1 of 4 | Image courtesy of Disney.
NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Kristen Bell says she worked hard to make Anna, the little-sister princess she plays in Disney's new animated movie musical, "Frozen," endearingly awkward so audiences could relate to her.
"That was not the Anna I read at all" in the initial script, Bell told United Press International in New York recently. "Obviously, I've always wanted to be a Disney princess because I am an American girl and that's what you're supposed to want. But I never saw a Disney heroine or an animated heroine that was like me -- awkward and spoke too fast and spoke before she thought and tripped and said a lot of dumb stuff and was vivacious and eternally optimistic and adventurous and I never saw all of those qualities. I saw vague interpretations of them, but I knew that I always wanted to be that type of character if I was allowed to [play one]."
In the film, Bell plays the bubbly sibling of Elsa, a queen with uncontrollable magic powers related to ice. When she accidentally hurts Anna, Elsa withdraws from the world until, one day, she becomes angry and inadvertently plunges her Norwegian-like kingdom of Arendelle into everlasting winter, then disappears into an icy fortress. Anna enlists the rugged mountain man, Kristoff; his trusty reindeer, Sven; and Olaf, a tag-along snowman who dreams of summer, to help her find Elsa and reverse the spell. A trio of Broadway titans -- Idina Menzel, Jonathan Grof and Josh Gad -- play Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf respectively.
Bell said she improvised quite a lot while recording her lines and was pleased to see her goofy humor and authenticity made it into the finished movie.
"I never wanted to play a girl with good posture," Bell emphasized. "So, I just asked [co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee] if I could add stuff. I was like, 'She should snort right here.' Or: 'Open the microphone up and let me just say a bunch of stuff here. I'll just talk to myself.' Because I talked to myself all the time growing up. I still talk to myself in the car. And they kept it. And the first time you see Anna as an adult, when she woke up, the script just said, 'She wakes up.' And they pressed record and I started coughing and snorting, which is what I do when I wake up. And I had some hair in my mouth. ... Then when she falls back asleep, I always do that! I hit 'snooze' like six times. I'm up a good two hours before I have to get out of bed because I love hitting 'snooze.' So, I wanted her to sit up and fall asleep and then pretend like she wasn't and, all these things, they just kept letting me add."
"Frozen" opens nationwide Wednesday. It is rated PG.
