Kristin Bell and Mila Kunis’ queer-aligned acting catalogues – Bell’s roles in “Veronica Mars” and “Burlesque,” alongside Cher, as well as “Frozen,” as the voice of Anna; Kunis’ red-hot sex scene with Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” and her role in 2007’s indie film “After Sex,” featuring Kunis getting fingered by actress Zoe Saldana – have certainly reached LGBT audiences from Michigan to West Hollywood, and beyond.
The night before our hilariously revealing sit-down, Bell, 37, and Kunis, 34, were reaching a less-gay demographic: 700-ish drunk moms. The occasion? An advance screening for “A Bad Moms Christmas,” the sequel to 2016’s “Bad Moms,” which also stars “Transparent” fave Kathryn Hahn. To make the yuletide even gayer, Cheryl Hines, Christine Baranski and Susan Sarandon join the moms-gone-wild gaggle, respectively playing the original trifecta’s mommies dearest.
To talk about their raunchy new romp, LGBT allies Kunis and Bell met with me on a recent afternoon, looking more like glam moms than bad moms. But when the conversation turned to a diverse range of other topics, the bad-mom duo demonstrated what it means to be a good mom too.
If you’ve worked with Cher and you’ve voiced a Disney princess, does that make you a gay icon?
Bell: You tell me.
Kunis: Yes!
Bell: I know better than to put myself in the position of claiming to know what the gay community respects and enjoys … but they seem to enjoy it. [Laughs]
Kunis: If you’re a costume at the gay parade, you’re an icon. You’re a costume at a gay parade, girl! You’re an icon.
What does it feel like knowing the LGBTQ community is dressing up as Anna at gay parades?
Bell: That someone is having a joyful experience and celebrating with an outfit that I somehow had a part in creating feels amazing. It feels like you’re spreading joy. To make anyone else happy feels wonderful. And if someone will wear that costume and smile and feel like they can relate to that character, then I’ve done a good job on Earth.
You both have made major statements about the gay community throughout your career, and Kristen, you even went as far as to not marry Dax until same-sex marriage was legalized.
Bell: Bet your ass.
Kunis: [Looks to Bell, surprised]
Bell: Yeah, we didn’t get married until same-sex marriage was legal.
Kunis: Neither did I!
Bell: You didn’t?
Kunis: No, my dad talked about it on my wedding day. His whole speech was about when I was 14, I told my parents I’m never getting married and they were like, “OK, let’s talk about this.” I was like, “I’m not getting married because the gays can’t get married, and so I’m never getting married.” Never thinking that the gays were ever gonna get married! So, I was just like, “It is what it is.”
Bell: It just felt gross. What are we gonna do? Have a party and be like, “Look at us celebrating this thing you can’t do?” That’s fucking putrid. Like, 90 percent of our friends are gay!
Kunis: I didn’t have that much awareness at 14. I don’t know what it was.
Bell: But you knew instinctually. You knew it felt gross, and it did feel gross.
Kunis: It just didn’t feel equal, so why would I? It just didn’t feel like it made sense to me. The concept of marriage didn’t make sense to me because my friends couldn’t do it, and I found nothing wrong with what they wanted. So, I was like, “Well, then it’s not sacred, then it’s not what it’s supposed to be, so I don’t want it.”
Then when marriage became legal, the second that it happened I was doing a stunt in London. I was 35 feet in the air and I got a text from my roommate who was married to his husband now of 19 years in London. So they lived a life where they couldn’t be together for six years because marriage wasn’t technically legal, federally speaking, so they were a cross-continental couple. It was the saddest fucking story ever. So, I got a text that said it was legal, and I’m in the middle of a stunt and there’s fire blowing everywhere, and I just start bawling – literally bawling. Because something that I thought was never gonna happen – ever! – happened. The next text was my husband and he was like, “Now what?” And I went, “OK.”
“OK,” as in we can get married now?
Kunis: Yes.
I didn’t know that about you, Mila.
Kunis: I never said it, but then hearing that [about Bell], I was like, “Fuck it. If you’re saying it, then I’ll fucking say it.”
Bell: I remember [Dax and I] watched the DOMA reading. It was 7:30 in the morning and he was on the East Coast and I was on the West Coast, and at 7:31 I proposed to him on Twitter to make a fucking point of it. To be like, “Now it’s OK, but before, it was not cool.”
I love that your men were on the same page about waiting to marry till everyone could marry too.
Kunis: My husband’s assistant is a gay guy.
Bell: My husband is the most masculine pro-gay man that you would ever meet.
Kunis: I married a gay man! [Laughs]
Bell: In high school [Shepard] would snuggle and spoon with his best friend and his mom would walk into the living room and be like, “Well, OK, anytime you want to talk…,” thinking, like, is this opening the door to something? And he was like, “No, I like snuggling! He’s my best friend!” And they would just be spooning.
Kunis: Awwww! [Laughs]
Bell: He’s so open.
How have you been describing the NSFW scene [From “A Bad Moms Christmas”] featuring Kathryn Hahn waxing “This Is Us” heartthrob Justin Hartley’s junk to your gay friends?
Bell: If you’re wondering, “Should I see ‘Bad Moms’?” and if you’ve ever seen “This Is Us” and thought, “I wonder what that guy looks like naked,” then this is the movie for you.
Is that the “Bad Moms Christmas” scene that you hope becomes gay famous?
Bell: The waxing scene is gonna become famous in the gay and straight and comedy communities, without question. The waxing scene, I think, is gonna go down in history next to the “When Harry Met Sally” scene. When I first saw it, my jaw was on the ground. It’s incredible.
It’s just what 2017 needs, if you ask me.
Bell: It’s gonna start –
Kunis: A revolution.
Bell: And 2018 off right. Guys, is it gonna fix it? Is it gonna fix 2017? Maybe this waxing scene is gonna fix 2017.
Kunis: It won’t, you guys, but I like this wishful thinking.