To succeed

With ‘Hit and Run,’ the adventurous Kristen Bell veers off into action comedy

Kristen Bell doesn’t like to play it safe. When her fiancé, Dax Shepard, decided he would do all his own stunt-driving in “Hit and Run,” the action-comedy they both star in starting Wednesday, the petite blond actress was more than ready to ride shotgun.

“Dax wrote this ballet of a car chase and was intent on doing it without any CGI,” Bell says.

Shepard, who wrote and co-directed the movie, found the best stunt drivers in the business to consult with during filming. And throughout the shoot, Bell was right next to him the entire time, including when their car had to jump over another vehicle. No big deal? “I wouldn’t use the word ‘fearless,’ ” Bell says. “It didn’t seem like a fearless thing to do. It was just what we wanted to do at the time.”

“Hit and Run” stars Shepard as a sweet goofball in the witness protection program living in a small Northern California town with his girlfriend, who is played by Bell. The two head back to L.A., where he witnessed a robbery and she has been offered her dream job. There’s a collection of crackpots, kooks and cops trailing them in the movie, which mixes the twosome’s romance with car chases and comic moments.

“This movie is a couple of different genres rolled into one,” Bell says, smiling. “It’s really Dax bottled up in a script. He always says he’s allergic to cliches.”

In real life, has the couple done the road trip thing?

“Yeah, we have,” Bell says. “We’ve driven across the country a couple of times, actually. We took a two-week road trip over Christmas. We took a road trip from Los Angeles to Michigan on Dax’s Harley one time.”

Career-wise, it’s been an interesting ride for the Michiganborn Bell, 32. From 2004 to 2007, she found fame on TV’s “Veronica Mars.” In 2008, she drove Jason Segel to distraction in the title role in the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”

In other films, she has been a feisty force in “You Again,” “When in Rome” and “Big Miracle.” She aimed for normalcy amid all the lacy raciness in “Burlesque.”

These days, her voice is itself a star. For five seasons she has been the unseen narrator on TV’s “Gossip Girl” — and she’s getting used to fans requesting a personal performance.

“A lot of people will ask me to say a line from the show, which inevitably embarrasses me,” Bells says. “They’re like, ‘Just do it, just do it!’ And I kind of feel like a monkey.” She likes mixing things up. “I think I’ve done my fair share of safe projects, but yeah, snark keeps things interesting to me,” the actress says. “It’s always what makes me laugh — a sarcastic, irreverent point of view, which is why I gravitate toward projects like that. I think that started with ‘Veronica Mars.’ That character was always so witty and snarky.”

Bell in romantic comedies “When in Rome” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (with Russell Brand).

Her current acting challenge is named Jeannie Van Der Hooven, a mini-shark trying to swim in the cutthroat ocean of corporate consulting on the Showtime series “House of Lies,” which returns next year for a second season.

Bell says her character’s mind-set inspires her, even if she can’t always relate to it. “Sometimes I have difficulty relating to the choices Jeannie makes, but I have a lot of empathy for who she is,” Bell explains. “I love the fact that she’s determined not to separate herself from the men in the workplace. She knows she’s just as good as them.

“I’m very much intrigued by that mentality. I’m into equality, and I like how ballsy she is.”

Speaking of equality, longtime fiancés Bell and Shepard, who have been together since 2007, have vowed not to walk down the aisle until same-sex marriage is made legal in California.

Bell says it would be rude to invite some of her friends “to celebrate a rite they can’t take part in.” For her part, Bell is not afraid of waiting.

“I know he loves me,” she says, “and I’m not worried that he’s going anywhere.”

bwalton@ nydailynews.com