Movies - TV
Why Kristen Bell Loves Playing Characters Who Are 'Inherently Unlikeable'
By MICHAEL BOYLE
Kristen Bell has played a lot of memorable characters over the years, but some of her favorites are the bad ones. Bell has stated in several interviews that she prefers unlikeable characters and one only needs to look at her body of work to see that her most compelling characters have been the imperfect ones.
Bell explained her experience playing the titular character in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," by stating, "The cool thing about that movie, what I learned from that was I really gravitate towards playing characters who are inherently unlikable on the page." She describes Sarah as a "narcissist" with a big ego, but "she's still a human being," and it was a lot of fun for Bell to find that part of her underneath.
She displayed her preference for unlikable characters again when she played self-declared Arizona dirtbag Eleanor Shellstrop on "The Good Place.” As Bell explained to Vanity Fair, "Everybody has something likable, relatable, identifiable about them," Bell said. "Even the people that are written like terrible human beings on the page."