Kristen Bell and Drew Barrymore took off their makeup and removed their hair extensions during an October 26 interview about beauty, parenting and feeling comfortable with their appearance. Bell appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show alongside Adam Brody, her costar in Netflix’s Nobody Wants This.
Bell, 46, began unclipping her extensions and placing them on the couch behind her. Barrymore, 51, followed her lead, and the two continued talking as they wiped away their television makeup.
“You were the inspiration for me suggesting this,” Bell told her host. She joked that another talk show might discourage a guest from taking out her extensions during an interview.
The actresses previously worked together on the 2012 film Big Miracle. Barrymore recalled that spending time in Alaska with Bell and Shepard, as well as John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, encouraged her to take her own personal life more seriously.
Bell Shares the Beauty Advice She Gave Her Daughters
Bell said she began reconsidering her approach to beauty a few years ago, when daughters Lincoln, now 13, and Delta, now 11, wanted to experiment with makeup and their appearance. She wanted to explain those choices carefully.
“It’s not about concealment, it’s about creativity,” she recalled telling them about makeup, clothes and fashion. Saying it aloud to her children helped Bell absorb the advice herself, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Barrymore pointed out that Bell already appears without makeup on social media. Bell explained that she wears little in everyday life and sees no reason to apply a full face simply to post an Instagram photograph.
“I wasn’t born with makeup on,” she said. She wants girls, and anyone else looking at those pictures, to feel comfortable being seen without cosmetics rather than treating them as a requirement.
Dax Shepard Encourages Their Daughters to Trust Their Own Judgment
Asked how her husband responds when the girls want to wear makeup or try a particular outfit, Bell praised Shepard’s efforts to avoid making them feel ashamed. She connected that approach to his experience getting sober and understanding how shame can hurt people.
Bell admitted that Shepard sometimes handles those conversations better than she does. She also joked that their daughters had yet to test them with anything as extreme as trying to leave the house without pants.
The couple want their children to become comfortable with “internal validation as opposed to external validation,” Bell explained. She acknowledged that she cannot predict who her daughters will become.
Bell Wants Her Children to Have Room to Make Mistakes
The conversation shifted to future relationships when Bell mentioned the stereotype of a father waiting on the porch to chase away his daughters’ dates. Barrymore admitted she could imagine becoming that kind of protective parent herself.
Bell asked her to consider how her own mistakes had shaped the person she became. “Friction and mistakes provide character and learning experiences,” Bell said in the interview, transcribed by CBS Media Ventures.
She believes she can guide her daughters, give them information and help them feel good about themselves while leaving space for those experiences. Bell recalled Shepard asking her to remember her first kiss and the butterflies of liking someone, feelings he wanted their children to enjoy too.
Bell Worked on Her Body Image
In a September interview with PEOPLE ahead of her L’Oréal Paris runway debut, Bell explained that becoming a mother had pushed her to work on her own body image.
“I can’t give my girls anything I don’t already have,” she said. She described going to dinner without makeup and sometimes wearing it to exercise, depending on how she felt that day.
Bell acknowledged that she still has difficult days. When she feels low, she focuses on what she contributes to her family, friendships, work and creative interests, including her garden.