"Please excuse us while we French," says Kristen Bell as her cherubic 19-month-old daughter, Delta, leans in for a slobbery kiss and leaves a splat of avocado on Mom's chin. The actress gazes lovingly into Delta's big blue eyes in what could be the final shot of a super-sappy diaper commercial — until Kristen coos, "Guess what? You're gross."
I have to admit that I didn't expect Kristen, 36, to be so funny and and relatable, even after she shows up for our interview right on time, with a huge smile, and hands me a carton of fresh local strawberries. She's been famous for more than a decade, first for playing a high school sleuth on the hit TV show Veronica Mars, then for roles in comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Couples Retreat. And in 2013, she staged a takeover of our kids' hearts as Anna in Frozen. (She actually pulls off an unironic "Let it go" when talking about her own personal struggles.) This fall, Kristen will star alongside Ted Dansen in The Good Place, a smart new sitcom about a woman trying to make up for her bad behavior.
But in perhaps her most appropriate project, given how hilariously unfiltered she is about being a mother, she's currently starring in the film Bad Moms, the latest project from the writers of The Hangover. In essence, it's a movie that's all about giving the finger (Hangover writers, remember) to unattainable expectations of motherhood. Read on to hear how Kristen really feels about the laughable pursuit of perfect parenting.
On why setting boundaries with her kids is important: "Recently I've had an epiphany that if I'm as nice to my daughter as I want to be, she's not going to respect me. Giving your kids strong boundaries is good for them, because if you just let them do whatever they want, you raise a jerk."
On how she and Dax stay on top of their sex lives: "We're pretty decent about staying on top of it. We'll be like, "Okay, it's been how many days?" We find a night when nobody is coming over and we don't have to work super-early in the morning, and then we slot it in."
On what surprised her the most about being a working mom: "I don't let myself feel guilty about not committing to things anymore. How I position it in my head is that I have more of an obligation to my daughters than I do to anybody else."
For more from Kristen, pick up the August issue of REDBOOK on newsstands July 19.
