But having seen Deschanel and New Girl's creator, Liz Meriwether, together promoting the series, it's clear the two are very in tune with one another. And watching the pilot to the series (which airs on FOX on September 20th but is available as a free download on iTunes now), it's also clear how perfect Deschanel is for this role.
When I sat down this summer to speak to Deschanel about New Girl – in which she stars as Jess, a young woman who moves in with three male roommates after finding her boyfriend cheating on her -- she said it really wasn't a difficult decision at all to commit to the series.
I should note this conversation took place at FOX's TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour party – where the music was playing rather loudly right near us. You'll see how that comes into play below…
IGN TV: You've had a really successful movie career. Was there any trepidation about the long-term commitment you were taking on with a TV show?
Zooey Deschanel: The material was so great that I just felt like really strongly that this was something that I should do. I immediately responded to the material.
IGN: Well seeing you and Liz together, you seem so simpatico.
Deschanel: Yeah, even our mannerisms are similar, so I feel like we definitely come from some same, weird planet.
IGN: You've joked that the character wasn't written for you…
Deschanel: ...But it should have been? [Laughs]
IGN: [Laughs] Yes, including the singing at random moments thing, right?
Deschanel: Yeah!
IGN: How similar do you think Jess is to you?
Deschanel: I think she's a part of me. There are parts of me that are not like Jess, but I feel like the sort of enthusiasm and optimism of her is so deeply [part of] who I growing up… I'm a very excitable person and I feel like Jess sort of wants everything to be a good thing, so she kind of doesn't see the bad in things. I feel like I have a little bit more where I can see negative things for sure, but at the same time, I'm very enthusiastic. Especially when I think about the things I get excited about - like music makes me very excited. Certain things make me very excited. So those things I think are kind of similar in Jess.
IGN: I like that the show doesn't go for a quick flirtation beat with you and one of the guys. Liz has said that yes, at some point you will address that there probably would be some attractions there, but it felt refreshing to have it not be forced in early.
Deschanel: [Pauses] I'm sorry, this music is really distracting for some reason. It's weird – Like, there's some other music that's not distracting, but this is like weird samba or something. [Laughs] It's driving me crazy! I'm the most distractible person, especially if there's music playing that I'm very confused about. Sorry!
Yeah, I liked that the character, she gets on their nerves a little bit, you know? But she tries. I think what they like about her is that she's really a good person – she just kind of gets it wrong. But I like that it's not just [in a cheesy announcer's voice], "Three hot dudes and a girl in an apartment!" That wouldn't be very interesting. It's more interesting to be like, "Three confused dudes and a dorky girl!"
IGN: The scene where Jess finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her is a memorable one – she's naked and trying to be seductive and singing and then makes this huge discovery... Did you decide you had to just sort of embrace the embarrassing nature of what happens to her?
Deschanel: Yeah, I just felt like I wanted to go for it with this character. I didn't want any of my own vanity to ever get in the way of playing this character. That was a commitment I made when we started shooting the pilot. This is going to be a person who could be unattractive, but I don't care, because I love her and I want to play this person.
IGN: So is it safe to say the singing will be a pretty constant through-line for the character?
Deschanel: Yeah, I think she sings whenever she feels like she's in an awkward moment.
IGN: Can you relate to that or is your singing usually for different reasons?
Deschanel: My singing is usually just because… I like to sing songs! I tend to, if I feel awkward, make eight million faces – way more faces than a person should make. [Editor's Note: At this point, Deschanel showed me some of her funny faces – and they were quite amusing] So I can relate to her needing to do something, you know what I mean? For me, I go, "Ahhh" and make lots of weird movements. And she sings… and she also makes lots of faces!
IGN: Your character has a funny bit about Lord of the Rings in the premiere. Are you hoping you can throw in more references to pop culture touchstones like that or something like Star Wars?
Deschanel: Yeah! I was really hoping there would be a Halloween episode and she could be Princess Leia. But you know, I could never do that, because the best is on 30 Rock. I love Tina Fey!
New Girl premieres Tuesday, September 20th on FOX at 9:00pm - but you can currently download the pilot for free on iTunes.