Bell is bad in ‘CHIPS,’ just ask her husband
Actress cast after bedroom audition with director Shepard
It was not a Disney princess day in Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell’s household when Shepard sat his wife of three years down and broke the news: She would not be appearing as his ex-wife in the
CHIPS movie, in which he stars and directs.
Shepard’s reasoning was sound. Bell was supposed to play the vapid but stunning Karen, who torments Shepard’s officer Jon Baker in the raunchy action-comedy movie (in theaters Friday) based on the 1970s TV series.
But Bell is beloved for her utter niceness, voicing Princess Anna in Frozen and starring in TV’s afterlife comedy The Good Place.
“He told me, ‘I think you’re too damn likable.’ Which I took as a compliment. I’m glad he likes me,” says Bell, 36. “But I threw down a not-so-thinly-veiled threat: ‘I can be very unlikable. Welcome to the next week of your life.’ ”
Shepard is a smart man. He brought peace to the household (which includes daughters Lincoln, now 3, and Delta, 2) and cast Bell after a bedroom audition. “We were actually in the bed reading the script,” Bell says.
“It was one of my riskier moves, but she crushed it,” says Shepard. “She is just so unlikable here, which is crazy because she really is so likable.”
Bell showed De Niro-esque preparation for the discontented ex-trophy bride who was hitched to Baker when he was a motocross star. Bell added blond extensions and plenty of makeup. She handled the character’s ample, augmented bosom with what God and motherhood gave her: Bell stopped breastfeeding.
“If Christian Bale can lose 250 pounds for a movie, I can keep from breastfeeding for 24 hours, I literally did not pump for a full day. I told the kids to find some other food, Daddy’s making a movie,” Bell says. “It doesn’t feel great, let me tell you. But I was happy to have a little extra to provide for the transformation.” When Bell appeared in a Bay
watch- like swimsuit for a scene with her screen lover (played by Josh Duhamel), Shepard decided she actually might be too much of a bad girl.
“There was a zipper on my bathing-suit front and I wanted to get really aggressive with the boobs,” Bell says. “And he had me zip it up a little bit. Because he was like, ‘ People have to pay attention to my movie, not your chest.’ ” Shepard has a different explanation: “I was nervous things were going to rip.”
The director was soon giving Bell great notes for her performance.
“He’d go, ‘ OK that was great. I really didn’t like you at all in that take,’ ” Bell says. “So that was kind of fun.”
Karen, the extensions and the enhanced breasts are gone now. Bell will continue a variation of her bad streak as Kiki in A Bad
Moms Christmas (out Nov. 3), juggling the shoot around the second season of The Good Place. But there are always the memories and Karen’s wardrobe to spice things up at home.
“I’m saving that red suit for his birthday,” Bell says. “Karen’s going to take him out.”