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By Ilana Kaplan
If you watched the third season of Physical, you probably would have noticed when a biting but cheerful blonde first appeared on screen. No, she’s not Jessica Day: she’s Zooey Deschanel in the dual role of Kelly Kilmartin. , emerging queen of exercise, and Kelly Kilmartin, Sheila Rubin’s (Rose Byrne) vicious interior monologue.
“I’m smart or bad, I’m like an enemy. I’m funny, mean, sweet, all those other things at once,” Deschanel said of her normal screen role over the phone from her home in Los Angeles. Angeles, in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. “It’s a competitive date [between Sheila and Kelly]. “
Deschanel’s role in the Apple TV series is notable for two reasons: she deviates from many of her past roles as an unconventional independent love; It’s also her first return to scripted television since Fox’s beloved comedy New Girl, which ended in 2018.
In fact, Deschanel needed a break and was looking to spend time with her children: eight-year-old Elsie Otter and six-year-old Charlie Wolf. So he took two years off and then said no to everything that happened to him during the After the rigorous experience of filming New Girl, which rarely filmed 25 episodes per season, he wasn’t in a position to dive back into it. “It was a huge task,” he says. I didn’t think I’d be getting back into the game that way, especially not right away. “
Deschanel was so exhausted, she said, that she thought about never returning to television. “Maybe I’d like to just make videos, or videos and music,” he says. “I had to give myself time to think about what might be enough. “
The pause of the pandemic has given him ample time to do so. As he slowly began to play roles in films, he was presented with the opportunity to act in Physical, a series of which he was already a fan. things I’m passionate about,” he says. And she was (and is) excited about it. “I love the show!” says Deschanel. Annie [Weisman], who created the show, is just a wonderful talent. I’m a big fan of Rose Byrne. The whole cast is just wonderful.
Nor could he forget the appeal of betting on two characters. “It’s the kind of thing where, when you’re in drama school, you think, ‘I just hope someone is concerned enough to let me play anything exclusive that it is. ‘Different from who I am as a person, it will allow me to sink my teeth into anything,” he says.
After 25 years in Hollywood, it felt smart to be in this position. Deschanel had earned praise for her quirky but ironic roles in films such as Almost Famous, The Good Girl, Our Idiot Brother, and Elf; She has become the face of the manic goblin girl trope after starring in the romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer. (She notes, however, that the term was not originally coined for her: she animated her through the character of Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown. )
“I would never use that label to describe myself as a human being,” he says. “It was a weird and clever nickname that was repurposed and I have become his face in so many ways. But surely that’s not what I identify with.
Deschanel believes this epithet demonstrates the extent to which 500 Days of Summer was misunderstood when it premiered in 2009. The film, he stresses, is told entirely from the male lead’s point of view: “Summer doesn’t even have a chance to express who he is,” he said. It’s very objectified and it’s dehumanizing. That’s another explanation for why she doesn’t identify with the manic-goblin-dream woman label: inherently objective to the user she describes.
However, Deschanel is thrilled to be the face of twee, especially considering the resurgence of the aesthetic on TikTok lately. “I love all the women who do twee,” she laughs. I’m there for that. “
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Beyond acting, Deschanel pursued a musical career, performing with M. Ward in the indie-rock duo She.
Deschanel needs to replace “the attitude that healthy food is a privilege reserved for other fancy people. “He has now co-founded several corporations that share this mission: The Farm Project, which allows other people to grow food themselves and connect with local farmers. ; Lettuce Grow, which sells home hydroponic systems that inspire others to grow their own food; and Merryfield, an app that allows users to earn emissions instead of gift cards when they buy products with blank labels. In 2017, he also began posting a short series of videos on YouTube called “Your Food’s Roots,” which in turn have become a launching pad. for his series on Max’s food education, What Do I Eat?.
Following her return to television in August, Deschanel also returned to film for the first time in seven years with Dreamin’ Wild, Bill Pohlad’s biopic about singer-musician brothers Donnie (Casey Affleck) and Joe Emerson (Walton Goggins). “Very inspiring, the story of a lost and discovered dream. It just reminded me of the independent films I started making,” he says.
Deschanel feels fortunate to have a “renewed passion” for theater, though she also says she enjoys having an eclectic career, where she can do more in fruitful artistic collaborations and perfect pictorial chemistry than explicit goals.
Right now, she also loves being a mother, enjoys her engagement to Property Brothers star Jonathan Scott, and plans to write the album She.
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