Anna Faris: her send-up of celebrity vapidness in last year's Lost in Translation had audiences asking, "who is she?" but from her earliest days as a schoolyard loner to her accidental career in comedy, she's been surprising everybody, including herself, with her savvy moves

Make 'em laugh. That's the quickest way up the Hollywood food chain, and that's exactly what Anna Faris has been doing, first by starring in the gag-a-minute Scary Movie series, and then by playing a daft Hollywood tart in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. Here, Faris shares some laughs with Sandra Bernhard.

SANDRA BERNHARD: Hi, Anna. How are you?

ANNA FARIS: Hi. I'm good. It's such a pleasure to talk to you.

SB: Thank you. The feeling's mutual. I just saw Lost in Translation today.

AF: Did you enjoy it?

SB: I thought it was great. So, I understand from my sources that you don't have a lot of Hollywood friends.

AF: [laughs] I don't, no. I don't have any friends in general. I was one of those girls who always had one friend and was sort of obsessed with or half in love with them. Although I'm not quite in love with them anymore, I still have that same tendency. I was a really late bloomer.

SB: When did you move down to L.A.? You're from Seattle originally, right?

AF: Yeah. I moved down right after I graduated from college, in '99.

SB: Wow, You haven't been in the business for too long, then. How'd you get started?

AF: Well, my fiance [actor Ben Indra] and I did this awful horror film together up there called Lovers Lane [1999].

SB: Hey, sometimes the awful ones are the ones you learn the most from, right?

AF: Yeah. And I had so much fun. I had been acting for a while in Seattle, doing theater and commercials and training videos, but I never thought I was going to pursue it because it's such an unstable profession, and I'm such a control freak.

SB: What sign are you?

AF: Sagittarius. What about you?

SB: I'm a Gemini with Leo rising in moon in Sagittarius.

AF: Oh. Is that good for us?

SB: Very good. Geminis and Sagittarians, we're six months apart. We're polar opposites, and usually opposites get along the best. How old are you?

AF: I'm 27. This year, for the first time, it really felt like, "I'm not a kid anymore."

SB: Right. When you hit 26, 27 you know that 30 is rapidly approaching.

AF: You know, I really am looking forward to playing girls that aren't in high school anymore.

SB: Your character in Lost in Translation wasn't a high school kid.

AF: No, she wasn't. I don't know how old she was. But I imagine she was someone who had been a really successful child actor.

SB: Was that the kind of background vibe you and Sofia went for? Because I've read and I've heard that the part was supposed to be a kind of dig at Cameron Diaz. Is that the story?

AF: The rumors have been flying. I don't think that's true. I don't think Sofia's that vindictive. We talked about a couple of actresses, but Cameron's name was never mentioned.

SB: Can you tell us who those actresses were that she told you to reference?

AF: No. Because it wasn't that it was supposed to be them--it was just sort of the idea of this person who was living on a different plane.

SB: Right. Obviously, it was just this typical bimbo actress who was out for herself.

AF: Yeah, and if you spend any time in this town you meet these people.

SB: Absolutely. So how did you get the part?

AF: I auditioned for it six months before I actually got it. We were up at this office on Mulholland Drive, and I had just finished the audition--I did the karaoke scene for her and everything--and all of a sudden someone's unlocking the door to the outer hallway. Sofia and I are both looking at the door, and it opens, and in walks Warren Beatty. I was just like [gasps]!

SB: Did he hit on you?

AF: [laughs] No.

SB: Warren's lost his touch.

AF: [laughs] Maybe. He and Sofia hugged and had this conversation about Annette [Bening, Beatty's wife] being up in Canada, and I'm thinking, What the hell am I doing here?

SB: That's how it always is with those first big auditions. When there's a lot on the line, something weird like that always happens. Now, how'd you get hooked up with the Scary Movie series?

AF: Well, right after I graduated--back in those days of Lovers Lane--I met some managers down in L.A., and they sent me the sides [script pages used in auditions] for Scary Movie [2000]. Actually, the original was called Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween. [Bernhard laughs] So I put myself on tape for it, at home in front of the fireplace, with my morn reading opposite me. [Bernhard laughs again] It was awful! I have no idea what happened to it. I just hope it never appears in public.

SB: Don't worry about it. Paris Hilton is out there having sex on tape, so I wouldn't be too concerned about a funky audition showing up somewhere. So, tell me about your guest-starring part on Friends. How did that come about?

AF: From what I hear, Matthew Perry saw Lost in Translation along with [Friends' executive producer] Marta Kauffman. They were looking for someone for the role of the birth morn for Monica and Chandler's baby, and I guess my name came up. It's a trip. I'd never done a sitcom format before.

SB: It's fun, huh? And it's the last season, so this is a big, big thing.