{"id":2179984,"date":"2025-11-28T16:18:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2179984"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:18:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:18:24","slug":"exclusive-how-lake-bell-keeps-a-straight-face-opposite-tim-robinsons-lunacy-in-the-chair-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/exclusive-how-lake-bell-keeps-a-straight-face-opposite-tim-robinsons-lunacy-in-the-chair-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | How Lake Bell keeps a straight face opposite Tim Robinson&#8217;s lunacy in &#8216;The Chair Company&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F11%2Flake-bell-the-chair-company.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Musical chairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lake Bell co-stars with Tim Robinson in the hit <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/12\/entertainment\/how-to-watch-new-tim-robinson-hbo-show-the-chair-company\/\">HBO comedy \u201cThe Chair Company,\u201d<\/a> which airs its Season 1 finale Sunday, Nov 30 (10 p.m).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bell, 46, told The Post that she had trouble keeping a straight face \u201call the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEspecially playing the straight man \u2013 or the straight woman, I should say,\u201d she went on. \u201cI really enjoy it, because I do feel like I get to strangely be in both a drama, and a comedy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Sophia Lillis, Lake Bell, Will Price, and Tim Robinson in \u201cThe Chair Company.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">HBO<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Lake Bell in her video interview with The Post.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe Chair Company\u201d follows Ron (Robinson), a family man working in a corporate job. After a workplace incident where he falls out of his chair in front of a crowd of people, he becomes convinced that the chair company is involved in a conspiracy, and spirals into paranoia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Like most Robinson characters in his Netflix show \u201cI Think You Should Leave\u201d or <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/06\/17\/entertainment\/how-to-stream-tim-robinson-paul-rudd-movie-friendship-at-home\/\">his movie \u201cFriendship,\u201d<\/a> Ron is often angrily bewildered by commonplace human interactions.<\/p>\n<p>The show has been HBO\u2019s best comedy debut in five years, scoring 1.4 million viewers for its premiere. It\u2019s already been renewed for a Season 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bell plays his wife, Barb, who shares two young adult kids with him \u2014\u00a0Seth (Will Price) and Natalie (Sophia Lillis).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Tim Robinson in \u201cThe Chair Company.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBeing that force of constant for him and for the wackiness of what\u2019s around \u2013 I think that\u2019s part of the balance of how this whole tone works,\u201d the \u201cIt\u2019s Complicated\u201d actress explained of her co-star Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>Even \u201csimple scenes\u201d like when Barb and Ron are in bed together can be \u201creally hard to keep a straight face,\u201d she noted. \u201cAnd he\u2019s got to either check his phone, or he\u2019s fussing about something. And the director, Andrew DeYoung, will give Tim the opportunity to do different levels of Tim, and different levels of Ron\u2019s inner torment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For instance, in the premiere, Ron also fusses over his pillow and angrily exclaims, \u201cI swear, I have the worst pillow in town!\u201d while Barb lays next to him silently.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Lake Bell at the premiere for \u201cThe Chair Company\u201d at Hollywood Legion theater in LA on Oct 8, 2025. <span class=\"credit\">WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bell said that when Robinson goes \u201cfull level ten,\u201d that\u2019s when she has to, \u201ctake a deep breath, engage my core, and think about something sad\u201d so that she doesn\u2019t crack up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cYou have to really compartmentalize, to stay in the zone of sobriety in his wackiness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bell shares two kids with her <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2020\/10\/22\/lake-bell-splits-from-scott-campbell-after-7-years-of-marriage\/\">ex-husband, tattoo artist Scott Campbell,<\/a> whom she was married to from 2013 to 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cBoston Legal\u201d actress said that she can relate to Barb\u2019s relationship with Ron because, \u201cI have been very happily married, and I\u2019ve been happily divorced with my ex-husband.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just know that when you love someone and you know them, it is part of the relationship journey to just love them for the good, and love them for the bad,\u201d she told The Post. Because of that, she believes that Barb is \u201caware\u201d that Ron\u2019s \u201cmovement through life\u201d has always been full of \u201crocky moments,\u201d and that she is \u201cquite used to him, and his antics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Sophia Lillis and Lake Bell in \u201cThe Chair Company.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even more, she thinks Barb knows that \u201cthe way he sees the world, he creates challenges for himself and can be his own worst enemy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/01\/28\/bless-this-mess-star-lake-bell-loves-working-with-geniuses-and-a-llama-named-rosie\/\">\u201cBless This Mess\u201d actress<\/a> said that she had an amusing moment when she took her 8-year-old son, Ozzy, to set on the day that Ron\u2019s son Seth had a vomit scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy son thinks I have the coolest job ever, because he got to see a bunch of people wrapped around Will Price while he had to hold pea soup in his mouth, waiting to vomit it out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She likes taking her kids to set to \u201clearn about\u201d the camera and electric departments, and to get an education. \u201cSo I was like, \u2018I will seed the creatives of the future by showing my son how movie vomit works!\u2019\u201d she quipped.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Chair Company\u201d was officially renewed for Season 2 earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t reveal anything, but I think what people really respond to is the fact that it is so unexpected and that while it\u2019s very relatable and accessible \u2013 this is a family that you could see anywhere\u00a0 \u2013 and yet, there are things behind the curtain that allow for this anxious hilarity to ensue,\u201d Bell noted. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Musical chairs.\u00a0 Lake Bell co-stars with Tim Robinson in the hit HBO comedy \u201cThe Chair Company,\u201d which airs its Season 1 finale Sunday, Nov 30 (10 p.m).\u00a0 Bell, 46, told The Post that she had trouble keeping a straight face \u201call the time.\u201d \u201cEspecially playing the straight man \u2013 or the straight woman, I should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2179985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[21741,25404,21917,309839,419701,22205,350557,21913],"class_list":["post-2179984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-hbo","tag-hbo-max","tag-lake-bell","tag-television","tag-tim-robinson","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Exclusive-How-Lake-Bell-keeps-a-straight-face-opposite.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179986,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179984\/revisions\/2179986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2179985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}