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Lake Bell, the 34-year-old actress best known for TV roles in “How to Make It in America” and “Childrens Hospital,” branches out this month with her feature directorial debut, “In a World . . . ” She also wrote it. Oh, and she’s the star, too.
“It takes great organization, a massive training and focus,” says Bell of juggling the roles on set. “It just means you got to wear a lot of sneakers — and some great insoles.”
“In a World . . . ,” opening in theaters Friday, follows Bell’s character, Carol, as she attempts to make it in the hypercompetitive, ultra-sexist world of voice-over acting. Bell, who grew up obsessed with unusual voices, has done her own behind-the-mike as a pair of witches in “Shrek Forever After.”
The Post caught up with Bell to chat about tape recorders, voices and choices.
How did you come up with the movie’s concept?
I always wanted to be an actor, but voice acting seemed like the ultimate acting tool, because you could be anyone. The blind voice will allow you to create characterizations that are different nationalities, different genders. Fun fact in the movie is that I play Gustav Warner’s — played by Ken Marino — big fat Jewish agent guy on the other end of a phone throughout the movie. That’s not something I get traditionally cast as.
I read that, like your character, you had a tape recorder to capture different voices.
That came into play when I went to drama school and was encouraged to go out in the field of the world and be investigative about finding authenticity in the dialects you practice for characters. So I would go out and sort of elicit the help of strangers with a tape recorder, and I really took it to heart. I consequently have shoe boxes and shoe boxes’ worth of cassette tapes of random people telling me things in weird accents.
Were you fascinated with voices as a kid?
My parents were divorced, so my mom lived in Florida, and my dad lived in New York. The arrangement was that I went every other weekend at like 11 and 12 years old — an unaccompanied minor — to fly to see my dad. I buddy-buddied with the stewardesses because I thought they had the coolest job ever — just to be this disembodied voice behind the curtain telling us what to do in case of an emergency. But I felt like they always sounded bored. So I coerced them to let me do it because I wanted to give it a little spice. After, I don’t know, half a year [or] a year of going back and forth, I finally got my moment and got to do the emergency speech on a Delta service through Atlanta.
When your parents saw the movie, it must have brought up some memories.
My parents are both equally proud and amused. Anyone in my family who sees this movie understands exactly where this is coming from. My dad has a great ear, and we often do accents together. He would say, “She got it from me!” I’ve heard that one or two times. Maybe 500.
Do you choose a specific voice for all your roles?
I have yet to play a heavy characterization. I’ve had a couple moments where I’ve played foreigners, which is really fun. And certainly in theater, it’s even more forgiving. But I like to play normally with cadence and the musicality of a character. For example, in “No Strings Attached,” I was really excited to give the character this sort of chord cadence where she sort of [speaking in a decrescendo] runs her sentence off . . . into . . . the . . . ground.
Do you want to do animated work?
F - - k yeah! I’m jonesing to do a myriad of voice-overs. I hope to play the disembodied, authoritative voice of a brand to help the public make decisions about what bank they should have, or what tampon to buy. But equally I want to play a bunch of cockamamy weirdos in an animated series. I just got a job for an animated feature, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman.” They go back in time, and I play Mona Lisa. I gave them two different types of Italian accent. I don’t know which way they’re going to go. They’re either going to go New Yawk Italian, or real Italian.
What’s your favorite voice to do?
I love southeast London — but that usually comes out when I’m drunk.
gregorymiller@nypost.com