\u201cUltimately, when I play the straight woman, I think of it as a drama,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIn comedy, I tend to think of it as grave and very serious. And if it\u2019s grave and very serious, then everything else around it can be absolute tornado madness.\u201d<\/p>\n
In The Chair Company, Bell plays Barb, the wife of show creator Tim Robinson\u2019s Ron Trosper. After Ron\u2019s chair breaks in an embarrassing on-stage moment at work, he spirals down a chaotic conspiracy theory against the company that manufactured the chair. <\/p>\n
![\"Lake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/DAUK3OX74FFJFJRNL23GRS6XKM.jpg\")
After roles in Nancy Meyers films and sitcom comedies, Lake Bell’s newest role is also her weirdest. Jesse Grant\/Getty Images for HBO <\/p>\n
Robinson, 44, who became known for his over-the-top and often awkward comedy, is not an easy co-star to suppress a laugh around, but Bell does her best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like there is a trust in me with the creative team that they understand that I will stay level and that I will ground it so that Tim can go absolutely off his rocker, and I will be unflappable,\u201d Bell said. \u201cAnd that is a fun game to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even Bell isn\u2019t perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have broken. I admit that,\u201d she told Wilstein. <\/p>\n
According to Bell, it\u2019s hardest to keep her cool during \u201csimple\u201d scenes, often when it\u2019s just her and Robinson on camera. The hardest scene for Bell to shoot involved the pair lying in bed, with Robinson having just one improvised line.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just trying to get to sleep, and we\u2019re just people in the world, a married husband and wife, in our bed, and I am normal, and you\u2019re normal,\u201d Bell remembered thinking at the time. \u201cI\u2019m just telling myself, \u2018We\u2019re normal people. We\u2019re in this bed, and we\u2019re going to bed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WH2REFSATZFSNMLG3DTZMT2LRQ.jpg\")
Actress Lake Bell considers comedy acting “grave” and “serious” to keep a straight face while filming. Courtesy HBO Max <\/p>\n
After Robinson got a clean take of his line, producers let him go full tilt. Bell remembers Robinson going \u201cbonkers,\u201d tossing and turning with maximum effort, whirling the duvet off the bed, and wrapping himself up like a burrito. <\/p>\n
Bell admits she had to turn away from the camera to hide her reaction to Robinson\u2019s absurdity. <\/p>\n
\u201cTim is a kind of f—ing genius,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI almost feel embarrassed for him, because he\u2019s very humble and doesn\u2019t like that kind of hyperbole\u2026 But he\u2019s a genius. He\u2019s an original magic-maker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell told Wilstein that Robinson\u2019s unique brand of comedy prompted her to submit an audition tape for Barb. There were few things she had seen that were so original in their tone and narrative as the comedy by Robinson and co-creator Zach Kanin.<\/p>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AU6X7SL2XNEX7DFVDZQECXO7NM.jpg\")
It was co-creators Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin’s unique brand of chaotic humor that made Lake Bell audition for \u201cThe Chair Company.\u201d Lloyd Bishop\/NBC via Getty Image <\/p>\n
\u201cI just got very obsessed with getting seen for it,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n
That same unpredictability has Bell just as excited to return for a second season, which begins filming later this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re gonna do for the second season,\u201d Bell admitted. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more excited about it because it\u2019s like when you go on a rollercoaster, part of the fun of the rollercoaster is that you don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell told show producers not to give her scripts in advance, so she could experience the show as a viewer as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel a little bit like I\u2019m just gonna strap on and jump out of the plane,\u201d she joked. <\/p>\n
Subscribe to our YouTube<\/a> channel to watch new episodes of \u201cObsessed: The Podcast\u201d every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And follow our feed<\/a> to listen to the show the next morning on your favorite podcast platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actress Lake Bell said the hardest part of her job on HBO\u2019s The Chair Company is keeping a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,1035],"class_list":["post-413317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}