Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are undoubtedly one of the most candid couples in Hollywood. The pair have never shied away from discussing their relationship, both the flattering parts and the not-so-flattering parts.
Shepard recently gave an interview in which he recalled the early days of his relationship with wife Kristen Bell. Speaking on “Off Camera With Sam Jones,” the actor revealed that he had a difficult time fully committing to Bell when the pair first started hanging out.
“I have this very weird mix of not thinking I’m good-looking, general low self esteem, chip on my shoulder that I’m dumb because I was dyslexic, all these things, yet unbridled arrogance in relationships,” he said. “I’ve always been that way, I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve always felt very confident in relationships.”
The actor was never concerned with “keeping” Bell, partly due to the fact that he wasn’t sure he wanted to be with someone so “good.”
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“I never, ever was like, ‘Oh, I hope I can “keep” Kristen.’ I was going, ‘Do I want to be with a Christian, who has eight people living in her house for free, who has to get out of the car when there’s a dog that doesn’t have a leash and ruin her whole day to rescue this dog?'”
“That’s great. And she’s good. But that’s not what I want to do,” he said adding, “I’m not that good. I don’t want to spend my day finding the owner of a dog. So I wasn’t fearful I would lose her. I wasn’t certain I wanted to be with someone like that.”
As time went on, Shepard realized how much he admired Bell’s attitude towards life, and how undeniable the impact of it was.
“I just slowly over time watched what fruit she bore over the way she moved through life. I looked at the results of how she lived, and they’re pretty undeniable… It’s just a better life and I wanted that, so I chose to move more in her direction,” Shepard explained to Jones. “She didn’t ask me to. I wanted what she had, and I replicated it.”
He explained how choosing to see the good really paid off for Bell, and how he wanted to be a part of that as well.
“There’s something charmed about it. And I think it’s charmed because it starts with her being just endlessly generous and loving and giving people the benefit of the doubt and believing in people and believing the world’s a wonderful place and all these things.”
“And then down river, it proves to be all those things to her. And me, on the other hand, is like, ‘No one’s going to take my wallet.’ That’s all I’m thinking about. And I miss all this other stuff.”
Shepard also explained that Bell was the first person he didn’t try to mold into who he wanted her to be.
“She’s the first person I dated where I made a real conscious decision that I wasn’t going to try to make her into the person I wanted to date. I know what happens when I try to make them the person I want to date. I don’t end up liking that person. So I didn’t do that, and lo and behold, she has come the same exact distance toward me that I’ve come toward her.”