Quirky leading lady Zooey Deschanel kicked off her summer vacation under the stars in Hawaii, where she screened her new anti-love flick, (500) Days of Summer, at the Maui Film Festival. We sat down with the versatile star of Yes Man and Elf to elicit her thoughts on romance, commitment and her (500) Days co-star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
What attracted you to (500) Days of Summer?
Zooey Deschanel: “I loved the script. Then I was 110 percent committed by the end of my meeting with Marc Webb, the director, because he’s so wonderful and smart. I was pretty much signed on as soon as we started talking. He had a time line on a little scroll. He rolled it out on the sidewalk outside the café where we met. I was unbelievably charmed. It was a scroll of paper that had a time line of the film with all these pictures and descriptions. It was so beautifully done. That played a big part in convincing me.”
Who do you relate with more — your character (Summer) or co-star Gordon-Levitt’s (Tom)? Are you a hopeless romantic or a non-believer?
ZD: “I’m neither one. The thing about those two characters is that they represent the polarization of our generation being on one side of the issue or the other. Both of them vacillate over the course of the film. Tom starts one way and ends up another way. They switch places. They’re both swinging the pendulum. I think they’ll probably end up in the middle.”
But you don’t relate with either?
ZD: “I have identified with both of them at points in my life. Right now, I think I’m more of a romantic. But I’m not a hopeless romantic. I’m not unrealistically romantic.”
It seems like there’s a new generation of women who can’t commit. It used to be the men. What gives?
ZD: “I definitely think that people’s attitudes towards love are strange. I think that people think if they don’t commit to something they won’t ever be hurt. One of the things that the film says that I like and think is interesting is, ‘Just because something isn’t permanent doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have value.’ The relationship in the film isn’t permanent, but it does have value. I think it speaks to certain types of women and men that haven’t been represented in film. I know people like them.”
What was it like working with Joseph for a second time?
ZD: “Joe and I have a great friendship. It’s so nice to be able to work with your friends because it takes away that extra layer of ‘Hi, nice to meet you. We’re doing a love scene,’ which is always awkward. Once you’re friends, you can move around it in a way that’s a lot more comfortable. It’s an extra layer of stress taken away. I love working with him. He’s a great actor. We have a good rapport when we get together.”
I heard Joseph listened to music from your band, She & Him, each morning to prepare for his role. True or false?
ZD: “It’s true. He started doing it and told me he was doing it. He had an arrangement with the person who was driving him to set each day. He would play my record one time through on the way there and on the way home they’d play a record that the gentleman who was driving to wanted to listen to. He listened to it every day. I had nothing to do with it.”
Did he return that favor? Did he provide some sort of vocal arrangement for you?
ZD: “No, but I remember playing music on set together. I’ve played music with him before. He’s a good musician.”
The film features a killer soundtrack. How did your contribution come about?
ZD: “I covered one of the Smiths’ songs that is in the movie. Mark really wanted us to do it. We had a choice of a couple different songs. It was a song I’d always loved. It’s not in the movie, but it’s on the soundtrack.”
You’ve performed in a couple of your previous films. Could a musical be in your future?
ZD: “No. It’s not that I wouldn’t want to do a musical, but when you write music, you start to get very picky about what you sing. I like to control what I sing. I’m picky about it. I’d like to do a musical, but it would have to be the right thing. Maybe someday I’ll write music for a musical. That would be fun.”
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