. Mom would and should be Anna Faris.
Lorre added: “As the years went by, it became clear that my initial reluctance to hire Anna was actually correct. After six years, she left the show for mysterious reasons that were mysterious to no one on the show.”
Created in 2013, Faris starred in the first seven seasons of Mom as Christy, a recovering alcoholic who struggles to maintain her job, family and sobriety as her mother Bonnie (Allison Janney), also in recovery, moves in with her.
Faris left the series in 2020 to “pursue new opportunities”, leaving Janney as the sole lead in the eighth and final season, which concluded in 2021.
Following Lorre’s comments, Faris shared his response Thursday on Instagram. “Yeah. Yes, I read a few things. I really didn’t see it coming. Of course, it hurt. Chuck gave me a job that I loved, and for seven years, I never took a day for granted. I’m proud of what we did together, and nothing changes my gratitude to those people and those years,” she wrote.
“I’ve been sober for a year and a half. I was on a show about recovery and then I experienced it. Now I’m healthy, I’m working and I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time,” Faris continued. “If anyone reading this is where I was, I hope this is helpful. It’s getting better. I’m proof.”
In addition to Faris and Janney, Pressly starred in the series alongside Mimi Kennedy, Beth Hall and Kristen Johnston, playing their supportive group of Alcoholics Anonymous friends.
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