When Smiley Face first came across his desk, director Gregg Araki admits it was one of the “funniest laugh-out-loud scripts” he’d ever read. That was back in 2000 and the project, then titled The Being John Malkovich of all Pot Smoking, Stoner Movies, was already in development. When the movie never came to fruition, Araki decided to track down screenwriter Dylan Haggerty in 2005 and together the pair teamed up to finish the film.
Araki cast comedic actress Anna Faris to star as Jane F., an unsuccessful stoner actress who unknowingly eats a dozen pot-laced cupcakes before setting off to attend an audition, repay her drug dealer and of course try and replace her roommate’s precious baked goods.
Hollywood.com caught up with Araki and Faris as they arrived at the AFI Film Festival’s world premiere of Smiley Face.
Anna Faris on her character Jane F’s dilemma:
“She is a bit of a pothead initially but then she also inadvertently eats a dozen pot-laced cupcakes so she is a bit out of her mind. She has a few problems she needs to solve throughout the day and ends up getting into some crazy adventures. It was a wonderful venue for me because I love doing comedy and it is a role that I feel like would have been written for a guy which was very rewarding as a girl to play it.”
Gregg Araki on choosing this script:
“I never really wanted to make a pot movie. It is not like I set out to make a stoner movie, I’m not that person. It was this specific script and this specific film. For one, it has a female protagonist which is kind of a new thing for the genre. I like all those pot movies, but I wouldn’t have directed any of them. This one was different, the voice of it and Dylan Haggerty, the writer, just captured this incredible truth and authenticity to that mindset and that sensibility that I have never seen before and it really struck such a cord with me.”
Anna Faris on playing a pothead:
“I am really asexual. There is a guy that kind of likes me and I’m like “Uhh?” I’m not into any guys. I just want to focus on my goals. I wear a pajama like outfit, very unflattering throughout the whole movie. I love that, I love embracing it. This is a character that has no interest in men and I’ve never played a character like that before, which is great.”
[IMG:R]Gregg Araki on casting Anna as the lead:
“Anna was my first and only choice for this role. I think she is unequalled. There are so many beautiful, twenty-somethings out there, but she is the only one–she has a really unique ability in terms of her comic timing and her face and her physicality. She is literally like Carole Lombard and Lucille Ball, no one can touch her. When I saw this movie, sitting with the producer and [I said] there is no other person in Hollywood who could have made this movie but her. We were so lucky to get her. The whole cast was like a dream cast.”
Smiley Face opens limited in theaters Nov. 16.
