Chuck Lorre says Anna Faris’s departure from “Mom” confirmed his early doubts about casting her, according to excerpts from his new memoir, “Sitcom.”
The book, released Tuesday, describes how Lorre first rejected Faris for the lead role of Christy Plunkett, a single mother in recovery from alcoholism. He wrote that he doubted she suited the material. He reversed course after reflecting on how badly he had mishandled his working relationship with Charlie Sheen, the star he parted ways with on “Two and a Half Men.” An actor’s personal life, he concluded, was none of his business, and the mom in “Mom” should be Faris.
Lorre’s later verdict is less warm. He wrote that his early hesitation proved justified as the years passed, and that after six years Faris left for “mysterious reasons that were not mysterious to anyone on the show.” He did not explain what those reasons were. Faris, whom the studio had favored from the start, played opposite Allison Janney, who played her mother, Bonnie. Faris exited after seven seasons, and the CBS comedy ran one more year before ending in 2021.
Faris described her exit more gently when she left in 2020. She called the seven years among the most fulfilling of her career and thanked Lorre, the writers and her castmates. She later told the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that the length and intensity of the job wore on her. Near the end, she said, “I started to lose my focus.” She also noted that she had never held a job beyond waitressing for more than three months before the series. On the same podcast she said she is wary of discussing her time on the show, and she discussed her decision to get sober. Her representatives had not responded to requests for comment on Lorre’s account.
Lorre defended the final season without her. He wrote that the show “found its true voice” in its last stretch and that it offered hope and laughter around a disease that can be fatal. The two accounts leave the cause of her exit open. Lorre implies a story the cast already knew, while Faris points to fatigue after a long run.
