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By Christina Radish
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Kristen Bell at the San Diego Comic Convention on July 22, 2006. PHOTO BY CHRISTINA RADISH / Agency Photos |
Based on the 2001 Japanese horror film Kairo, the Dimension Films thriller Pulse explores what could happen if our wireless technologies made a connection to a world beyond our own. Addressing the latent dangers of our fast-paced, wire free, digitally driven lifestyles and exploiting our fears about technology, Pulse follows a group of friends who stumble upon a campus wi-fi portal that doesn’t just connect them, but plunges them into a hi-tech nightmare.
Heading the young ensemble of actors is Kristen Bell, the star of the popular television series Veronica Mars, who was enlisted to portray Maddie, a psychology major who must investigate the chilling, cryptic emails she begins to receive from beyond the grave.
“Maddie is a college student who is very independent and very driven, but also very guarded,” Bell tells MediaBlvd Magazine. "She’s tough, but she has put a lot of walls up. The movie starts off with her boyfriend committing suicide, and he must have been the only one she was ever vulnerable with, which is why she has to find out why he did it. That’s what drives her throughout the movie.”
{quote_top}Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Kairo revolves around a group of Japanese teens who investigate a series of disappearances linked to an Internet webcam that promises visitors the chance to interact with the dead. “I didn’t see Kairo until I had already booked Pulse,” says Bell. “But, when I saw it, I loved it. I thought it was really smart and really eerie. And, in Americanizing it, they chose to condense a lot of the characters because Americans look at that kind of film and they see it as more of a series of vignettes. There are so many more characters, and I think Americans are used to following the story of one person a little easier. My character in Pulse is definitely a combination of the two girls in Kairo. We also made her a little bit of what people expect, when you have a female heroine. They made her a little tough.”
“A lot of the horror movies that are so great over there are what Americans would consider independent films because they take a few more risks, or they do things differently,” continues the 25-year-old native of Detroit, Michigan. “I think, when going commercial with a movie, a smart business move for Dimension to do was to say, ‘What are Americans used to seeing? What’s going to not take them out of their comfort zone too much and still make a good film?’”
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Kristen Bell at the premiere of "Pulse" held at Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood, Calif. on August 10, 2006. PHOTO BY CHRISTINA RADISH / Agency Photos. | After wading through numerous horror film scripts, Bell says that Pulse stood out because it was smarter than a lot of the other ones she had read. “I thought that it was actually using something that is very real and very tangible to all of us because everyone is always hooked up to their cell phone or always grabbing some sort of PDA, or something, as opposed to just knowing that the murderer is out there somewhere or the ghost is in the closet. It was a much different plot line than I was used to hearing and I wanted to do something different.”
Once she signed on, Bell says that she spent time talking with commercial turned feature director Jim Sonzero, and helped to shape her character. “Some of it was written. A lot of it was where Jim wanted to go. I thought he was dead on, so I had no reason to challenge any of it. I brought to it what I thought it needed, and I also tried to do what I thought he told me to do. He did so much research that I think he was pretty dead on with all of it.”
{quote_middle}Hailed as one of the brightest new stars on television, Bell believes that, even though technology is bringing us closer together in some aspects, it is driving us apart in others. "Obviously, technology has done great things for us. But, I think there is a point when it does start to make you reclusive because you’re concentrating so much more on the device than you are on the actual communication. We ended up sitting on the Internet for hours and, all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s 4 am. I’ve been here for nine hours, sitting at my screen.’ I know everybody has done it. And, it’s strange that it can suck you in because you’re not thinking anymore. The idea of text messaging and emailing really is supposed to provide for more communication , but it doesn’t because then you don’t call people and you don’t see them. The idea of writing a letter is just ancient now, which is kind of crazy because five years ago, it wasn’t. We’ve come farther in five years than we have in 50.”
Bell and the rest of the young cast, which also includes singer Christina Milian and former Lost star Ian Somerhalder, had to learn to adjust to the culture of Romania while they shot Pulse. “Romanian movies are not made the same as American movies, only because it’s newer there. It was really hot, there was no AC, and there were a lot of stray dogs everywhere. They thought we were crazy because Christina, Ian and I would be playing with them, and I would let them run in and out of my trailer. I love dogs and I don’t really care if they have fleas. I’ll take a shower. I ended up finding a puppy, and I took him and washed him in my sink, and all the Romanians were like, ‘What is wrong with her?,’ ‘cause they look at them like rats. The dogs would walk in and out of the building, and in and out of the shot. And, there was no craft service for those poor people. The crew worked so hard, as hard as any crew works, which is really hard, manual labor, and there was no craft service. All they gave them was peanuts and coffee, in little dixie cups. We bought a lot of food. I would go to the grocery store after work and buy cookies and stuff to feed them. How are you going to work a film schedule, where you’re on your feet for 12 hours, if you don’t have sustenance?”
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Co-stars Kristen Bell & Christina Milian at the premiere of "Pulse" held at Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood, Calif. on August 10, 2006. PHOTO BY CHRISTINA RADISH / Agency Photos. | Having filmed Pulse during her break after the first season of Veronica Mars, Bell says that her break after season two wasn’t entirely intentional. “I had a movie set up and it got postponed, which I think was divine intervention because I needed to take a break and I wasn’t mentally able to. I wanted to keep working. I’m getting opportunities now that I really appreciate and I have the ability to be up for parts that I really want, so I want to work to get those parts. I needed to be forced to take a break, so I spent the summer seeing family. I’m kept so busy on the show that I lose touch with a lot of people that I miss and adore very much, so I got to actually be a human being this summer, which was so nice.”
With her focus back on season three of Veronica Mars, Bell is very optimistic that the series will find a home on the new CW network. “They couldn’t have paired us up with anyone better than Gilmore Girls, and if we can get any of their run-off audience, because they’re so popular, we’ll be eternally grateful. Everyone is really busting their butt right now, to publicize the show. The network has done a lot of really great things. There’s a little bit of pressure, but we’re just hoping for the best. We’ve been given a great opportunity, and it’s out of our hands now. All we can do is make sure the writers continue to write brilliantly, and we can continue to have a great production and, hopefully, the tables will turn and people will watch.”
{quote_bottom}When she’s not working, the petite blonde admits that she’s happiest just locking her doors and staying at home. “I love to just read in the backyard. I don’t have a lot of alone time, so when I do have it, I really cherish it and the privacy that it brings. And, I enjoy having people over, but I like to be in the comfort of my own house. My house is like my security blanket. I’m also very outdoorsy, so I love to go hiking or take the dogs to the dog park. But, I’m a Blockbuster girl at heart. I barely get out of bed when I don’t have to. I don’t usually wear make-up on the weekends. I just wear jeans and a t-shirt, if you can get me out of sweat pants. Everything is so fast-paced, I crave something that’s just very mellow and low-key.” |
