Other than the obvious (and recurring) allure of vomit gags, Faris has no idea why she’s funny. If she has a method, it’s to approach drama and comedy in the same way. “I think there has to be an earnestness in any character,” she says. “A sincerity for whatever their belief system is. I asked Keenen Wayans a few times, kind of indulgently, ‘Why would you cast me?’ He finally said, ‘Because you had no idea what you were doing.’ I knew that part! I used to feel a tremendous pressure to do drama, especially when I couldn’t even get auditions because I was known as the spoof girl,” adds Faris, who was rejected for sexy roles on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Six Feet Under. “But I’ve come to embrace my love of comedy.”

Faris is eager to produce more films for herself, “because there just aren’t enough out there for women,” she says. “And that’s okay—that’s what the boys do. It’s not like this is revolutionary, you know?”

One fantasy project includes a response to Sex and the City. “I love that show—I annoy my fiancé all the time making him watch it,” says Faris, who is engaged to actor Chris Pratt (Everwood). “But we’ve seen so many ambitious women in the last ten years of comedy, and their comedy comes from trying to balance guys and jobs and fashion. I want to play the girl that has zero ambition, the girl who’s stoned, playing video games, wearing the same things for weeks in a row. I want to see what she’s up to: the girl who just says ‘Fuck it.’ ”

Related:

• Archive: “Movie Features”
• Articles by Logan Hill
• Table of Contents: Apr 13, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!