Kristen Bell couldn’t be happier about turning 30. With a renewed perspective on life, the actress is back on the big screen in You Again as a PR pro who heads home for her older brother’s wedding only to discover that he’s marrying her high-school archnemesis.

The actress couldn’t wait to channel her own insecure high school days for the comedy, which co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, and Betty White. Plus, Kristen reveals a few details to Parade.com about her upcoming cameo in Scream 4.

Teaming up with Hollywood vets Weaver, Curtis and White in You Again.
“It was kind of surreal because they accepted me as a peer, which I wasn’t prepared for. I thought I would be a giddy ball of nerves the entire time because they’re such iconic women, and I look up to all of them. I was intimidated initially but very shortly I realized they haven’t been working for decades because they have bad personalities! They are actually a lot of fun to work with and bring a lot to the table, so I was just happy to be the runt of the litter.”

Working with the one and only Betty White.
“We were just lucky that she fit us into her busy schedule because she is quite literally the busiest woman in Hollywood. Everyone was just happy to be working on a movie where there were so many fun, feisty women.”

Can she imagine having a career like Betty’s at 88?
“I don’t think anyone will do it as good as Betty White. She is working right now because she is good at it and because she wants to. I think that’s the key to success in any field, if you want to keep doing it. If I’m still happy working when I’m 88, then absolutely I’ll still work. But if I just want to be on a beach somewhere in a one-piece bathing suit and giant straw hat, then that’ll be what will happen.”

Remembering her high-school days.
“I think I was somewhere in between popular and nerdy. I went to a very small school where the consequences of bullying were a lot more dramatic than they were at a big school. You couldn’t just walk down the hall and shove a nameless face because we all knew each other’s families. There wasn’t a stereotypical bully. But in high school, I was just very insecure because I was always so concerned that everybody liked me so I was just very sweet, a little meeker than I am now, but I was really just so hopeful that I wouldn’t fight with anybody.”

Trading in her Hollywood image for glasses, pimples and braces on the big screen.
“That was my dream come true. That’s what I wake up looking like, or at least that’s what I feel I wake up looking like! I loved that because it’s always been my dream to be more of a character actress, so to be able to put braces and glasses and pimples on my face and have greasy hair and a little bit of a hunchback was so much fun for me. I actually wanted to go much further with it, but I came out of the makeup trailer with all of these whiteheads all over my face and Disney kind of pulled me back and said, ‘This isn’t a horror film, let’s just do your standard run-of-the-mill acne please.’”

Why she’s keeping it real.
“I have no desire to put on this face of perfection. I’m constantly striving to better myself, but that’s also maybe out of intense insecurities. Feeling like I went right from high school to Hollywood, it’s essentially the same dynamic. But I can admit, I don’t always have the best style. I trip a lot, I go to therapy because I make mistakes, I just try to be as real and as well-rounded as possible because there’s nothing really that interesting about perfection. It’s been done so many times before.”

On recently turning 30.
“I love 30 more than I’ve ever loved anything. I feel like I was born on my 30th birthday. It’s finally the time where I’ve fully accepted and loved myself, which I’m realizing more and more each day — it is so important to love yourself. Because if you don’t love yourself than nothing really matters. For a long time, I went through life kind of beating myself up and trying to be a perfectionist and do everything right and I just thought, ‘What’s the point?’ I have faults, that’s fine. I can still strive to be better, but I’m not going to be as rough on myself as I used to and it’s just kind of alleviating all of this stress and kind of taken a weight off my shoulders and I think now I’m just happy.”

What’s she’s looking forward to most in her next decade.
“Anything and everything that my 30s have to throw at me. Part of the great place that I’m in is that I’m not planning as much anymore. I have goals, but my main goal is just to be happy. And if I plan everything out I just feel that’s what crazes your brain and messes you up and makes you feel like a failure. Wherever you are right now is OK. That’s kind of been my mantra.”

Finding comfort in her engagement to Dax Shepard.
“I never loved dating. I think it’s very uncomfortable to put yourself out there and be vulnerable. I’m much more comfortable in a relationship and I’m very happy.”

They’re not your typical Hollywood couple.
“I’m definitely a homebody. I don’t know if I’ve been to a club in the last seven years, at least not one that I was forced to go to because it was for a friends’ birthday party. I’m not much for the club atmosphere, but I don’t drink so that may have something to do with it! I love to cook and I have a garden at home and I’m much more like a 1950s housewife, I think.”

The shows she’s hooked on.
“I like Damages, I like Mad Men. I love 30 Rock. I really like Friday Night Lights and was over the moon when they were finally acknowledged on the Emmys this year because I think they’ve been one of the better shows on television for a while now.”

Her one guilty pleasure.
“I’m always DVR’ing Jersey Shore, but I’ve never been ashamed to admit that. I probably should be ashamed to admit that, but I’m not. I think that it’s one of the greatest disasters to ever come to television and I just love the lessons they learn each week and the trouble they get into.”

On her hush-hush cameo in the upcoming Scream 4.
“I am in the movie, I will say that. I don’t know if I can say much more than that but it’s a really, really fun movie and everyone loves it as much as they did the first one.”

Will her character suffer a fate like Drew Barrymore’s in the first flick?
“It doesn’t go down like you think it does. But it was fun doing it, that’s what I’ll say. I loved being a part of the movie.”

From Parade.com

Some dread turning 30. Kristen Bell, on the other hand, discovered the birthday milestone was anything but daunting.

“I love 30 more than I’ve ever loved anything. I feel like I was born on my 30th birthday,” the actress, who celebrated the big day on July 18, tells Parade magazine. “It’s finally the time where I’ve fully accepted and loved myself, which I’m realizing more and more each day.”

For a long time, Bell says she went through a phase where she beat herself up trying to be perfect. But, “I just thought, ‘What’s the point?’ … I’m not going to be as rough on myself as I used to … I think now I’m just happy.”

Part of that, she says, is due to her relationship with fiancé Dax Shepard.

“I never loved dating. I think it’s very uncomfortable to put yourself out there and be vulnerable,” says Bell, who’ll next appear on the big screen in You Again and has a cameo in the upcoming Scream 4. “I’m much more comfortable in a relationship and I’m very happy.”

A self-proclaimed homebody, Bell has swapped clubbing for cooking – she has her own garden at home – and thinks she’s “much more like a 1950s housewife.”

At home, the former Veronica Mars star unwinds in front of the TV with Damages, Mad Men, 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights – and one guilty pleasure.

“I’m always DVR’ing Jersey Shore,” she says. “I probably should be ashamed to admit that, but I’m not. I think that it’s one of the greatest disasters to ever come to television and I just love the lessons they learn each week and the trouble they get into.”

From People

Kristen Bell and her “You Again” co-stars are featured in a new short for “Funny or Die” – you can watch it below!

The cast of “You Again” (Kristen Bell, Betty White, Sigourney Weaver, Odette Yustman) sit down for an interview and it turns ugly, quickly.

Kristen and two of her films, “Couples Retreat” and “When in Rome”, have been nominated for awards at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards! You can vote at TeenChoiceAwards.com – and vote often!

Choice Movie Actress: Romantic Comedy
Kristen Bell, “When in Rome”
Sandra Bullock, “The Proposal”
Queen Latifah, “Valentine’s Day” / “Just Wright”
Jennifer Lopez, “The Back-up Plan”
Amanda Seyfried, “Letters to Juliet”

Choice Movie Actress: Comedy
Kristen Bell, “Couples Retreat”
Lizzy Caplan, “Hot Tub Time Machine”
Tina Fey, “Date Night”
Zoë Saldana, “Death at a Funeral”
Emma Stone, “Zombieland”

What girl hasn’t dreamed of designing her own shoes? This Tuesday Kristen Bell finally got to live out that fantasy–and it was all in the name of a good cause. Joining 25 young patients in the playroom at an Art of Elysium design workshop at L.A.’s Shriners Hospitals for Children, the actress put pen to paper and sketched her first-ever heel for a charity initiative with online shoe society ShoeDazzle. “I’ve never designed in my life,” she admitted to PEOPLE, but luckily her new young friends were on hand to weigh in. The end result? A faux-leather gladiator-bootie, which Bell dubbed “The Midge.” Kristen’s shoe will be produced for Kim Kardashian’s online shoe club ShoeDazzle later in the summer, with 100% of proceeds benefitting Art of Elysium, a nonprofit program that brings actors and musicians into the lives of seriously ill children. “I’m in a profession of vanity, so this is grounding for me, and I hope fun for the kids,” she explained of spending the day with the children, who also did a lot of playing, painting and drawing of their own. Kristen’s shoe will hit ShoeDazzle.com this August, but in the meantime, check out her sketch of “The Midge” below. “You can wear these anywhere,” said Bell, “and hopefully they’ll be comfortable.”

Reports that the Veronica Mars movie is in the final stages of rigor mortis have apparently been greatly exaggerated. According to the franchise’s boss, Rob Thomas, there’s still a chance his teen sleuth will be reborn on the big screen.

“It’s not dead,” insists Thomas. “I continue to want to do it. It’s funny, because the rumors go around and around. Kristen Bell had said to somebody that I had written a script, and that wasn’t correct. I did have a treatment and a pitch, with which I went to Warner Bros. and [Mars producer] Joel Silver and said, ‘Here is the fastball version of the movie, the big studio version of the movie that I think we can make.’ And I think they did one of their brand-awareness surveys and were like, ‘We don’t know if we can make money with that.’ So it’s been back-burnered. But I still want to do it. I’m still happy to do it. We’re still looking into it.”

Thomas, whose Starz comedy, Party Down, kicks off its second season on April 23, acknowledges that the project has a built-in expiration date. “There is a bit of a ticking clock [because] Kristen Bell does continue to age,” he concedes of his 29-year-old leading lady. “And doing ‘teen detective’ [is a] dicey proposition. But frankly, I think Veronica Mars as a 30-year-old noir detective at some point in the future would still be interesting to me.

“In sort of the tidal wave and roller coaster of feeling upbeat or downbeat about it,” Thomas concludes, “I’d say I’m feeling in the middle right now.”

source: http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/04/07/veronica-mars-movie-is-not-dead/

Kristen was on Craig Ferguson on April 5th. Here’s a video of the appearance!:

It’s always refreshing to see strong, independent and influential women celebrated. And with the help of Meryl Streep, Kristen Bell, Fran Drescher, Laura Benanti, and Kelli O’Hara, we have a unique opportunity to see just that!

On Monday, April 12, Good Housekeeping will host “Shine On,” a one-night only Broadway production, celebrating the magazine’s 125th anniversary. The mag plans to mark it’s anniversary with a salute to influential and inspiring American women of the past 125 years, from Icons to Goddesses and Visionaries to Hellraisers.

Lynne Taylor-Corbett, two-time Tony Award nominee and choreographer of the feature films “Footloose” and “Bewitched,” will direct the play, and proceeds will benefit the National Women’s History Museum. The 90-minute production will feature stars like Meryl and Kristen Bell and additional guests and performers who will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Shine On” honors all types of powerful and intelligent women, specifically those whose imagination and nerve changed our lives forever. Susan B. Anthony, Madonna, Sally Ride, Dorothy Parker, Diane von Furstenberg, Martha Stewart and many more are all part of the inspiration for this show.

To get tickets to the show, head over to NY City Center.

source: mtv.com