Mom: Anna Faris previews child marijuana use episode

On tonight’s episode of Mom on CBS, Christy (Anna Faris) discovers that her son Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal) has tried marijuana. EW talked to Faris about the very special episode — and how she feels about tackling such a frightening, yet realistic, topic.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What did you think about the script when you first read it?

ANNA FARIS: When I first read the script it was like, [sighs] a stab to the heart, because I’ve been working with Blake for now four seasons. I’ve watched him grow up, and I have a son who’s four, and it’s just like, no, no, this isn’t happening, he’s too little, he’s too young! And especially as a mom myself, it’s tough to think of your kids being exposed to drugs at such a young age now. As a cast, we’ve all been talking about when we exposed to it. I think it was a little later, but not much later. So yeah, it was kind of traumatic. It feels so truthful, how terrified and anxious Christy is with the idea of her son at such a young age experimenting with drugs. I asked his mom, how did you feel about the script? And she said, you know, what was terrifying was how much he already knew about the subject matter. She was like, ‘so do you know what weed is?’ And he’s like, ‘oh yeah, mom.’

How old is Blake?

He’s 12. He’s such a good kid. He’s really like the most professional of us all here by far. So she was like, yeah, it was jarring.

How did you feel about the way it was handled in terms of how Christy addresses it?

When she confronts him she really doesn’t have answers, you know? That’s how I would feel, and I’m sure many parents would feel.

The story doesn’t seem to be wrapped up in a bow at the end.

I have no idea what they have in store with us, but, you know, I love it that the show addresses that some people are very much addicts. We don’t know that Roscoe won’t be. He could very well be one of us, and I think that’s just terrifying for any parent.

Did you have any fears about doing this story?

I feel like I’ve felt that a lot with the show. Throughout the years we’ve had so many addiction issues along with breast cancer, the death of my father, the Jodi character overdosing — so I have had a lot of moments where I asked, can we do this? How do we do it with respect toward people who are facing these issues? I love that every day I get approached by people who tell me how much the show has moved them and how they watched as a family. People will tell me incredibly personal things and I feel very moved by that. For the first time in my life I’m doing something that clearly is resonating, and that feels really good.

Mom airs at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.