Kristen Bell: geek + glamour = this TV star

Interview, May, 2008 by Diablo Cody

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Name a hot TV series these days and it seems that Kristen Bell is somehow associated with it: She's the voice-over narrator for Gossip Girl and was allowed to crash the Heroes party because the show's writers so loved her as the title character in the teen-detective series Veronica Mars. Right now, however, Bell is singing the praises of her new comedy, the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In it, she plays a television star shuttling between two guys. Despite the glamour, she's not about to shed the offbeat reputation she's known for offscreen--a reputation she shares with her interviewer, Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody.

DIABLO CODY: You went to school in New York, didn't you?

KRISTEN BELL: Guilty.

DC: How do you feel about living in Los Angeles?

KB: I would absolutely identify as a New Yorker by nature. I grew up in Detroit. There was not a bone in my body that even considered staying in Detroit for the rest of my life. As for New York: I love public transportation, I love street performers, I love the melting-pot aspect of the city. I don't dislike Los Angeles. I think the irony of my living out here is that I am the one and only person who does not appreciate the weather. I've lived here for almost six years and I've been to the beach maybe 10 times.

DC: I haven't seen the ocean in a long time.

KB: When it's a beautiful bright Los Angeles day, I feel like, Oh my God, I'm never gonna live up to the expectations [people have] of me today.

DC: I like that you see the sun as pressure. [laughs] I can segue neatly from the New York thing to your musical-theater background. You have an awesome voice.

KB: Thanks, dude.

DC: If you could play your ultimate role in a musical what would it be?

KB: In about 50 years, I really want to make What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [1962] into a musical, and have it be my last hurrah as a performer.

DC: Oh, my God! [laughs]

KB: I want that to be a straight-up musical--maybe even an ironic musical comedy in the vein of Reefer Madness [2005].

DC: I like that you already have that planned.

KB: And the funny thing is that I'm not a planner. I have no idea what I want to do in the interim of that 50 years, but I tell ya: That's where you'll find me in my last performance.

DC: Would you be Baby Jane or her sister?

KB: Oh, I'd be Baby Jane, hands down. She is a lunatic and I love it.

DC: When you said that this is a role you would not be able to take on for 50 years, I was totally thinking: Golden Girls musical.

KB: I'd be open to that.

DC: All right, so I know that you're an animal lover. I associate you with animals in a really weird, oblique way, because I have great memories of watching Veronica Mars with my dog, Barnabus. And Barnabus just loved the show. But tell me about your dogs.

KB: I have three dogs whom I treat like my children. One is a Katrina rescue dog whose name is Sadie. She has no teeth, one ear, and breathes like Darth Vader. She has no concept of what's food and what's not. The other day, on set, she ate a box of pecan cookies, a bag of sunflower seeds, a bag of Craisins, and an entire bag--foil included--of Hershey's Kisses.

DC: Oh, no! [laughs]

KB: It was a little scary because of the chocolate thing. She pooped sunflower seeds and tinfoil for a week.

DC: I'm sure the Craisins got the mail moving, too, if you know what I'm saying.

KB: Oh, absolutely. [laughs] I also have two little Corgi mutts that I rescued. I have a little dog farm.

DC: That's fabulous. I want to ask about your new movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

KB: Do it.

DC: You were shooting in Hawaii with the boys.

KB: I was trapped in paradise for 2 1/2 months, being forced to get into peak condition. We had to get there 2 1/2 weeks early, and all four of us had to work out and do yoga because nobody really wants to see a bunch of sloppy people running around in bathing suits.

DC: Was the movie a new experience for you, actingwise--the straight-comedy, improvisational nature of it?

KB: Absolutely. It was something I've always secretly dreamed about, yet I don't know that I had the confidence to speak of it. Our director, Judd Apatow, has created a style of moviemaking in which 75 percent of it is improv. And it really keeps you on your toes.

DC: Back to the bathing suits. I was curious about it, not because you have any problems in that department, but because when I saw the Forgetting Sarah Marshall trailer, I was thinking to myself, I would break out in hives if I had to be in a bikini that much.

KB: I was supernervous, but I think that everybody is scantily clad, so we kind of all went into it together. I don't think that I'm modest by any means, but I'm also not an exhibitionist. Since we're talking about bodies, do you want to hear a hysterical little anecdote?

DC: Let it rip.

KB: I went out on a date once with a guy, and we were swimming or in the hot tub or something. He looked down at my boobs. In an attempt to make a joke out of it and call him out at the same time, I said, "Oh, what? Are you looking at my fake tits?" And he sort of blushed. It wasn't until three months later that he actually admitted that he had thought that I had had breast implants.