The cast and crew of New Girl have plenty to sing about these days. The show’s premiere episode opened to 10 million viewers on September 20, building on lead-in Glee and benefiting from a bold Fox strategy: making the episode available on iTunes more than a week in advance. “It feels like a different world where what matters is word of mouth and getting awareness out there,” says Meriwether. “It was a risky move, and I’m really happy they did it.”

The premiere was Fox’s highest for a sitcom in 10 years, and since then, it has been this season’s No. 1 new show in adults ages 18 to 34. “I’ve been around a long time and I know to not expect too much because you don’t want to get disappointed,” says Deschanel. “We’re just so happy that people are watching it and sharing this moment with us.”

When asked about the key to the show’s success, all fingers point to leading lady Deschanel. A veteran film actress (Almost Famous, (500) Days of Summer) and accomplished musician who records with indie guitarist M. Ward under the moniker She & Him, 31-year-old Deschanel is diving headfirst into the world of TV as both star and a producer of New Girl. “I took two years off and did just music, so I really felt ready to come back to acting when I did,” says Deschanel, who’s also busy prepping a She & Him Christmas album for release on October 24. “I do take being a producer seriously and I love having that responsibility. It actually makes me want to work harder.”

That hard work is necessary to meet the sitcom’s grueling regimen, which Meriwether describes as 14-hour days, nonstop promotional tours and constant script rewrites. “I’m sure there was a question of, ‘Is she going to adapt to this rigorous schedule?’” adds Meriwether of her star. “She completely has, and not only that, she’s completely thriving in it.”

Deschanel emphasizes the importance of staying creatively satisfied in her career, even if that means carrying a greater weight on her shoulders. “I used to be frustrated on set being just an actor, feeling like I had to constantly keep my mouth shut,” she reveals. “It’s important to say what you feel in the nicest possible way and tell the best stories we can. That’s ultimately my goal.”

Deschanel’s male costars — Max Greenfield (Schmidt), Jake Johnson (Nick) and Lamorne Morris (Winston) — acknowledge and respect her dedication on and off screen. “The show is not called Three Roommates, it’s called New Girl,” notes Greenfield. “She’s so talented and because of her, we’re all here.” And Deschanel recognizes a bond forming between her and the ensemble. “I’ve always had a lot of guy friends and I like male energy,” she says. “We have a good, playful rapport, all of us.”

At first glance, it’s hard to distinguish the differences between Deschanel and her character, Jess, the slightly awkward but lovable girl next door with striking blue eyes and an affinity for bursting into song at any moment. “She’s really a 13-year-old version of myself,” says Deschanel. “There’s still that part of myself that’s totally dorky and weird. There are a lot of people who work hard to be seen as different, but I always wanted to be normal and I never really felt like I was.” And how does she feel about the oft-used term “adorkable” permeating the show’s advertisements and promotional campaign? “I think it’s great!” she exclaims. “But I don’t know if I would necessarily describe myself that way.”

Source

Andrea Warner recently had the opportunity to interview Zooey, and you can find the interview below:

Her long dark hair, framing a pair of piercing blue eyes, has inspired the hipster-chic look of countless aspiring, awkwardly cute ingenues the world over. Her starring role in (500) Days of Summer can only be described — in part, at least — as a love letter to her innate adorableness. She’s married to indie-rocker Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, and her parents named her after a J.D. Salinger character. She’s even the face of a U.S. ad campaign for cotton, for Christ’s sake. There need be no more evidence that Zooey Deschanel personifies “indie darling.”

Read the article at The Writerly Life.

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The A.V. Club: Your music feels simultaneously nostalgic and modern. Do you ever feel torn between the two?
Zooey Deschanel: Yeah, I think so. I usually like stuff that was made before I was born. At the same time, I’m happy to live in 2010 and have access to many years of records.

AVC: A lot of your songs deal with unrequited love and relationships gone bad. Now that you’re off the shelf, so to speak, what are you going to write about?
ZD: I still write about unrequited love. It’s interesting. It was never so personal. I mean, the emotions are personal. I’m moved by the emotions, but they were never all about me. I think when you use too much in your own—if you’re a creative person at all, if you overuse yourself as a pawn in your own adventures to write your masterpiece, I think you end up bending yourself. It’s all very sincere emotionally. It’s just not necessarily my life experience.

AVC: What keeps you coming back to that subject?
ZD: I don’t know. You just like some things or other things, I guess. Interesting stories.

AVC: Have you thought about collaborating with your husband, Ben Gibbard, on a project?
ZD: I like to keep it separate. I think it’s better to have your personal life and your work life separate. That way they don’t corrupt each other, so to speak.

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Teenage angst often results in bad poetry and confessional journal entries. Did you pour all of your angst into songwriting instead?
Zooey Deschanel: We traveled a lot when I was really young. I had no friends, but I had a tiny keyboard.
M. Ward: Your friend was the keyboard. I learned how to play guitar by going through the Beatles’ anthologies. Once I learned all those chords, I basically had the ammunition to destroy the competition. [Laughs.] Those are the building blocks of every great song. Whether it’s old music or new music, I hear the Beatles. Maybe I’m crazy.
ZD: I don’t think you’re crazy! I couldn’t play more than one note at a time, so that was frustrating. I later learned about chords in school, and when I got home, I started teaching myself how to play piano. Before that, I had no way of writing down the music or recording the ideas.

Does either of you recall a moment when you first felt proud enough of your music to share it?
ZD: I got a karaoke machine in high school. I used it to experiment, in a very primitive way, with multi-track recording. I remember playing those songs for my parents.
MW: You should definitely try to dig those tapes out.
ZD: I used to have so many things that have since disappeared. It was about six years ago that I started feeling comfortable enough to play my songs for a friend. I felt super-shy when I first started, but I got comfortable fast. The music is so organic, and such a true representation of myself, that it didn’t take long for me to feel really at ease.

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Why you have to be careful about acting with your sister.
“I think that both of us like to let each other have our space. The one thing that I fear about working with a family member is not getting along. You always want to make sure you don’t have any silly bickering or anything like that on the set. I mean, we don’t really do that so much anymore, but you always worry that little family things might come up.”

She needn’t have worried.
“I was hesitant. I just wanted to make sure that everything was right. But, it ended up being really fun. I was glad I did it. We had a really good time and we definitely cracked up a lot. Unfortunately, sometimes it was on camera.”

Emily was in charge though.
“She was essentially my boss for a couple days because she’s one of the producers of the show. But we’ve never really competed because we’re so different and we’re attracted to different things. I know that if we were up for the same thing, I would be happy if they chose her and she’d probably feel the same way about me.”

Why she’d never make it as a Bones regular.
“I don’t really like gory stuff. It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like fake blood; it gives me the creeps. I haven’t really done any movies with a lot of fake blood or anything like that. Emily seems fine with it, which is good because every week she’s around gross things.”

Growing up it was easy to tell them apart.
“Emily was sort of moody and cool, very kind of aloof. I was very boisterous and always on. I was the energetic one and kind of crazy to the point where I was sometimes a little bit out of my mind. Whatever I thought came out of my mouth. Now, I just am completely different. I can’t explain it, but my personality changed quite a bit just with age.”

Married life is good.
“I think we both were always pretty romantic, but it’s just that now it feels like everything is better. I think being married is great. I make him breakfast and he cleans up. I think I’m going to keep him.”

The story that won’t go away.
“When I was like two or three years old I was stomping around our hotel room and yelling because I had an ear infection. I was so mad and my parents kept saying, Shhhhh.’ I said, ‘Don’t you shush me.’ My mother loves to tell that about me. I used to try to stop her, but I’ve finally given up. It does make me sound like a little brat.”

Having parents in the biz [dad Caleb is an Oscar-winning cinematographer and mom Mary Jo starred in Twin Peaks]
“Both of them were able to follow their own dreams. I don’t think they felt like, since show business has been good to them, it would be to me and Emily. They were just like, ‘Whatever makes you happy.’ They’ve always been very understanding and supportive.”

Advice from her mother.
“She was like, ‘Wear blush. Always wear blush.’ That was one. She said ‘Wear lipstick’ too, but I don’t always follow that one.”

Why has it taken you this long to appear on screen together?
Zooey: “We have different career paths and it seems weird, but it’s difficult to schedule. I’d talked about doing a Bones episode for a couple of years but it never ended up working out because with films you get a job and sometimes have to leave the next week. I think we both like having our own space and the one thing I would fear about working with a family member is you want to make sure you don’t bring any silly bickering or family things to set, although we don’t really do that anymore. I just wanted to make sure everything was right and it was really fun – Emily was extremely welcoming and accomodating and very sweet. I’m glad I did it.”

What was it like working together?
Emily: “It was great, especially on the first day because it wasn’t that hectic. We had a scene that was just Ryan O’Neal and the two of us, which was really nice. We’ve never worked together before except our own plays we’ve done together!”
Zooey: “It was really fun to watch Emily work and I enjoyed it and I’m excited to see the episode.”

How involved were you both with helping devise Zooey’s character?
Emily: “Hart [Hanson] came to me with the idea of a Christmas episode. He told me some things about it and that she would be my relative.”
Zooey: “I was nervous because I’ve never signed on to anything without reading or knowing what the character is first, so it was a little scary for me! Obviously I knew all the writers on the show are really good and they weren’t going to hang me out to dry, but it was a leap of faith which I’m not used to. They were very receptive and let me give some of my ideas and we were able to come up with a cool character.”

Is there any chance of Zooey returning to the show in the future?
Zooey: “It’s Emily’s set, so…”
Emily: “We’d love to have you back any time! I think it is open-ended and it’s open-ended for a reason. It took us five seasons to figure out when Zooey could come on the show so it may take another five seasons for her to come back!”
Zooey: “Season ten!”
Emily: “We’re so happy it worked out. It was something we have been trying to do from the beginning, it’s just scheduling that is hard.”

Read the rest of the interview at Digital Spy.