In his directorial debut Hit and Run, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell play the proverbial opposites who attract -- and are crazy in love with each other. The plot point was a bit of art mirroring life, because Shepard says he's very much the bad boy to Bell's goodie-two-shoes.
"Kristen's a good girl. She grew up very Christian, went straight to college, did great in school and started work immediately. She's charitable and philanthropic and rescues dogs. So when we met, our backgrounds were opposites," Shepard, 37, told Playboy for their new issue.
The Parenthood star, on the other hand, didn't have that sort of squeaky-clean reputation.
"All the things I'd done were terrifying to her, and she had a hard time believing I would ever be able to stay married and monogamous and a father and all those things. For the first year and a half we were together that was what we battled over almost weekly."
And just what did those weekly battles revolve around?
"I just loved to get f---ed-up -- drinking, cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, pain pills, everything. Mostly my love was Jack Daniel's and cocaine," Shepard recalled. "I lived for going down the rabbit hole of meeting weird people. Of course, come Monday I would be tallying up all the different situations, and each one was progressively more dangerous. I got lucky in that I didn't go to jail."
But Shepard cleaned up his act and now he and Bell, 32, have been engaged for two years, a fact he says should make guys around the world happy.
"Here's the funny thing about the response I've been aware of to my dating famous people: It's been very negative. I'm either not good-looking enough, not a good enough actor or not successful enough for these people," he said. "It's ironic, really. Guys should be excited that I got Kristen Bell. If Brad Pitt gets Kristen Bell, it's like, 'Well, of course he did.' With me, it should be, 'Oh good, a normal-looking guy got her. Maybe I'll get me a Kristen Bell.' But guys hate my guts for always dating women I have no right to be with."
