STACK April 2017 Issue 83

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10 APRIL 2017
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When Dax Shepard told his
wife he was planning
on writing, directing,
starring, and doing all the
motorbike stunts in his next
movie project, she gave him
her full blessing.
“In truth, Dax is safer
going 80mph on a motorcycle
blindfolded than I am walking in a
straight line,” says Kristen Bell, who
also snagged a role in her hubby’s
movie CHIPS, playing his heartless
ex-wife.
“I always want to work with my husband. If
I could only work with him, I would because I
trust his moviemaking perspective.
I think he’s very smart. Every
time he says something, it's
very inspiring,” says Bell, who
has worked with Shepard on
Veronica Mars, The Boss and
Hit and Run.
“We both believe that you
have to make the kinds of
movies you would want to see,
otherwise you are guessing what
the audience wants. He loves action
and comedy and he also loves bikes,
so this was perfect.”
Shepard’s CHIPS sees him as Jon Baker,
a former X-Games star with a busted body
and a painkiller habit who is teamed with
Michael Peña’s Frank 'Ponch' Poncherello, an
oversexed undercover Fed.
Both rookies take to the California Highway
Patrol – what could possibly go wrong when
these two get a badge and a bike, and go in
search of an inner ring of dirty cops?
Shepard and Peña share the same character
names as their predecessors in the cheesy
'70s TV series CHiPs, Larry Wilcox and Erik
Estrada, but that’s where the similarity ends
in this (US) hard-R buddy cop comedy loaded
with action and stunts.
Unlike Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson’s send-
up of another famous '70s TV cop show,
Starsky & Hutch, Shepard had other ideas.
STACK's Gill Pringle
with Kirsten Bell
STACK met with CHIPS stars Dax
Shepard, Michael Peña and Kristen
Bell to talk motorcycles, buddy cops
and bringing the cheesy '70sTV series
to the big screen. Words Gill Pringle