In Big Miracle, Kristen Bell plays a young but driven reporter sent to cover a major story unfolding in the Alaskan wilderness. When we recently met with Kristen in LA to talk about the movie, which filmed on location just outside of Anchorage, she told us she was up for the challenges the role presented. Not only did she grow up in Detroit, where the Winters are notoriously harsh, but as an actress, she said she could relate to her character’s ambition as well as her career setbacks. Kristen also talked about what it was like to be caught in an onscreen love triangle between Drew Barrymore and her longtime friend John Krasinski, and a magical moment during the shoot that left her feeling “insignificant.”

House of Lies’ leading lady Kristen Bell stopped at Sundance to tell us about playing a “professional liar” in the new “perverted” dark comedy. Plus, find out which Big Miracle costar she said couldn’t take the Alaskan cold and hear how she stays fit by eating leftover pizza in our fun one-on-one interview at the Bing Bar!

Kristen Bell is known for her bubbly personality, but according to the House of Lies star, it isn’t in her nature to be so positive.

“I love my therapist. When I have an issue that I need to work through, going to therapy gives me a bigger toolbox to do so,” Bell tells the February issue of Self. “Talking with friends helps, too.”

“I can say crazy things to my friends, things I’m embarrassed to admit, like, ‘I feel so ugly or worthless today,’” Bell explains. “They say, ‘What? You’re nuts!’ Having good, real friends builds your self-esteem exponentially.”

Bell believes she’s become a stronger person thanks to her therapist. “If I’m feeling down, I have someone who I trust to help me guide my feelings and help me distinguish the real from the imaginary.”

The Veronica Mars alum admits it took some time for her to lighten up. “I did take myself too seriously in my twenties,” Bell says, “but you have a series of experiences when you grow up and you have mini epiphanies where you realize you’re not the most important person on the planet and life is short. I think that’s really healthy.”

The actress — currently engaged to her When in Rome costar Dax Shepard — says she’s still a work in progress. “I’ve worked really hard to curb my natural impatience by realizing that everyone is doing the best they can.”

“I’m least proud of my ability to be lazy and procrastinate by spending time on my computer or in front of the TV, watching America’s Funniest Home Videos, the greatest show on television,” Bell tells Self. “To anybody who pooh-poohs it, I say, ‘Just give it 30 minutes.’”

Yahoo.com

Kristen Bell has six movies slated for release in 2012, but the 31-year-old actress is still saving for a rainy day.

“I always assume my career’s going to end tomorrow, you know what I mean?” the House of Lies star, who’s been engaged to Dax Shepard since 2009, tells the new issue of Flaunt. “We’re very frugal.”

Bell adds that they’re “hillbillies at heart, and I’m not f-cking ashamed of that.”

Bell — who next appears alongside Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski in Big Miracle — says her life with Shepard, 37, improved once she finally realized it’s OK to make mistakes.

“I think perfection is unrealistic and unattainable, and I felt freed when I let myself be who I am,” Bell tells Flaunt. ” Like, I’m gonna order red velvet pancakes. Life is f-cking short and these are delicious.”

UsMagazine.com

Cover girl Kristen Bell reclaims the small screen this month in Showtime’s new series, House of Lies. Bell stars in the hit comedy as Jeannie Van Der Hooven, the whip-smart management consultant teamed up with the brazen and charming Marty Kaan, played by Don Cheadle. We loved Bell as a teen sleuth on her hit show Veronica Mars (and as the sly narrator on Gossip Girl) so naturally we were thrilled at her return to our DVR queue.

Bell was so fun to have on set–between listening to Glee tracks, the star dished on everything from her long-time vegetarianism to her experimentation with 80′s hairstyles. Check out the behind-the-scenes cover shoot video below, then grab our February issue and see why we fell for Bell.

Kristen Bell loves sloths. You might even say she’s obsessed with them. She told Ellen about what happened when her boyfriend, Dax Shepard, introduced her to one for the first time, and if it’s too hard to believe, she brought the footage to prove it.

Watch the full interview on “Ellen” Tuesday January 31st!

From TV star to movie star and back again, Kristen Bell is keeping busy. After breaking out as the beloved TV heroine Veronica Mars, Bell has tackled film roles like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “When In Rome” while continuing to dabble on the small screen now and again. In the past, most actors shifted from TV to features and never looked back, but the landscape is changing and Bell is happy to take advantage. Her new Showtime series opposite Don Cheadle, “House Of Lies,” debuted earlier this month to very positive reviews and her latest film role, as reporter Jill Gerard in Ken Kwapis’ political comedy, “Big Miracle,” is hitting theaters this Friday. She also just finished up Dax Shepherd’s second directorial effort “Outrun,” which she describes as “in the vein of the Burt Reynolds movies of the ‘70s” and plays Supergirl opposite Justin Long’s Robin in one of the comedy shorts from the upcoming “Movie 43.”

Bell was on hand in Santa Monica, California this month to speak with The Playlist about her role in “Big Miracle” and everything else she has on the horizon, including the possibility of a “Veronica Mars” feature.

Stepping into the shoes of a reporter
In “Big Miracle, Bell plays Jill Jerard, a reporter on the rise who views the story of three grey whales trapped in an ice patch in the Arctic Circle as a possible chance to fast track her career. “Miracle” is based on true events, but Bell’s character is an amalgam of the countless press that descended upon Barrow, Alaska in 1988 to cover the international story.

The daughter of a TV news director, Bell has been around press most of her life. She’s also had plenty of press encounters in recent years she could draw from. “I’ve had enough encounters with reporters who I either did or did not want to converse with,” Bell tells us. “I feel like I had a good enough idea of how they are to act when they want to get the story. Sometimes it’s manipulative, sometimes it’s completely genuine. I kind of had Jill ride that line. I wanted her to have a fierce dedication to her work. It wasn’t that she was meant as the villain, it was just that the whales weren’t on her priority list. Getting a news anchor job and getting noticed at work was her one and only priority.”

Director Ken Kwapis also prepped the actress for the part by showing her footage from the actual coverage. “Ken was an unbelievable database. He would send us news clips of journalists reporting on the whales. There were also some circulated videos on the internet, like when Dan Rather got a hold of it and it caught fire,” Bell said.

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[003] Life & Style
[003] Lucky November 2010
[001] US Weekly