Faith Ford Plays it Straight on Hope & Faith
Faith Ford
Since her breakout role on Murphy Brown, Faith Ford has become a go-to for straight-woman roles, in no small part because of her turn opposite Kelly Ripa on ABC's Hope & Faith. To mark the first season's DVD release Tuesday, TVGuide.com caught up with the 44-year-old Alexandria, La., native. She looked back on the premiere's massive food fight between her and Ripa, plus the show's madcap costume changes and a slew of special guests, including Regis Philbin as Handsome Hal. She also talked about why her first-season teenage daughter was replaced by a then-newcomer named Megan Fox.
Like her character on the show, Ford is always busy. The avid cook and gardener stars in a web series for women on the go, urges film projects to take advantage of Louisiana's tax incentives and diverse landscapes, and has just signed up for the Lifetime movie Sorority Wars.
TVGuide.com: Hope & Faith is about your character, Hope, whose happy but hectic life with her family gets turned upside-down when her soap star sister, Faith, moves in. Why didn't they name your character Faith instead of Hope, since it's your name?
Faith Ford: I liked that I wasn't Faith because I didn't want to be confused with who the character was, but I didn't care that the other character was [named] Faith. ... They were named these kind of puritanical names and obviously something happened. [Faith] didn't quite live up to what her name was. She was like the opposite of that, she was like a little sex kitten.
Originally, when I was being looked at for the roles they were considering me for either/or role and I could only see myself in Hope, because I like pent-up people. ... They're real, and you like them, but they've got all these issues.
TVGuide.com: You went from being the source of the laughs on Murphy Brown to being the sane one on Hope & Faith and your last show, The Carpoolers. Do you prefer one or the other?
Ford: No, I don't. ... The laugh is always fun, but, to be honest with you, if I had only done Corky in my career I wouldn't have worked very much... It's hard enough in the end to play a character like that and have people believe that it's really a character. It's another thing if you keep playing it again and again. ... I never would have seen myself as a straight man but it's a huge challenge for me to be able to do that, because to be the straight man you have to earn your laughs more.
TVGuide.com: Have you been surprised by how Megan Fox's career has taken off since she played your teenage daughter in Seasons 2 and 3?
Ford: She was this absolutely gorgeous young girl who was plunked into New York just like I had been in New York before, and she was so into the sun, she was from Florida, brown as a biscuit, and gorgeous without a stitch of makeup on. And totally could do anything you gave her, but wasn't given much to do. And probably bored to tears and wanted to get back to LA anytime she possibly could... and here she was in New York, and freezing cold with the snow. And she didn't get the concept of that. She would show up with her little candy heels and her bare midriff with her little parka that [someone] gave her. And she would be like, "Where am I? I don't get it." And then she would have bacon in the morning. She loved bacon... 'Can I have some bacon?' And the men would be like, "Get that! Megan, we'll get you some bacon, Megan. Anything else, Megan?"
TVGuide.com: Did you see yourself in her? Because you got your start in New York when you were about the same age.
Ford: I was never Megan, let's just put it that way. I did not have that body and I definitely wasn't brown as a biscuit. I was a skinny thing from Louisiana, and I went to New York to model initially. I ended up in an acting class because my mother couldn't bear me not doing something else. I'm really proud of what Megan's done. Because you can come in and do something like that and never get another break again.
TVGuide.com: What happened to Nicole Paggi, who Fox replaced after Season 1?
Ford: Even though she was perfect in the part, I think they couldn't get over that her real age was so much different than the character's she was playing. ... I really don't know, because she absolutely seemed believable in the part. ... Even with me sometimes, my real age and the way I look are very different so sometimes they get bogged down in that.
TVGuide.com: You're very young looking — very fresh-faced.
Ford: I don't know. I'm actually proud of myself. I didn't know how I would age but I've never actually done anything like the Botox or any of that stuff. If I laugh I like my eyes to have those lines on them.
TVGuide.com: It seems like celebrities are more involved in politics than ever before. Were you ever uncomfortable with all the politics on Murphy Brown?
Ford: I'm not a political person, so I was never comfortable with it. I was always afraid I would make a huge mistake and say something not right. [Laughs] ... I don't make a hobby of watching the news. I have a tendency to be in my garden more than I am watching the news, and in fact I advise that for most people right now.
My theory about it is, I'm an entertainer and I'm like the court jester. And if you think about it, in medieval times, did they ever want to hear what the court jester had to say? Not really.
