Kristen Bell recalls being told she was not ‘pretty enough’ during early career

Frozen star Kristen Bell says she was told she was not “pretty enough” during her early Hollywood career.

The actress, whose TV roles include comedy series The Good Place, said she would be judged on her appearance rather than her talent in auditions.

“I remember early on, getting feedback, that I wasn’t enough in either category,” she told Vanity Fair.

“I would get feedback from an audition: ‘Well, you’re not pretty enough to play the pretty girl, but you’re not quirky enough or weird enough to play the weird girl.'”

Bell, who voices Princess Anna in Disney’s blockbuster Frozen films, said she would leave auditions confused.

“I was like, ‘Okay, does that just mean I can’t be an actor? What does that mean,'” she said.

“That’s what I was getting feedback on, on every audition.”

Bell, 39, said Hollywood has changed since she broke through in the early 2000s and it is rarer now for an actor to be judged purely on looks.

She said: “It’s this huge grey area now of all these beautiful stories you can tell… that have dimensional people that don’t have to be one thing.”

Bell added: “It’s not the 80s where you have to have the popular girl and then the nerd who gets the guy. It’s not that anymore and I’m really grateful for that.

“It opens up a lot of opportunities for everyone to play and pretend, which is the most fun part.”