- Hi I'm Kristen Bell.
- And I'm Kirby Howell-Baptiste
- And this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.
[upbeat music]
Yeah, I've googled myself before, but like,
I don't have a Google alert on myself
'cause I don't think that's healthy.
- I have a Google alert on myself, I have to know.
- Well I have a Google alert on you, but.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[upbeat music]
- I don't know if I want why, I don't,
the why is really scare me. - Why is Kristen Bell
I like this. - Why is Kristen Bell
so annoying,
so loud, so talkative?
- No, why is Kristen Bell
- Why does she have a child's voice?
- the voice of Gossip Girl, are you?
- Don't know why I am.
- You're the voice of XOXO Gossip Girl, the original?
- Yeah.
- Whoa, this woman has worked.
- No, I did, yeah.
[laughing]
I am the voice of Gossip Girl.
When Veronica Mars was canceled,
Dawn Ostroff was running the CW at the time.
They had greenlit a show called Gossip Girl.
I was five years too old to play a character.
I called Dawn and I said, um I'm out of work,
but there's a narrator, and I love doing voiceover work.
Can I be the narrator?
And then she called the creators and she was like,
yeah, you could totally do that.
And it's just sort of, you know,
it's this salacious voice of all social media.
And you're terrified that that she'll highlight you.
- Oh man XOXO.
Okay why does Kristen Bell wear gloves in the pool?
Do you? - Yeah.
That's a valid question.
- Do you wear gloves in the pool?
- Yes.
Let me. - How does someone know that?
- Because I've talked about it.
I think probably someone said,
tell us something weird about you that we don't know.
Okay, so here's the thing,
when my circles touch your circles in the pool,
if they're at all soggy,
I have [Kristen gagging]
I have that, where it's just like,
you really feel like your spine
is shooting backwards out of your body.
And also I have like a little bit of a gag reflex,
which proved to be difficult when my children
were learning to swim, right.
You gotta grab em, gotta grab,
gotta grab that two year old
if they're doggy paddling.
So like, I don't like my fingers
to touch anything in the pool.
And you could touch me anywhere.
Like if we were in the pool, you could do that, no problem.
- Yeah.
- But if you touched your circles to my circles,
I can barely do it when they're dry.
- Even, so if you're in the pool by yourself,
do you also wear gloves?
- No, I keep my hands up like this.
- [Kirby] Wow.
- I know that sounds like sincerely honestly
and I keep them up like that.
Everybody laughs at me and you know what, I don't care.
I'm doing me.
Your judgements are not my problems.
- Why does Kristen Bell have an umbrella harness?
oh my God. [ Kristen laughing]
The umbrella harness is actually genius.
You need to go on shark tank with that.
- Thank you. - That is genius.
- I mean this - I witnessed this
on The Good Place.
- So on The Good Place.
- Yeah.
- We shot outside.
- A lot.
- A lot and it was very, very hot.
We were just like scorched all the time.
- Yeah very hot.
- But we, because we were in makeup
and more importantly hair, we couldn't wear the hats.
Like all the crew had these big hats
to protect you from the sun.
And we were just getting like blasted
and sunburn all the time.
So I thought, well I wanna carry around an umbrella,
but I will leave it in the shot without, a hundred percent
I'll leave it in the shot.
I also like will lose it all day.
So I thought, what if we can create a backpack?
So we sewed it into this,
it's like a backpack harness and it shoots out your back.
And then all I gotta do is go and it goes,
[clicking noise] - It's really good.
- Like inspector gadget. I have a photo of it.
You don't know, there was a photo of Kristen
learning her lines and with the umbrella.
And you're in a suit that day,
and you literally look like you're running for president.
- Vote for me - Talky president,
but president.
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste
accent. - Accent, this is it.
- Accent. - Accent.
This is my accent, and, but I do others.
I was an Australian
[Kristen Laughs]
on The Good Place.
I am American in Queenpins, and I played myself.
I was British in Veronica Mars.
I think I have quite a good ear, and I like mimicry.
And I would love to do loads of accents.
I'd love to have a role where I had to do like,
like Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black.
You know, when you'd like do a bunch of them.
I think that would be such a fun thing
'cause I love changing my hair, I love changing makeup,
I love changing accents.
I would love to do something like that,
where I was like multiple characters.
- Thanks.
- I would be, I would be watching it for sure.
- Thanks.
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste wrist piercing.
- Yeah I used to have two wrist piercings.
They're called dermals.
This one rejected.
This is in the process of rejection right now.
Which means it's half way out of my arm
and I will have to ice it and yank it out the rest
of the way or seek medical attention.
But who's got time to go to the ER.
Why did I get these piercings?
I had a dream about it.
I had a dream that I had piercings in my arm
and I woke up the next day and went and got them.
Okay, how many piercings?
My septum one, I think five on this ear,
four on this ear.
So that's 10, 11 that's it.
- 12, 13, - 12, 13,
16.
- 12,17.
[Kristen laughs]
Four in my butt.
No, I think, I think it's like 10 or 11.
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste filmography?
- IMDB baby.
Go on IMDB you can see my whole filmography.
But also you can see me in the upcoming movie Queenpins.
- And your IMDB is a dream if I could say something.
- Oh thanks.
- It looked like it was curated.
I got a lot of nonsense on my page,
- Oh my god. - but a lot of regrets.
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste Comedy Bang Bang.
Oh, okay.
So Comedy Bang Bang was I think
the first not commercial thing that I did,
like noncommercial,
obviously there's commercials, it's a TV show.
And Comedy Bang Bang was super, super fun.
I did it with a bunch of people from UCB.
A lot of people from UCB, the Upright Citizens Brigade,
which is an improv school in theater.
A lot of the writers and creators of Comedy Bang Bang
were former UCB students and performers.
And so a lot of us, kind of got our first,
our start basically on Comedy Bang Bang.
And I did, Comedy Bang Bang
I think it was my first official costar.
I was so nervous.
All I had to do was pretend to be in a cafe
and watch someone steal a laptop.
And I was so, so nervous.
Like no one can explain to you how nerve wracking it is
getting your first role.
But also being a costar or a guest star
because you come into this world that feels so established
and you're the new one.
Like it's terrifying.
To which I will say as actors,
Kristin is very good about this,
If you are, you know, a series regular,
you're someone on a show,
you got to remember how it felt to be really new
and how scary that is and how excited people are.
And so even if you've been doing a show for 13 years
and you're like, whatever, I don't care.
For someone who's coming in and they're like,
this is the first role I've ever gotten out of college.
It's so exciting.
And actually it's quite nice to be reminded
of how exciting that is.
- I love that.
- Comedy Bang bang, Comedy Bang Bang.
Who is Kristen Bell's best friend.
- Do we use bests anymore as adults
'cause there's phases in your life.
If it's the person I see the most,
that's like my closest girlfriend, it's Monica Padman
but I would say Kirby is one of my best friends,
but just sometimes you're in London a lot.
- Who was Kristen Bell's Ooh, what is it gonna be?
Who was Kristen bell on Broadway.
- A variety of roles.
Becky Thatcher
in the very short-lived adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Susanna Walcott in the Crucible.
Everything else was off Broadway or regional.
So two.
[clears throat]
I've got a lot of dream shows I'd like to participate in.
I mean, I really I've done a little night music twice.
Once at the Kennedy center in DC
when we did some time and rep there for a summer.
And then once out here at the LA opera house.
And both times I played Frederica who is 13 years old.
And I really like to play Anne, ha
but I don't read very old onstage.
Well now I would because of the lights and the crow's feet
and whatnot, but I would like to play Anne.
And I would also really like,
I want my last thing in my career.
And I want to ask like Edina to do this with me.
I really want to have a musical written of
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
- Oh that's good. - And then just have us play
the gals when we're like 80.
And then just be like, ow I'm done with public life.
- Okay, who does Kristen Bell play on Central Park?
- Well, current, well at first I started playing Mali,
which is a biracial character and in learning a huge lesson
because the reality is so convoluted,
but it was a group of friends that put the show together
and half are black and half are white.
And we were like, let's play a family.
But I happened to be the only person
that was playing outside of my race
And in learning the last couple of years
how inappropriate that is not just for the reasons of
a little girl googling that character
who looks like Molly
should see someone that looks like Molly.
But also a biracial actor
should have the opportunity to voice that role.
I was replaced by the spectacular Emmy Raver-Lampman.
And now I play a character that is the sister
of Page, the mom, who comes into town
and she will be a character on the third season.
And it is racially appropriate for what I can accomplish.
[Kirby laughs]
- All right, who does, Oh gosh.
All right, here we go.
Who is Monica Padman to Kristen Bell?
- She's a business partner and a very close friend
who I love working with
and we switch roles with each other a lot.
- Are these real?
These are the real things that people have googled.
- Mhmm. Okay.
All right, cool, that one's done.
- Okay. - Okay.
Who is Kirby Howell-Baptiste is the question.
Answer that. - Whoa.
That's so funny that's someone who's like,
who the hell is this person?
[Kristen laughs]
- Who the hell is Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
Um me, I'm Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
I'm an actress.
I'm originally from London.
I play a lot of American roles as I do
in our new movie Queenpins.
And that's Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
- Kirby Howell-Baptiste Doctor Who?
Not really a question you guys.
- Not really question just is that a request
for me to be on the show?
Have I ever been on the show?
I have not.
Have I watched the show?
Somewhat.
That's not, I've heard the show is actually great.
I just, there's a lot. - Okay, I'm going
to throw this out there.
'Cause alternate perspective, they all deserve to be heard.
You know when you're fast typing
and you sort of only half type a sentence.
Did they mean who is your doctor?
- Ah, and to that, I would actually also say,
I don't know, who is my doctor.
If you know, you tell me.
- GP's are not, I don't have a GP either.
- I don't have a steady GP.
Does Kristen Bell go to college?
- Not currently.
I did and I did not graduate.
- Same. - Yeah.
- How long did you go to college for?
- Three years.
- Oh, okay.
I did two semesters.
- Yeah.
Does Kristen Bell own taco bell?
Okay.
- I don't think we can release that info yet.
No, no.
I don't have anything to do with taco bell.
- Neither do I, but I would like to.
[Kristen laughs]
Okay, does Kristen Bell have perfect pitch?
- No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I've decent pitch, pretty good pitch.
Not perfect pitch.
- That's that.
- Is Kirby Howell-Baptiste Australian?
- No unfortunately.
- What are you?
- British. - British.
I always say that I'm London though
'cause it feels like it almost a different identity.
Is Kirby married?
No.
Are you asking?
[Kirby laughs]
- Is Kirby Howell-Baptiste related to John Baptiste?
- Maybe I don't know who John Baptiste is,
but it's very, very possible.
Although also I think Baptist is quite a common surname,
particularly in Caribbean islands.
There's a lot of Baptiste in Haiti
though my family aren't Haitian.
So I think it is.
Though it kind of sounds,
I think it's, I think Baptists, as I understand,
it's almost like being at Smith or something.
So I don't think I'm related to all of them.
Thanks so much Wired.
- We will see you for the next one.
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