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New Girl star Zooey Deschanel was bombarded with questions during her stop at the Television Critics Association tour Friday.
Among them: “What does it feel like to be adorable?”
The question elicited the kind of nervous giggles that would only serve to perpetuate the characterization, good news for Fox brass who are betting big on this comedy changing the course of its live-action comedy record.
Much of the 45-minute panel devolved into a love-fest between Deschanel and creator/writer/executive producer Liz Meriwether. “Liz and I are connected; our souls are connected,” said Deschanel, who Meriwether called “the cat’s meow.”
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Though many assumed that Deschanel’s character –a heartbroken dork with a penchant for breaking into song– was written for her, Meriwether assured reporters that it was just coincidental and serendipitous. “We didn’t do a lot of finessing with the characters; it was just a perfect match,” she said, adding “I didn’t think that I could find someone as weird as I am.” (Deschanel, a singer as well as an actress off-screen, wrote and sang the series’ theme song.)
For Deschanel, the role of Jess was too good to pass up. “This is me,” she said of the character, noting that a part like this simply hasn’t been available to her on the big screen. “They don’t make as many movies as they used to … so if there’s any character that I’d want to play for ever and ever, it’s this one.”
While her co-stars, Max Greenfield (Schmidt), Jake Johnson (Nick) and newly cast Lamorne Morris (Winston), got little air time during the panel, Meriwether revealed a couple of plot points that involved their characters. Among them, an upcoming episode where a $50 bill is put into Max’s character “douche-bag jar,” part of an ongoing storyline that’s helped make Schmidt two-dimensional.
She also suggested that there would be some sexual tension that you’d imagine a show about a girl living with three guys would entail. “As a TV fan, I love those sort of story lines,” said Meriwether, still all smiles. “We’re going to go there in the future for sure and I’m looking forward to that.”
Email: Lacey.Rose@THR.com; Twitter: @LaceyVRose
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