LAS VEGAS − When Jack Pratt, Anna Faris’ son with ex-husband Chris Pratt, visited his mom on the set of her latest comedy “Spa Weekend,” he made a shocking discovery.
Pratt, now 14, observed Faris with her costars Michelle Buteau, Isla Fisher and Leslie Mann, whom she bonded with on location on Australia’s Gold Coast.
“He said, ‘Mom, you have friends?’” Faris recalls, laughing, at the film’s world premiere at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. “Because I'm a bit of a hermit. I do have some dear childhood friends that I trust and love, but it's the logistics of this time in life.”
Time to connect with others vanishes as life’s responsibilities pile up, which is exactly what “Spa Weekend” speaks to. In the movie (in theaters Aug. 21), three friends since
childhood book a few days at a resort – looking to shuck their obligations and relax. Sophie (Faris) is at the beck and call of a nightmarish boss. In between being an attorney, single mom and caregiver, Jane (Mann) struggles to find any time for herself, and Coco (Buteau) is battling her own rage and resentment amid a divorce. Their outrageous friend Mel (Fisher) crashes the weekend, and gets the foursome in trouble with the spa’s owner, Shanti (Erika Heynatz).
Directors and cowriters Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, who also penned “The Hangover” and “Bad Moms,” were inspired by their hard-working wives.
“What is wish fulfillment for you? What would you really like?" Moore remembers asking. “And they're like, ‘I just would like a day to myself, maybe with my friends and a book by the pool.’ They just wanted a break. So that was sort of the germ of this, but then we thought that might be a little bit of a boring movie. So we're like, ‘You're going to get that for two minutes, and then we're going to tear it up.’ "
“There's something a little bit silly" about spa culture, Lucas says. “It felt like a very sort of fertile ground for a place that took itself maybe a little too seriously for us to have fun with making fun of it.”
Filming on location in Australia “forced more friendships,” Faris, 49, says at the premiere. “We hung out more, and we got to know each other, and that felt really, really special.”
The following day, Faris joins her female costars for an interview, in which Fisher also speaks to the cast’s closeness.
“We definitely got into a lot of intimate conversations,” Fisher, 50, says.
“You lost your home in the fires,” Fisher says, referring to Faris’ house in the Pacific Palisades, which burned in the 2025 wildfires. “I had gone through a divorce [from Sacha Baron Cohen]. ... We came together and it was such a beautiful celebration.”
Isla Fisher believes ‘it’s hard to find space for me’
In “Spa Weekend,” an ab-baring yoga teacher named Kai (Adam Demos) flirts with Jane and asks what she does for herself. When asked the same question, Fisher says she finds fulfillment in her job, and Mann, 54, and Buteau, 49, agree.
Fisher makes improv “look easy,” Faris says, but Fisher confesses to spending a lot of time on her craft.
“I actually write the jokes at home,” she admits. “These ladies don't know that I spent like seven hours writing everything out.”
“Do you?” Buteau asks, seemingly surprised.
“Yeah, I'm a real loser,” Fisher says. “I literally think of every version of everything in my head, a thousand times. … I always feel like it's hard to find space for me, so I think if I'm really prepared, then I just have to go really quickly and just get it all out."
On "Spa Weekend, "they wanted us to be funny," Fisher adds. "It was such an amazing gift."
It might be startling to hear that Fisher, who broke through as the original “Stage 5 clinger” in “Wedding Crashers” more than 20 years ago, has trouble finding room to flourish. Similarly, Faris, known for playing Cindy in the “Scary Movie” franchise and quirky comedies like “Just Friends” and “The House Bunny,” would like more autonomy in her career.
“I want to be able to choose projects that I feel really passionately about,” she says. “I do think that I have made career choices out of fear, and it'd be nice moving forward to not do that. I hope for myself confidence.”
Buteau wishes all women felt self-assured.
“What I would like for women in general is just to say what they need without sounding sorry or apologetic or like it's a question mark at the end,” she says. “And you don't always have to say, ‘Thank you.’ You can just leave with a ‘You're welcome.’"
Michelle Buteau’s plea to see ‘Spa Weekend:’ ‘Female stories matter’
Both producer Suzanne Todd and Buteau made comments at the premiere about the lack of movies centered on women.
“Please tell all your friends and tell your friends to tell [their] friends,” Buteau asked the audience. “Because we really want people to see this movie. Like Suzanne said, female stories matter. We matter, especially in a time right now. I don't want to get all Rachel Maddow on your ass, but when our bodies are being policed, it's up to us to tell our stories the way that we can. And to have fun and bring home that paycheck!”
Their remarks earned cheers and applause, which delighted Demos.
“I love that reaction,” he says. “I hope that movies like ours − because I'm super-proud of it and it's fun − inspire more to get made, too. I'm raised by a single mum, and I'm an only child. I couldn't be more behind stories like this.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Spa Weekend' stars want women to stop apologizing for their needs
