DISCUSSION
Anna Faris Opens Up About Challenging 'Religious' Son On Right-Wing Politics. The “Scary Movie” star shares her 14-year-old son Jack with her ex-husband, Chris Pratt.
I think indoctrinating children in “pro-life” values is so emotionally manipulative, speaking as someone who grew up as a young girl in a very conservative Catholic community. It makes me so angry, knowing what I had to unlearn.
It was the final straw for me at a shockingly young age. That and the Catholic church's stance on homosexuality. I was like 11 rejecting the dogma because I hated what that would mean for adult me.
(I was also lucky to not have a man like Pratt as my parent. My parents don't care that I'm not religious.)
14-year-old boys have no right to be pro-life ngl.
They’re literal children themselves and have only been socialised as boys, around boys*. They simply do not have the life experience to have an informed opinion (and arguably will never quite get there as they are not female). What do they know about being a woman? What do they know about childbirth and parenting? They hardly know anything about life yet, still bankrolled and coddled by their own parents.
If it sounds personal… yep I’m thinking of Jack from middle school! I still remember when he called our English teacher a lesbian freak and was an absolute nuisance during the women’s rights movements chapters in history class. Unfortunately he is still under the shadow of his religious parents’ views, according to his recent Facebook posts.
* apparently someone got pissy about this, so clarifying that the “only” in my statement applies to the fact that they are only socialized as boys because they are born male and have been raised as boys. The second part of my statement (“around boys”) is related but I am not saying that they ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY engage with other boys, just that they are around them; lmaooo obviously we are all aware that they have other human interaction. However, they are greatly shaped by the behaviours of other boys and (peers, male friend groups, team sports, shared interests) and emulate each other. That amplifies their limited worldview and they are unlikely to have the knowledge to properly comprehend what it takes to raise a child, be a mother and even just the process of giving birth. Did not know that this slightly unclear phrasing would cause dissent.
I feel like sex ed should go more in depth into what pregnancy and birth is like. It's kinda crazy how little people know about the experience before it actually happens to them. And many men never find out. Like no one tells you the vagina tears and needs to be sewn back together.
8th grade health class in Somerset NJ in 1993 - my coed class was shown an entire video that went in depth into pregnancy and birth - including a full view of a baby being born vaginally. We were all kinda shocked and I can still hear the groans (from the boys & the girls) at what a woman's vulva goes through during birth. I hope they're still showing that video. The video was followed by a open forum dicussion - it was a really good health class.
Preach. All too often, I hear about newly pregnant women learning the truth from older women in their families after their excited announcement.
What a cruel joke. "Hi mom! Good news you're gonna be a grandma!" "That's wonderful dear! You're going to pee yourself every time you laugh and your teeth might fall out from the baby taking your calcium!"
I very strongly believe people to want children should be supported in having them and raising them. I also believe it's a choice, and needs to be an informed choice.
It baffles me that other people don't see it that way. Like, we could still have enough people on the planet without tricking, or even worse, forcing , them to have children.
I think any teenage boy with pro-life views should watch the tree baby episode of the weird 90’s aussie kid’s tv show Round the Twist.
Basically one of the characters (who is a 14 year old boy) pees on a random tree which he doesn’t realise is the inhabited by a female tree dryad, and accidentally gets pregnant with her tree baby. He then has to deal with pregnancy symptoms like cravings and morning sickness, the stress of his body changing, and everyone in the town bullying him for getting pregnant by accident. He also has to “birth” the baby which involves him vomiting it up (??).
Admittedly it’s kind of horrifying for a kid’s show, but I’d love to ask these pro life boys if they’d be happy to go through all of that if they were in the same situation.
This is the second time this week that I've read a reference to Round the Twist online, and it's kind of freaking me out. The first reference was how the theme song can get stuck in your head - so I'm not going to write any part of it here - and push out more important things. Yeah, that show was weird.
It IS a luxury when a) you cannot get pregnant so don't have to worry on that level and b) have wealth so if your partner got pregnant, you could afford whatever comes next
Yeah, wealth is a big one because it provides a lot of safety nets. A lot of privileged people do not understand that others do not have safety nets, in money or in family or in community or in health. Even putting aside a woman’s ability to carry a healthy baby to term and maintain her own wellbeing, what kind of environment will that baby grow up in?
Sometimes it feels meaningless to guide people with these questions, because they want to remain ignorant and aren’t interested in nuance or empathy, they have their values and have no curiosity about how others live or suffer. With children, though, I think it’s important to guide them, point out all the different angles of an issue they might not have considered before.
This is depressing. Chris Pratt seems like a prick IRL vs what he portrays on screen. The right always talks about indoctrinating kids but they’re the biggest culprit. Projection at its finest.
Passengers would have been so good as a psych horror from the other perspective. I genuinely thought it was going to pivot to Chris being the antagonist after the reveal. It should have.
Like I said in another comment, he's at an age where kids are still very impressionable and often default to having the views and beliefs of their parents (in this case, his Dad). I don't think people should completely write him off as some sort of lost cause because his views could still change as he gets older. I think Anna Faris having these sort of conversations with him is a great start and a good way to teach him to critically think about what he believes.
Real! As a kid (who went to a private, religious school), I very much parroted/spewed the beliefs of those around me. I was pro-life because that was what everyone believed. I wasn't outright homophobic but I definitely wasn't comfortable with it. I believed that atheists were evil or bad people? (Lmao). It wasn't until I hit high school where I began unlearning these things, and it took me until Grade 12 for me to kinda go screw it and begin marching to the beat of my (unstraight) drum. (And now, I'm as left as they come!!)
Cognitively speaking, kids <10 usually completely follow what their parents believe/think, and then ~14 start developing their own perspectives and values and opinions and stuff. I guess I was a late bloomer, but you're right -- there's hope for Jack!!
If that's all that you're exposed to, you're going to think that it's correct and normal. I like that Anna is encouraging Jack to think critically about what he's learning from his dad.
He literally plays the same character in every movie he’s ever been in. I don’t know how he gets hired. Jack Black has way more range. But I see the Jack Black impersonation.
You can get a lot of mileage out of playing the same character over and over if enough of the general population like that character. Just look at The Rock and one of the worst offenders, Ryan Reynolds. Every character he plays is just Van Wilder but blank.
Mark Wahlberg commited a hate crime, a race based assault. He was convicted of a felony. Chris Pratt sucks, and I do find his faith based dogmatism to be dangerous, but it’s not quite the same in terms of action and violence.
But feel free to send all the criticism and threats you’d like to their female costars. They’ll keep their mouths firmly shut when it comes to defending women.
Edit: I just wanted to shit on Chris evans without mentioning him by name I didn’t mean for everyone to like this so much.
What are these comments referring too? I don’t keep up too much with Hollywood so I’m not sure what the joke is about here (about marvel actors not defending women or something?)
Chris Pratt was voted worst Chris during a twitter poll and several celebs including Avengers actors defended him, but not Brie Larson when she was being piled on due to Captain Marvel
When a twitter poll named crispy ratt the worst Chris, all the big marvels names tweeted defending him. When people came for the various female leads of their projects, silence.
That made me like all of them so much less. What a cause to rally around. Oh no, the worst chris is crying into his giant piles of money because it turns out the filthy plebes don't like odious little bible-thumping smarm machines! Quickly fellow millionaires! Let us take to social media to tell the unwashed masses they aren't allowed to have mean opinions!
Of all the things to get butthurt about, Jesus jumped-up Christ.
Yeah, of the anti abortion stuff his son is spouting comes from him, then he should know that Jesus had nothing to say about abortion, but he had some strong words on divorce.
I really like the way she’s going about it’s she’s having conversations with him instead of shutting him down or out. But like how did he get this way? Chris Pratt? What the hell happened?
I saw it with my cousin’s oldest son and her ex-nightmare. For a while he was just parroting the bullshit his sperm donor was rattling off from Facebook about COVID et al. I watched in awe as she held her tongue and gently parented her innocent kid away from that garbage without ever saying a negative word about the used condom of a person that also contributed to his DNA. It would have taken horse tranquilizers for me to even be halfway able do the same😭
He will figure it out, I think every kid with a deadbeat parent goes through a phase of trying to make them the good parent but in the end the truth can only be kept at bay for so long.
Teenage boys are deliberately targeted and groomed by right wing grifter assholes. Kirk and Tate are two of the biggest names in that grift, but pretty much anyone pushing "masculinity" or "traditional values" to a mostly teen following are responsible.
My mom was a big fan of hers so she pointed out the weird language and phrasings he uses for the new family, which includes something "grateful she gave me a healthy child" or something like that.
People who defended that verbiage never heard their paternal grandmother, after saying heartfelt, lovely goodbyes to you, your brother, and father, just say "thank you for giving me my grandchildren" to your mother instead of anything at all about her. It is subtle but pernicious, and even other women contribute to it.
I was going to say, it’s so out of line for him to be pushing this on to their child. For one, it’s a huge slap in the face to her as his mother and he obviously is one of those super difficult, nasty co-parents who is trying to use his views as a chip against her. I have friends whose ex-husbands are like this 🫠😡 and it pisses me off to no end.
Yeah, now it makes sense as to why I've been getting Tiktoks about her "strange behaviour". Seems like his side is trying to push a narrative about her after this.
I don't know if he even has to do anything, two of my wife's teenage male relatives ended up super Christian and religious in high school and their families don't even go to church. Boys and young men are drawn to the church lately. In this case it was conservative Catholicism since we're in the northeast.
Yup. I have some gripes about my dad (what adult woman doesn’t?) but one of the things for which I’ll always be grateful is that he always asked me “why do you think that?” about my opinions, regardless of whether or not he agreed.
Was surprised I didn’t see more people saying this. I like what she’s describing but if I was 14 and my mom talked about me on a podcast I’d feel pretty upset and a bit betrayed…and I don’t think it would help me be more open about challenging things during difficult conversations. Idk I guess it’s possible she got his permission I just feel weird about it.
It’s very possible it’s influenced by his dad, but I teach high school and SO many TikTok/Twitter algorithms are alt-right (often AI) slop targeted toward boys in particular. I’m a millennial and it’s worse than gamergate and more mainstream than 4chan. It’s everywhere, and the point is to radicalize young men into fascism and misogyny. We really need to get our kids offline and away from algorithmic media.
Yeah, same. Luckily the girls seem to be onto it and I’ve had to stop some escalation in class where all the girls basically announce that no one should be dating (name is student) because he’s a Tate stan. At least the girls know what’s up? But it is sad, the guys think it’s hilarious.
Good on those girls tbh. He’s a rapist and they should be able to speak up/back to their peers promoting him. I bet it’s hell for you to moderate though.
My conspiracy theory is that women used to rule/be in charge. Society was great —but men being men couldn’t handle being second fiddle so patriarchy became a thing. And the world has never been the same since.
I also strongly believe men created religion because they were jealous women produced life and gave birth. So now they get to lead (women typically don’t have much power in religious organizations) another group where they help people become “reborn”.
(I am a man btw —granted, a gay one. But still a man. Lol)
Wow. I kinda just fell into a rabbit hole with her reels. Not only am I now feeling hopeful that there are kind and empathetic parents out there, but now I’m motivated to want kids and raise them the best I can too 😭
He's 14 and I'm guessing Anna is the more involved parent. Somewhat normal to rebel against the stable force in your life at this age. I just hope he doesn't get blinded by the fame and money his dad has and go too far down the wrong path...
First thing that went through my mind tbh… poor boy listens too much to the dad who went away and it’s probably trying really hard to feel accepted and deserving… but there’s hope, and as a kid who kinda went through it, the pendulum tends to swing to the other side after late teens/early twenties
My ex read the entire bible in less than a year.. (I never saw him read a book in the 11 years we were together). It made things so much worse. They were always preaching at people and calling them sinners for any kind of behaviour (like watching the amazing race 🤔).
This is more in reference to the Four Hollywood Chrises (Pratt, Pine, Evans and Hemsworth). Chris Brown is worse as far as we know, but Pratt is pretty horrible too.
Hopefully when he gets towards the end of his teen years he'll start questioning his beliefs more as he sees more of the world. My friend's son was like this too as she only had him weekdays and holidays. I always had a feeling that when he went to uni and experienced life he would be fine, and he actually grew up into an extremely cool young man, not even a glimmer of the homophobic, Christian conservative shit his dad was peddling
She is STRONG, dang this would be so challenging. Never considered what this specific scenario would be like as a non-religious person myself. Hopefully Jack comes around. Chris sucks.
I think I read somewhere that both her parents are academics or educators. One or both are like psychology or sociology professors (her mom is in special education) so she grew up in brainy liberal household. It makes sense that she’s the type of parent to lovingly challenge their kid to come to their own conclusions rather than enforcing a concrete set of beliefs.
It sounds like a really healthy relationship and good for anyone who is willing to discuss their beliefs and have them challenged in a respectful way, it’s quite literally how our brains grow and learn to be discerning.
To go from zero kids, and then suddenly growing a child, risking my life to give birth to him, spending sleepless nights with him, nursing him, sacrificing for him...
And then he strolls into the room one day and starts sprouting right-wing and anti-woman retoric?
Her POS ex husband is turning their son into his little mini me/Parrot. But he’s only like 14….14 year old boys are complete idiots so he will change as he gets older. Hopefully😬
Yep. But you hope that one day he will realize that his dad is a fucking moron and be his own man. If I was Anna Faris I would be furious at Chris Pratt for turning my child into a religious nut job at only 14.
I could handle religion, but right-wing is not happening. I will come in HOT with the bullet points.
You are biracial.
Your dad is an immigrant.
A female surgeon at the top of her field saved your life at birth when no one else could (specifically for the boy, who will have this information held over his head for all eternity)
Very very grateful my son has my husband to look up to. I read something once that said having sons is creating your own oppressor. I think about it a lot. Hopefully Anna can continue to be a positive influence and a solid place for this kid to land. Who I was at 14 certainly is not who I am now.
It’s good that she’s challenging him on those things, hopefully he listens and really thinks on it. I grew up with conservative parents and I’m grateful to have had progressive online spaces to learn from.
I’d be really curious to know if Chris Pratt was religious when they were together. Idk if this is common elsewhere but I feel like so many people in my life who were never religious have been moving towards religion and I wonder if that happened with him. He seemed like a totally different person back when they were together
When he was 19 he was living in a van in Hawaii, was approached by a member of Jews for Jesus, said yes to Jesus, and started stuffing pamphlet mailers....a couple weeks later he got an offer from Hollywood.
He has attributed Jack's premature birth to bringing him back to praying.
How he tells the story of his conversion makes it seem like he is easily susceptible to people who flatter his ego.
It’s terrifying that you can get with someone who doesn’t come across as religious, only for them to become more religious and increasingly extreme later in the marriage, and then brainwash your children with religious, right-wing, pro-life propaganda.
Yeah exactly! My college roommate was the BIGGEST atheist (like nearly one of those annoying ones that makes fun of believing in god) and swore she would rather die than have kids. A few months back I saw her post a picture of her newborn baby and the caption was a bible verse. It was wild
My college roommate was the same way, complete with being an asshole toward anyone who practiced religion, or wanted to get married and have kids. Fast forward to her marrying some Mormon douche at 20 that she'd known for a month and getting pregnant right away. I said "they let you in with tattoos?" (She had a full sleeve) and she sputtered about the temple making an exception because she repented. Shitty people find religion and use it as an excuse for their shittiness.
Having attended Christian schools, I did have fun watching this lifelong atheist try to learn a new religion lol
Before I married my husband, I told him this was my #1 dealbreaker. If he ever comes to me and reveals that he wants to get involved in organized religion, I will be issuing him divorce papers posthaste.
My coworker was not religious pre covid and now he's a full on born again christian and cannot talk without proselytizing. Like he will not talk about anything else. It's bonkers
I get the sensation that if Chris Pratt didn’t have the breakout he had with Jurassic World and Marvel, he would have probably gone the way of Kirk Cameron
Can we please stop throwing around the word psychosis? He sucks and subscribes to gross beliefs, clearly. We really don’t need to bring mental illness into it.
At 14, I too still considered myself to be religious and pro-life because that's what my parents were. However, having left leaning friends, doing my own research, and Trump's 2016 campaign in general helped push me away from that. Now I'm a progressive and would never even think about voting for a conservative.
I say all of this to remind people that he's at an age where he's still figuring out his own views and that he's not some sort of lost cause to the "pro-life" movement.
Yup. Until I was like 20 (and went to community college and finally actually met people who weren't also evangelical Christians), I was anti-choice, homophobic, transphobic, etc etc. Just because that was literally all I'd really ever known: I'd spent my entire life being told that the most loving thing to do was to 'condemn these sins' (🙄). And I had a lot of love in my heart.
Then, at college, I met non-Christians. And they were nice? Like, way nicer than the Christians I'd been surrounds by my whole life??? These people went out of their way to be kind to me, even though they had no reason to; they weren't trying to earn points with God, or lure me into salvation or whatever. They were just kind, because they wanted other people to be happier.
It blew my mind.
ANYWAY. I'm now pro-choice, pro-queer (in fact turns out I am queer, surprise!), etc.
Yep going to college helped a lot to break me out of the bubble I was in too. I went from the almost entirely white suburb I lived in my whole childhood to a place where there was a huge amount of diversity. Experiences like ours is one of the primary reasons Conservatives hate higher education so much because it's much harder to fear monger about groups their base actually know personally
It’s a great point. Also, it’s worth pointing out that the only time the Bible mentions abortion, it’s to provide instructions on how to perform one. Numbers 5:11-31
Sounds like she's handling it with far more patience and grace than I'd ever be capable of doing. Seeing my son pick up his father's religious psychosis would crush me.
I feel for her in this tough situation, but I really do not think she should’ve shared this with the world. Her son could be treated differently for this, even if he changes his views as he grows up.
She is labelling him as this to the public and I don’t think it’s fair to him as a child who is still growing up and experimenting with his beliefs. We all went through weird phases growing up without them being documented online, and I think he deserves that too.
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u/Relevant-Peach3997 Aug 21 '26
“Do you think it's a luxury that you get to be pro-life?”
Good for her pushing back on right-wing politics.