One of the cool things that I love about going on press junkets with Disney is that we get to interview cool actors from their various movies! In this case we top bloggers got a chance to sit down with actress and singer Kirsten Bell right before she hit the snow carpet! She was a hoot to chat with too! Come inside to see what she had to say about playing the voice of the adorable Anna in the new film “Frozen” and so much more!
How did you get involved in the project?
Kirsten: “I’ve always wanted to be in a Disney animated feature like since I was four years old or five years old. It was the first goal I had ever set for myself. But the reality is I auditioned for Tangled and after my audition the casting director pulled me aside and she said, oh that was great and if we go another way, which I think she knew they were… I want you to meet Chris Buck because he’s directing a project that’s a few years down the line called The Snow Queen, and I think you’d be right for it.”
Were you intimidated about singing with Idina?
Kirsten: Yes. She’s the best singer on the planet. She was lovely. I think there’s a part of her that knows what she brings to the table, even though it would never come across. She did her best to make me feel like safe and confident ’cause I was kind of like a little jittery. We’d have rehearsals at her house at her piano in her living room and it was intense. She’s a dreamboat.
What did you do to prepare?
Kirsten: “Uh, I didn’t at all. I came in with so many ideas, because this was not how the movie was written at all. The inception of the script was much different than this script we have now. And it went through quite a few rewrites and finding everything, ’cause originally they were mother and daughter. And then they were sisters. And then they weren’t. And then they had Elsa and Anna. And then I think they just tried to figure out what worked the best for telling the themes of the story while using the Christian Andersen fairy tale as an outline.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do going in, I was like, I don’t want her to have good posture, I don’t want her to like have dreamed of holding a sword her whole life. I didn’t want her to be one or the other of the archetypes that I was used to seeing. And I just wanted her to be who I wanted to see on screen when I was little, which is someone who talks too much and too fast. And [LAUGHTER] puts her foot in her mouth and is goofy, but really kind of likes people and being social and being positive.
And I really wanted her to also be proactive. I wanted her to be the driving force of the movie. And not just be the damsel that needs someone else, you know. She’s not rough and tumble, and she’s not the girl who has her hair braided by birds. She’s really goofy, she’s who I felt like I was when I was a kid.”
You’re on Gossip Girl and now you’re animated, how is that different?
Kirsten: I can pull myself out of it when I watch this animation. When I watched Gossip Girl, it was a tiny bit like playing your own answering machine over and over and over again – that automated voice on your answering machine that everybody has. That’s kind of what it felt like to me because I don’t love the sound of my own voice. So, it’s much nicer to be able to pay attention to a story line as well and not go like, “Wow, I sound so screechy.” Not pick myself apart, you know.
Do you have a scene in the movie that’s your favorite?
Kirsten: “The scene that I connect to the most and maybe it’s not necessarily because of a personal experience, but it’s because I appreciate the story that’s being told, it’s not actually my scene, it’s Elsa has a scene …she has a song called Let It Go which is done vibrato, it’s so good. But I mean, Idina obviously is a powerhouse and she just blows it out of the water.
The movie’s whole theme is this idea of fear versus love, and the one character that’s driven completely out of love and blind naivete and everything is great, and we’re going to be friends. Then you have this other character that’s absolutely paralyzed by fear. Because she shouldn’t be and she does it wrong and she’s not the norm and, you know, the movie is really about her embracing what makes her different, because that’s what makes her unique. And learning how to not let her fear paralyze her.”
The movie Frozen hits theaters November 27th, you have to check it out!
images courtesy of Disney/Louise Bishop
