- 15 hours ago
Six years after 'The Good Place,' Kristen Bell and Ted Danson sit down for a heartfelt reunion. The former co-stars reflect on their time making the beloved series, share favorite memories from set, and discuss how their lives and careers have evolved since saying goodbye to Eleanor Shellstrop and Michael.
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00:00Mary and I have binged it, binged it.
00:02We scream when you kiss a lot and go, no, no, Dax.
00:08That's the opposite reaction that he is having.
00:11He roots for everyone on the show to kiss.
00:13He likes when people kiss on TV.
00:14I know, but he's a very confident man.
00:16I can't fake this.
00:17I'm so happy to see you.
00:19I'm so happy to see you.
00:21Okay, I was wrong about this cushion.
00:23Yeah, I thought that it would be because your legs, you're longer here than I am.
00:27Yeah, this is perfect.
00:28But you're perfect length in every way.
00:30My memory will be a little bit different about when we first met, and it was in, you know, Alaska.
00:36Alaska, yeah.
00:36You told me how you and Dax, when you would register in a hotel but wanted some anonymity, you would
00:43register under...
00:45Holly and Arthur Frobisher.
00:47Frobisher.
00:47Which is your character from Damages.
00:51There's a lot of backstory to this.
00:54Damages was the first show my husband and I ever binged.
00:57We were obsessed with it.
00:59It was all about the Frobisher case, the Frobisher case, Arthur Frobisher.
01:03And you were this big, mean villain that was on trial.
01:05And your wife's name was Holly.
01:07And so when you first started using a pseudonym, even for like when you'd get a magazine to your house,
01:12we chose Holly and Arthur Frobisher.
01:14And then we booked this movie together in Alaska and I was so excited to tell you that that was
01:21my pseudonym and I said, Ted, I'm checked into this hotel as Holly Frobisher.
01:27And I think you went, oh, okay.
01:33And in retrospect, I was like, what a crazy thing to tell you.
01:37I probably did not live up to the excitement you were having and telling me that, but I don't remember...
01:42Any of it.
01:43...poo-pooing you.
01:44No, I remember it.
01:45I remember it.
01:46Did you think it...
01:46What did you think of it?
01:47Let me just jump.
01:48I won't lead the witness.
01:49Let me just cut the chase.
01:50Okay.
01:51You have always taken such sweet, good care of me.
01:55You love me so well.
01:57You're always watching out for me.
01:59If I'm about to trip, you'll make sure I don't.
02:02Body check whoever's in your way.
02:04Whatever.
02:04You are...
02:05You love me so well.
02:07I adore you and always will, but whenever I see you, it's like...
02:10So you let the sycophanty inside of me slide.
02:13Yeah, yeah.
02:14And once you got to know me, that melted away very quickly anyway.
02:18They're never going to call a train to take us to the bad place.
02:22They can't.
02:23Because we're already here.
02:27This is the bad place.
02:35On the good place, we had a lot of fun.
02:39We were the only two people who knew...
02:41That's true.
02:42...it was the bad place.
02:43Some directors didn't know.
02:45All the directors didn't know.
02:46Yeah, a director, a guest director would see me having a question and I'd start to go up to them
02:51and I'd go, never mind.
02:52Can I talk to a writer?
02:53And I'd have to find a writer.
02:54Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:55Because we would have to juggle to make sure that if you look back at season one, that it would
03:00track.
03:01Janet, could you please locate the file for an Eleanor Shellstrop born in 1982?
03:07Yes.
03:07Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
03:09Sure.
03:11Anything else?
03:12No, Janet, this is actually a cactus.
03:15I think working together was pretty goofy for you and I, even though we were challenging each other, albeit comedically,
03:25on camera, we were just goofing, man.
03:28There was a sense of playfulness on that set that I feel like you contributed to quite a bit.
03:33Because if you were taking everything very, very seriously, I would have been a little bit more nervous.
03:38But I feel like the second the take ended, you started laughing about it.
03:41See, I had you.
03:42You were the captain of the ship.
03:44You were the captain of the ship.
03:46No.
03:46It's our first fight.
03:48Sorry you have to witness it.
03:49Here's the one thing I did notice, that you were always sweet and loving.
03:52There were two times a day that I would not mess with you.
03:55One was from the car when you drove up for work.
03:59And on the way to the makeup trailer, I learned not to engage you.
04:04And then you were an angel.
04:07Until one day I wasn't taking my lines seriously enough, so I had to do them over and over again.
04:14And I looked at you, and you were like, if you make me late for my dinner with my children
04:20because you're not doing your homework, I would be so pissed.
04:23You didn't say that, but that was the look.
04:25That was the look?
04:26And it's true.
04:26It's true.
04:27That's your one thing.
04:28Don't keep me from, I will work so hard.
04:30Yeah, yeah.
04:31But when it's time to go home, I need to go home to my kids.
04:34That's true.
04:35That's an accurate description of me.
04:36And I love that about you.
04:37You taught me on that show, because I do like to get to work and then work feverishly and then
04:42get home and then completely relax.
04:45And I'm always struggling to find the balance of more presence.
04:49You are present wherever and whenever you are.
04:55I'm sorry, say that again.
04:56You're present.
04:57You're so wonderful.
04:58Come on, that was good.
05:01And just like, hey, I'm happy to be wherever I am.
05:04And that's also what I like about working with you, because not a ton of people know about this.
05:08But Ted's very wonderful and sweet and playful on set.
05:11But he is also a little mischievous.
05:13That's the side that I love of you.
05:15A little what?
05:16Mischievous.
05:17Yeah, give me an example.
05:18Do you have one?
05:19No, I'm not going to give you an example.
05:20But you're a rascal and you know it.
05:22Oh, I am.
05:22And you're acting like you don't know it.
05:23I want to be a rascal.
05:25Sometimes when you come up to me and you whisper in my ear.
05:27The tickle your ass with a feather kind of like?
05:30Particularly in nasty weather.
05:31Particularly in nasty weather.
05:32Somebody royally forked up.
05:36Somebody forked up.
05:38Why can't I say fork?
05:39If you're trying to curse, you can't hear.
05:42I guess a lot of people in this neighborhood don't like it, so it's prohibited.
05:45That's bullshit.
05:45There were so many alternative phrases that the good place invented that I feel like stuck.
05:52Not just for us, but for everyone.
05:54People still come up to me and say...
05:56What the fork?
05:57Uh-huh.
05:57Mother forking shirt balls.
06:00You were the ones that had the censor on you.
06:02That's right.
06:03I was the demon.
06:04Here's what I love, too.
06:06I love that most people that come up to me are 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old boys and girls
06:13who have just discovered it.
06:15And they really do watch it, because it's funny, it's about something, it's silly, it has fart humor, it's a
06:22lesson in ethics.
06:24I'm very proud to be part of it.
06:25Yeah.
06:26I'll tell you my Mike Schur pitching to this story.
06:30How did he come to you?
06:31I got a voicemail from Mike Schur.
06:34Have you known him before?
06:36I had known him because I had a friend who had an internship in college at SNL.
06:41And so I used to go with her all the time, and I was so excited.
06:44And I was 18, and I looked 13.
06:47Mike was the youngest writer there, so he was probably 20 and looked 16.
06:51And we would see each other in the hallways at SNL and noticed that we felt out of place because
06:58we looked so young.
06:59Right.
06:59And a couple times I had talked to him.
07:01My husband had worked for him once or twice.
07:03We had a couple mutuals, but I'd never gotten the chance to work with him, and I'd always wanted to.
07:07And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, I get this voicemail that says,
07:09Hey, Kristen, it's Mike Schur. I have this project I'm thinking of, and I don't know why, but I feel
07:14like it's for you.
07:14Can you call me back?
07:15And I was so giddy.
07:18Wow.
07:18So I think I screamed, and I told my husband.
07:20I was like, I'm going to have a meeting with Mike Schur.
07:22He thinks he wrote something for me.
07:23That's great.
07:23And then we went in.
07:24It was supposed to be a normal one-hour meeting, and I think we spoke for like two and a
07:29half hours about the concept and how much I liked it.
07:32And I said yes before I read anything just because I wanted to work for him so badly.
07:36I knew you were involved, but then when he told me the plot, there was like 45 minutes of him
07:42talking.
07:43Literally, I'm not exaggerating, he told me the entire verse of the season, including the surprise ending.
07:48And I wasn't 100% sure when I was a hearing, but I wanted to be part of it.
07:54He was so upfront about the creative process.
07:57And he had all of those ethics books and psychology books and all of these books all over his desk.
08:04He read every book that we referenced on the show.
08:08They were just piles.
08:09And then these professors would come in from esteemed universities to talk to the writers about theories we went into
08:15on the show.
08:16They were on speed dial.
08:17Yes, exactly.
08:18Utilitarianism, Kantianism.
08:20But do you remember, I have a specific moment in my head, of right after Mike wrote the pilot.
08:25And no one else was attached yet.
08:26He was just like, I put something down on paper.
08:29I don't think it's going to change much.
08:30Here it goes.
08:31And I read it, and you read it, and I said, let's talk when we're done.
08:35And we called each other.
08:36And do you remember what we said?
08:37No.
08:38You don't?
08:38No, no, no.
08:39We were both like, huh.
08:44I don't know that I get it, but I'm sure it'll get there.
08:49Still want to do it?
08:50Yeah, I'll do it.
08:51Yes, I do remember this.
08:52Yes, yes.
08:53I think this is a huge lesson, actually, for me and, dare I say, everyone.
08:58You can think you know how to figure something out, think you know how to tell a story.
09:03But if you are not open to the creative ideas and intellect, especially from someone like
09:08Mike, that is of a value that is similar or perhaps higher than your own, you have
09:13to trust.
09:14And if he's done a lot of work that's been great, you've got to go, you know what?
09:17I'm going to let you be the boss and take me on this ride.
09:20I also didn't know how to have, you know, when you draw your funny gun, I didn't have
09:25any funny bullets in my gun that first season because I couldn't.
09:31Usually funny is I know something the audience sees and I know something and then they're
09:36amused when I say something to you because we all have this triangle of knowledge.
09:41I was two-dimensionally what you see is what you get and nothing else kind of thing.
09:45And I didn't know how to be funny around that.
09:47But I remember you were saying that trust thing.
09:50This necklace, my client's family heirloom, has gone missing at Pacific View Retirement
09:54Community.
09:55You would pretend to be a new resident.
09:57You're interested in a tour?
09:58We are.
09:58And be my source.
10:00A man on the inside.
10:02The show that I am currently, yeah, currently doing on Netflix is A Man on the Inside,
10:07taken from the mole agent out of Chile.
10:10The character is loosely based on the real person in Santiago.
10:15And Mike Schur then did his thing to make it be able to be a series and not just a
10:20self-contained
10:21documentary.
10:22Did you take inspiration from the original character?
10:24The heart and soul and kindness and gentle sweetness was what Mike wanted the entire show
10:32to have.
10:32The innocence, you know, filtered through me was different.
10:36But the, you know, the excitement about having purpose again in a community.
10:43And I get to be a private investigator.
10:46And the excitement and being really bad at it is a great kind of place to find a human.
10:52And the truth telling, I feel like.
10:53Charles says his opinion even when it's pushed back against.
10:57And that's what I love so much about the original documentary.
10:59It's about a man who is hired to go into a nursing facility to figure out if this woman's
11:07jewelry is being pilfered.
11:08Comes in, looks for crimes, and finds none but leaves saying, the crime is that these
11:14people are forgotten.
11:15The crime is that no one's here.
11:17The person who made the accusation that things were happening to their mother never showed
11:22up.
11:22Is committing the crime.
11:23Yeah.
11:24And he has the courage to say that, and I think that's part of what makes your show
11:27so beautiful.
11:28There's an Easter egg on the last episode of Man on the Inside.
11:33Mike Schur had called me and said, would you come and do one day as an extra?
11:37And I was like, sure.
11:39Whatever you need.
11:40He said, bring the sweater that you wore when you went to The Good Place on the final episode.
11:45And it's this oatmeal sweater with like a rainbow right here.
11:48I sat in a small auditorium where more character Charles was lecturing, and they started the
11:55camera back here and came up over my head like this and went to Charles, and then he
12:01said, class dismissed, and I got up.
12:03But that's the identical shot that opened The Good Place.
12:07Pretty deep Easter egg.
12:08You had to be on your toes.
12:10There are a lot of deep Easter eggs in Mike Schur's canon.
12:13And you.
12:13Good job.
12:14What are you doing?
12:15What's your day job like?
12:16Oh, who, me?
12:16Yes.
12:17We just finished shooting the third season of Nobody Wants This.
12:21Mary and I have binged it.
12:22Binged it.
12:23We scream when you kiss a lot and go, no!
12:26No!
12:28Dax!
12:29That's the opposite reaction that he is having.
12:32He roots for everyone on the show to kiss.
12:34He likes it when people kiss on TV.
12:35But he's a very confident man.
12:36He is very confident, yes.
12:38But I'm sorry.
12:39I have to, you know, I have to.
12:40You want me only with him.
12:41I get it.
12:41Same, same.
12:42Isn't it crazy that we never kissed this whole time?
12:46Like, how did that happen?
12:47Yeah, I'm very aware we haven't kissed yet.
12:50Yet?
12:51Yeah.
12:52But we're just friends.
12:53Sure.
12:53And friends don't kiss, which is why, you know, I'm aware we haven't.
12:59But what if we had just, like, one goodbye kiss?
13:04Hmm.
13:06I don't know the origin of nobody wants this.
13:09I will tell you.
13:09Erin Foster, who grew up here in L.A. and had a pretty wild dating life, made a ton of
13:14mistakes,
13:15then tried to figure out how to get what she wanted out of life.
13:18She wrote this script.
13:20She writes what she knows.
13:21She pulls from all these past experiences, and she's had this crazy, wild, beautiful
13:26life.
13:26And I just studied her, like, single white female.
13:30And I would look at pictures of her, like, from her red carpet events and save different
13:35hairstyles on my phone and be like, ooh, I want to do this hairstyle on the show.
13:39How does Erin wear her nails?
13:40She wears them nude, but she sometimes has a color on her toes.
13:43I know how she likes her ponytails.
13:45All these different things, and she has a tempo of talking melodically that I imitate
13:51on the show that's different from Kristen.
13:54I'm just mimicking Erin all day long.
13:57That's fun.
13:58It's super fun.
13:59I'll say something about your work that I love.
14:02You know, if somebody asks me what's my favorite performance of yours, I probably could find
14:08one, but truthfully, it's whatever you're doing now.
14:12You really are good.
14:13I love watching you no matter what you're doing.
14:15And I'm loving, you know, nobody wants this.
14:18Ted's a very supportive friend, I will say that.
14:21But it's also true.
14:22It's very hard for me to say what my favorite performance was of yours.
14:25Michael was so dynamic, and I got to be with you all day.
14:28So I'm going to probably say if I had to pick, it would be the one where I got to
14:32be with
14:33you all day and watch your wheels turn and watch you walk into the room when Michael
14:37had a bunch of, what was it even called, computer screens up, and I'd walk in and you'd
14:41go like this, but there was nothing there.
14:43Remember that?
14:45When you were always swiping, like, sorry, I have so much desk work to do.
14:48Cheers was formidable for me.
14:50And then there's Arthur Frobisher.
14:52Come on.
14:52The man of all men.
14:53So many choices.
14:54The truth is, I got to say, it's hard to pick a performance I like of a friend because
15:00I don't always see the friend in the performance.
15:03I like the friend.
15:04It's sort of a separate world.
15:06It's very hard.
15:07Sometimes it's actually harder if I know and love you to see you do something else because
15:11what you did on The Good Place was astounding.
15:14You could throw something away, come back, make a little side comment and keep going and make
15:19a point and all, you know, effortlessly.
15:22You don't have to work hard to memorize.
15:25But you know what?
15:26It makes me feel sometimes bad about myself because people are like, how long did it take
15:31you to memorize that and I have the instinct to lie or fib to fit in, not say, I read
15:39it
15:39three minutes ago and it's just, it's just in there because I feel like bad about having
15:46that super power.
15:48It is a super power.
15:49Did you know my lines too, by the way?
15:52Yeah.
16:01I don't have to worry about myself, but that's a super power.
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