The actress said she was surprised by Lorre’s account of her casting and departure while revealing she has been sober for a year and a half.
Anna Faris says comments in Chuck Lorre’s new memoir about her casting and departure from *Mom* caught her by surprise and left her hurt, even as she remains grateful for her seven seasons on the CBS comedy.
Faris responded Thursday on Instagram after excerpts from Lorre’s memoir, *Sitcom*, circulated online. In the book, Lorre recalls that he initially hesitated to cast Faris as Christy Plunkett, a single mother trying to rebuild her life while recovering from addiction.
“Yikes. Yes, I read a few things. I really didn’t see that coming. Of course it hurts,” Faris wrote in her response.
She also made clear that the remarks did not erase her appreciation for the series. Faris said Lorre gave her a job she loved and that she never took the opportunity for granted during her seven years on *Mom*. She added that she remained proud of what the cast and crew made together.
Lorre’s memoir, released Oct. 13, revisits the creation of several television comedies from his long career. In the section about *Mom*, he writes that he was unsure at first whether Faris was right for the material. The show mixed broad comedy with storylines about alcoholism, drug addiction, relapse, family strain and recovery.
Lorre wrote that he reconsidered his hesitation after thinking about his troubled working relationship with Charlie Sheen on *Two and a Half Men*. He said he came to believe that an actor’s personal life should not determine whether that person was right for a role. Faris was ultimately cast as Christy, opposite Allison Janney as Christy’s mother, Bonnie.
Later in the memoir, however, Lorre says his early doubts about hiring Faris eventually appeared justified. He wrote that she left for “mysterious reasons” that were not mysterious to people working on the series. Reports quoting the memoir do not identify a specific incident behind that statement, and the quoted passage does not explain what Lorre meant.
Faris left *Mom* in 2020, before the eighth season. At the time, she said her seven years on the show had been among the most fulfilling and rewarding of her career and described her exit as a chance to pursue new opportunities. The series continued without her for one final season and ended in 2021.
More recently, Faris has spoken in greater detail about that period of her life. On the *Happy Sad Confused* podcast earlier this year, she described her departure as coming during a complicated time. She said the long-running production had become intense and that she felt she was beginning to lose focus after years in the same job.
In a June interview with Variety, Faris said the period after *Mom* and the COVID-era shutdown left her questioning whether she still wanted an acting career. She described feeling depressed and lacking energy, and she said she considered a version of retirement before later projects renewed her interest in performing.
Her response to Lorre’s memoir also included a new personal disclosure: Faris said she has been sober for a year and a half.
The disclosure carries an added connection to *Mom* because recovery was central to the series from its first episode. Christy and Bonnie were both portrayed as women dealing with addiction while trying to repair relationships and build more stable lives. Over eight seasons, the comedy regularly addressed Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, relapse, grief and the long-term work of staying sober.
Faris wrote that she had once starred on a show about recovery and then experienced recovery in her own life. She said she is now healthy, working and happier than she has been in a long time. She also offered encouragement to people who may be struggling with similar problems.
Entertainment Weekly and People both reported Faris’s response Thursday and noted that her comments came shortly after Lorre’s book reached readers. People also reported that Faris had previously linked drinking with depression while discussing her decision to stop using alcohol.
The disagreement adds a new layer to a departure that had remained only partly explained for years. Faris’s 2020 statement was positive and did not describe a dispute with Lorre or the production. Lorre’s memoir now gives his view that people on the series understood more about the reasons for her exit, but the published excerpts do not spell out what he meant.
*Mom* premiered on CBS in 2013 and was created by Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky and Gemma Baker. The series gradually expanded beyond Christy and Bonnie to focus on a group of women supporting one another through recovery. Janney won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance during the show’s run.
Faris has since returned to prominent film work, including the 2026 revival of *Scary Movie*, where she reprised her role as Cindy Campbell. She told Variety earlier this year that returning to the franchise helped her rethink her relationship with Hollywood and left her feeling more optimistic about future opportunities.
For now, Faris has answered Lorre’s criticism without offering a detailed counter-version of what happened behind the scenes at *Mom*. Her statement instead centered on the pain she felt reading his account, her gratitude for the years she spent on the show and the changes she says she has made in her own life.
IMAGE: Actress Anna Faris at the Premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood on July 21, 2014. Photo: Mingle Media TV / Wikimedia, taken 2014-07-22, CC BY 2.0