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  • -You know my first guest from the series "The Good Place"

  • and as Princess Anna from "Frozen."

  • She is the best. She has a new children's book

  • called "The World Needs More Purple People,"

  • which is out now.

  • Here is Kristen Bell!

  • Yeah! Aww. Look at you.

  • Oh, my God. You are the greatest. Come on.

  • Thank you so -- -We'll be the audience. Hi!

  • -Yeah. Thank you for being the au--

  • Hi. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

  • Congrats on the book, by the way.

  • Number one. Not too shabby. -Thank you.

  • -Quickly, before we get into this,

  • thank you so much.

  • You sent the nicest video message

  • to my 5-year-old turning 6 on her birthday,

  • and it changed her life.

  • She was -- You were just -- Not only did you say hi,

  • but you really put time into it and, like, spent a lot of time

  • with my daughter, and she watched it forever,

  • and all she did was talk about it,

  • and she said it was the best birthday of her life.

  • She was like, "Princess Anna and I --

  • The only thing -- We have a lot in common,

  • but the one thing we don't have in common,

  • we don't -- she doesn't like to swim."

  • All she could do was talk about you, talk about you.

  • And, anyways, me and my wife just -- We're obsessed with you.

  • You're a good egg, as they say. -That makes me so happy.

  • That makes me so, so happy.

  • -That was so cool of you to do. I know how busy you are.

  • You probably get a thousand requests a day,

  • but that was just -- Honestly, we need --

  • The world needs more Kristen Bells.

  • Let's just say that.

  • That's the sequel. That's the sequel book.

  • We both have daughters around the same age.

  • What kind of things are your girls into right now?

  • -Right now, well, with --

  • I mean, you know, with quarantine,

  • what I've actually been doing --

  • They've been doing nothing but roller skating.

  • I'm apparently raising roller-skating champions.

  • -Wow. -They love it.

  • They are on them all day every day,

  • and they can do the, like, around-the-world

  • where they, like, hold their foot out.

  • -No! That thing. Yeah. I know. The leg kick out and then --

  • Like that? -It's sick! It's sick.

  • Their balance is sick. I don't know where they get it.

  • And they know they're not supposed to do it in the house,

  • but they do, and our wood floors are wrecked.

  • But show me someone in 2020

  • whose wood floors aren't wrecked.

  • -Thank you. -You know what I mean?

  • -I have to imagine that you were a pretty good kid growing up.

  • Am I correct or no? -I was. Oh, yeah.

  • I have a spotless record. -Right?

  • -Well, except -- Okay. I was a very good kid.

  • I was, like, a goodie-goodie except, when I got to college --

  • I've always been a bit of an entrepreneur,

  • and I noticed that, in 1998, the New Jersey --

  • You remember this, by the way, 'cause we were both in New York.

  • The New Jersey licenses were literally a piece of paper

  • with lamination over it.

  • So in college, I made and sold fake IDs.

  • -Fake IDs. Really?

  • -I did. I sold them for $20 a pop.

  • -That's not bad. That's the going rate probably.

  • Wait. You're younger than me.

  • But did you have to print it out?

  • Did you have a printer? Where would you do this?

  • -Yes. -Used the school?

  • -I printed it out on -- Not the school.

  • 'Cause I had a desktop.

  • My roommate and I shared a desktop. We had a desktop.

  • And so I'd print it out.

  • Then I'd just get lamination paper and take --

  • And there was sort of this weird wink-wink happening

  • around the campus of NYU.

  • I would sell them to my friends,

  • and all the bars around NYU, when you were 19,

  • they would see it, and I would have to imagine they knew

  • because it was, like, you know, a terrible fake ID replica.

  • But they kind of were like, "I'll give you a beer with this,

  • and you better be able to walk out of here,

  • but, like, we're not getting drunk on it.

  • This is going to be a one-time pass."

  • You do silly things when you're a kid.

  • And wait. What year did you start "SNL"?

  • -'98. -'98.

  • Do you ever remember meeting me there?

  • I knew you didn't. That's okay. So, listen.

  • So, when I was in college --

  • This is a major blast from the past.

  • When I was in college, Ariel Ashe,

  • who was one of my best friends in college, who was the --

  • I know. Hello. I know.

  • -I love Ariel Ashe.

  • -The assistant -- the intern in the set department...

  • -Yes.

  • -...to Landon, I think his name was.

  • And so obviously I went there every weekend

  • and would, like, walk around the halls.

  • But mind you, I looked maybe 13, okay?

  • I was 18, but I was definitely like --

  • -This is a photo of you from that time.

  • -That's a photo of me. Right. Exactly.

  • That was my ID at the time.

  • I blew it up and put it on the back of the book.

  • -Ariel Ashe is the best.

  • -But that's where I first became friends with Mike Schur.

  • Because, I mean, look. You were on the show. You were very cool.

  • But, like, Mike, who was also a little baby-boy writer there,

  • that's how I first became friends with him.

  • -And you ended up doing "The Good Place."

  • Wow. That is -- -Cut to "The Good Place."

  • Isn't that nuts?

  • -And Ariel's sister is married to Seth Meyers.

  • -Seth. Exactly. Alexi. I know. We have so many "connec-shees."

  • -That's wild. Oh, I love that story.

  • -I know. -Thanks for telling me.

  • I want to talk to you about your new children's book,

  • "The World Needs More Purple People."

  • I love the idea about this book.

  • It's the number-one "New York Times" best seller.

  • So congrats on that. -Thank you very much.

  • -How'd the idea come about?

  • And I think you're a great person to do this,

  • because I like

  • "Are you kind? Are you curious?

  • Can you be really, really ridiculously silly?"

  • I kind of think that you do -- -Yes, yes, yes.

  • -I think you do all these things. Yeah.

  • That's very on-brand. -I try.

  • You know, purple is obviously a little bit of a metaphor.

  • It's not, you know, super under-the-radar.

  • But we -- One of my other best friends,

  • Ben Hart and I, we were having a family dinner two years ago.

  • You just wrote a children's book,

  • so you know it takes a long time,

  • even though they're only 20 pages.

  • -Two years. Yeah. -It takes like two years.

  • -Yeah. I agree. -Right.

  • So we were sitting around the table, and we were just

  • sort of noticing this very polarizing political culture

  • seep into our kid's daily lives,

  • and we were like, "This feels wrong.

  • It feels like we're seeing enemies everywhere."

  • And so we wanted to do something helpful with the language

  • that they were even subliminally digesting

  • when they saw the television

  • and they saw red versus blue, blue versus red.

  • And I was like, "It's not 'versus' anything."

  • And so I wanted to sort of create a social identity

  • that positions our kids towards other human beings,

  • to work out any disagreements, any different opinions.

  • So, like, we came up with five great pillars

  • that we thought no one could argue with.

  • Like, what would everyone agree on?

  • So we were like, "Ask great questions,

  • laugh a lot, use your voice, work hard, and also just be

  • the unique you and celebrate all the differences."

  • Because we were like -- I don't think I could find a person

  • on the planet that was like,

  • "It's really bad to laugh a lot. You shouldn't do it."

  • -Yeah. Exactly. -You know?

  • -Look at the drawings. The art is fantastic.

  • -You know what's so funny is --

  • When I was reading this to my children --

  • We talk a lot about being a purple person

  • 'cause, to us, it just is this kind, curious human being

  • that you can be in the world.

  • And I read them the book,

  • and they were just, like, not interested.

  • And I was like, "Uh-oh. I've done something wrong."

  • And I was like, "No. Wait a minute.

  • They're just not interested in this Google Doc on my computer.

  • They need art."

  • So when Daniel Wiseman came on board,

  • who drew those amazing pictures,

  • then it changed, and then they really liked it.

  • But we're very, very proud of sort of what the book means

  • and how we can celebrate being unique

  • but all live in the same place together.

  • -You've got a winner here, pal. Congrats on this.

  • When we come back... -Thank you.

  • -...I heard that you might have a Christmas song prepared.

  • Is that... -I do, Jimmy.

  • I have something very, very special for you.

  • And it's the first time I'm sharing it,

  • and I'm excited to bring it to your ears.

  • -I cannot wait. More with Kristen Bell after the break.

  • Stick around, everybody!

-You know my first guest from the series "The Good Place"

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