Anna Faris Opened Up About How Competitiveness Affected Her Previous Marriages

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Anna Faris chatted with fellow actor Gwyneth Paltrow on the March 22nd episode of Faris's Unqualified podcast about how her "competitiveness" negatively affected her prior two marriages—the first to Ben Indra (from 2004 to 2008) and the second to Chris Pratt (from 2009 to 2018).

"My two other marriages were with actors and I don't think we did a great job of eliminating competitiveness," Faris said during their conversation. "Or at least I didn't, being a proud person, and not wanting to reveal vulnerability."

She continued, "Any hint of competitiveness and comparison, I didn't handle that very well, I don't think. And I hope I've grown from that."

Faris is now engaged to cinematographer Michael Barrett.

Similar to Faris, Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin from 2003 to 2016, also felt like she was bringing her own personal issues into her romantic relationships. "I really, for a long time, was choosing men and trying to work shit out with them that I had no business trying to do in a romantic relationship," she said. "It was work I needed to do myself."

"In a divorce, I've learned so much from something I wanted least in the world," Paltrow, now married to producer Brad Falchuk, continued. "I never would have wanted to not be married to the father of my kids, theoretically. But I have learned more about myself through that process than I could have imagined."

Both Faris and Paltrow now better understand what led to the breakdowns of their prior relationships and have worked on their issues, but both also credit the men in their lives for helping them become better communicators.

"[Falchuk] is a person who demands presence and intimacy and communication in a way that I just didn't know how to—I like to fight by shutting down. I'm like, 'Goodbye.' I, like, leave the room," Paltrow told Faris, adding that her husband "demands that I'm honest with myself in a way that is hard for me, but which really helps me grow."

Faris empathized with her. "I'm engaged to a man who's demanded the same thing, which I had never had before," she said. "I had never been confronted with intense eye contact actually...Sometimes it can be pretty hot."