Zooey Deschanel is the sexy young star in such films as Elf, Almost Famous and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Her latest film is Failure to Launch, where she plays the roommate of Sarah Jessica Parker. Matthew McConaughey stars as a wealthy 35-year-old who still lives with his parents. His family hires Parker's character to have him fall in love with her so he will find the confidence to move out.
UGO: How did you approach this character?
ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Every once in a while you have a really bad day and usually it involves airports or public transportation. Kit has a bad day every single day and that's where I started from. That she was a person who always was having a bad day and who was really intolerant of bad days.
UGO: Was she always a heavy drinker?
ZOOEY: No, I just think booze is funny. She wasn't meant to be a drunk. She just needs her sleep. When I watch all those old movies they're constantly drinking and no one ever thinks anything about it. There's always a wet bar somewhere. They could be in the middle of a playground and there's a wet bar behind the swing set. That's Kit. Kit likes to watch the drinking movies.
UGO: How did the role come to you?
ZOOEY: They just offered it to me and I read it. I liked it and I met with Tom [Dey] the director. I really liked his idea of the character and he had pictures of how he wanted me to look. I liked his sensibility and I liked his other movies.
UGO: Including Showtime?
ZOOEY: I haven't seen Showtime. But I loved Shanghai Noon.
UGO: How was it working with Sarah Jessica Parker?
ZOOEY: It was great. I love her. She's such a great actress and wonderful comedienne. We thought of our characters not as friends really but roommates. They're thrown together out of necessity. Kit really doesn't have that many friends and Paula can't really have that many friends because her job requires her to be so deceptive and secretive. Kit tolerates Paula's strange profession and Paula tolerates Kit's strange behavior. But in the end they actually have affection for each other.
UGO: Have you ever had a female roommate?
ZOOEY: I haven't.
UGO: But you do have an older sister.
ZOOEY: I have an older sister. But we get along really well. She's my best friend.
UGO: What part do you play in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford?
ZOOEY: I play Robert Ford's girlfriend at the end of the movie. I got to do a fan dance.
UGO: What is the movie Flakes about?
ZOOEY: Flakes is an InDigEnt movie. It stars Aaron Stanford and Christopher Lloyd and it's a comedy that takes place in New Orleans. It's about this breakfast cereal shop where all these artists hang out. Then across the street the Starbucks of cereal shops opens up and there's this rivalry.
UGO: How about Surf's Up?
ZOOEY: Surf's Up is an animated feature about penguin surfers that I'm doing and it's so much fun.
UGO: What do you play in it?
ZOOEY: I play a penguin lifeguard. We've been doing recording sessions every few months or so for a while now. I've watched a lot of the animation. There's this whole parallel world where artic penguins surf. They surf on blocks of ice. You know how Dogtown and Z-Boys was to skating, Surf's Up is to penguin surfing. It's a mockumentary.
UGO: Do you surf?
ZOOEY: I don't surf.
UGO: But you're from California!
ZOOEY: I know. I'm even from the Palisades, which is the most surf-y place you could be.
UGO: Do people recognize a lot?
ZOOEY: Sometimes I do get recognized but people are usually quite polite.
UGO: Do they know you from Elf?
ZOOEY: People don't recognize me a lot from Elf because I had blond hair in it. But kids just go nuts for Elf. I was at a dinner party a couple weeks ago and there were four kids there and it was Inside the Actor's Studio for kids. They were "Do you remember when Elf put the maple syrup on the spaghetti? Do you remember that part?" I'm like, "Yeah I do."
UGO: What was the best music concert you ever went to?
ZOOEY: Just recently I saw a band from England that was really good, called the Magic Numbers at the Troubadour in LA.
at how Zooey's hair changed from that ... to this! 
it's a promo interview for Failure To Launch.
bunny: From 'The Go Getter'
