Kristen Bell stars in WHEN IN ROME as an ambitious young woman who is disillusioned with romance. On a trip to the romantic Italian capital, she scoops a handful of magic coins from a fountain – a fountain of love. The result is that she inexplicably ignites the passion of the various men who threw in the coins. So when a charming and handsome reporter, (Josh Duhamel) also pursues her – how can she be sure his love is genuine? Is he – like the other men – under the influence of a potent spell? The delightful comedy also stars Danny DeVito, John Heder, Will Arnett, Dax Shepard and Anjelica Huston.
Q: Kristen, how much fun was it being pursued by all these guys?
Kristen Bell: Well first of all, being surrounded by these guys was great and it is so flattering, because they are all wonderful and funny. I love their comedy and style and I often laugh out loud at them. I was grateful for the opportunity of working with all these guys. I’m glad that they had the faith in me to be able to pull it off and I just tried to do the best I could. Sometimes I could not stop laughing on set because they are all so funny.
Q: Can you explain a little about what happens to your character when she is in Rome?
KB: She goes to Rome for her sister’s wedding – and in a drunken stupor, wades into the fountain and takes out several coins. Then the guys that have thrown them in wishing for love or passion start to stalk her. There’s a lot of chasing and running around in heels. I loved being the object of affection of all those men, from Will Arnett to Dax Shepard. Oh yes, and did I mention I get to kiss Josh Duhamel?
Q: Are you driven in real life - like your character? What comes first for you - career or romance?
KB: Personally I think your significant other should be way more important than your work. I love to work, but I don’t know that I’d say I’m a workaholic because I also love relaxing. I have a great balance I think and love both.
Q: Do you believe in magic and superstition?
KB: I am not very superstitious at all. I never have been. I’ll walk under ladders. Who cares? I like to smash mirrors any chance I get. (laughs).
Q: How did you build the relationship between you and Josh? Can you explain the rhythm of the romance and the comedy?
KB: It is definitely a difficult thing to capture. I’ve seen a ton of movies where I’ve believed the couple and I’ve seen a ton of movies where I have not believed them at all. And unfortunately as an audience member you check out – you don’t stay connected if you don’t believe in the couple, so we knew it was really important. I think that’s something you have to trust to your director to bring to the film as well as doing your best to capture those moments.
Q: Was it natural?
KB: It was. Josh and I got along so well right from the very beginning that I think it was just natural. But after that, you just have to hope for the best, because you really don’t know until you’re in the editing room what will happen and he figures out whether or not we captured it. What I like about this story is that it’s not the sad downtrodden girl who is chasing after the guy which you see all the time. This was the opposite. Who wouldn’t want all of these guys chasing after her? So I said ‘okay, I’ll do it.’ We focused a lot on the wedding scene, trying to establish as much of a “love at first sight” thing as we could, so that when I got back to New York and all these guys were chasing after me, it would all make some sense. And the other thing I will say - and I don’t know if this is strategic on Mark’s part - but we shot that wedding scene very, very late in the game and so Josh and I by that time had already established a friendship. It was much easier to connect immediately. We knew each other’s rhythms and we knew how we were going to play it. Our first meeting was actually the end of the movie and I think that the way in which you shoot a movie can be really beneficial to the actors sometimes, so we lucked out this time.
Q: What was the atmosphere like on the set amongst all of you?
KB: Loud. Very loud.
Q: Were there any particularly funny moments we might see on the DVD?
KB: There was a lot of laughing off camera. There was a lot of ruining other peoples’ shots because we were laughing so much.
Q: You’ve got some very funny scenes. Do you subscribe to the view that you’ve got to play the character with the utmost seriousness when you’re doing a comic scene?
KB: Yes and no. You have to be the character but luckily for me, the character was written as a fairly clumsy girl and it is very realistic. People embarrass themselves on a daily basis. I know I do and this character did that a lot, which I think is what makes her likeable and also leaves room for a lot of funny comedic moments. There is a vase-breaking scene that allowed me to get really physical which is very funny. Also, I’m very clumsy in real life to begin with and we just capture that on film. There wasn’t much training or stunt coordinating going on. I would just trip. Mark would happen to be rolling the camera and we would put it in the movie.
Q: So you’re saying you constantly fall over things in real life?
KB: There’s a fair amount of that, yes. I also bruise like a peach. I knock into things and I am not the most coordinated person in the world.
Q: What was it like filming in Italy?
KB: Glorious. And Italy has not discovered air conditioning; that was different for us, because usually we’re so spoiled with every room being air conditioned.
- Gone With The Twins
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