Having won acclaim at such a young age playing several different and unique characters, Zooey Deschanel is one of Hollywood’s finest buried treasures. She makes the jump, however, in New Line Cinema’s Elf, in what could be called her most mainstream role yet. Zooey plays the beautiful Jovie, a cynical but spirited girl working at a New York City department store for the Christmas holiday. She befriends an unusual man named Buddy (Will Ferrell) who claims to be a real elf from the North Pole. Whether she believes him or not, Jovie begins to develop a romance with him as he helps bring Christmas cheer to her.

Zooey was in New York City recently to talk about her latest project.

You must be really happy to be a in a project like this. Does it fulfill a fantasy?

Well, I didn’t fantasize about it! (Laughs)

But it must’ve been great to do a project where you could sing?

That was the thing that I always wanted to do – a musical. I started out doing a lot of musicals so it was cool that I got to sing in a movie. I loved Christmas movies and I loved the idea of a movie that could come back year after year, where people would watch again and hopefully get them in the Christmas spirit.

What are your favorite Christmas movies?

I’m going to name three. I have them all in my head cause I’ve been asked this question before: It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and I’m going to say A Christmas Story. Everybody’s really excited when I say A Christmas Story because they say nobody wants to admit it. I don’t know why, I think it’s a great film!

How do you keep a straight face around Will when he’s acting goofy?

I don’t really remember. People keep asking me this and I think I keep making up answers. So I’m going to make up another one. (In a low voice) I just took a lot of drugs. (Laughs) No, I don’t ever do any drugs. That’s the truth, just so you all know…but I think I bit my cheeks seriously. But I just kept trying to be in the reality of the moment where I think he’s a crazy man. But a lot of the stuff where he’s really crazy is mostly [when he’s] single so that I can be far away in the other room.

Did you grow up believing in Santa Claus?

Yeah! I mean, I had lunch with him. (Laughs)

Did you have a favorite Christmas toy?

Yeah, there was a little dog named Wrinkles who talked that I loved. My grandparents gave him to me when I was six and he was like, “Wah wah wah, I want a bone.” Then there was this squishy, soft bone that you would put in his mouth and he would talk and it was just so cute!

Are you naturally brunette or blonde?

This is my hair, all grown out, haven’t dyed it since February. (Zooey takes off her hat and proceeds to shake her brunette hair.) I’m never going to be blonde again!

Why? Don’t blondes have more fun?

No! I have more fun as a brunette. It’s all lies.

Would you consider this your most mainstream role?

I guess, in some ways.

Well, you’ve played a lot of unique characters in several independent films. What do you look for in a character when you’re flipping through scripts nowadays?

God, I just don’t want to be bored. It’s like the worst thing when I read a script and I’m like, “Oh God, it’s another really boring girlfriend part.” Or it’s sometimes (in a perky voice,)“Oh, it’s someone’s best friend who talks like this!” I try to do things that are different and interesting to me, and that’s important. I don’t want to work if I’m not interested or challenged. I don’t want to go to work and it have not something that’s exciting about it.

Since The Good Girl and All the Real Girls, you’ve been getting a lot of attention and great critical acclaim. Are you taking that stuff to heart?

Well, it’s not good to take that to heart. I’m very flattered. Anything nice that’s said about me, I blush and grin. But then again, I don’t want to be like, “O.K., my work here is done. I got a good review.” It’s a constant struggle and you want to continue to be accepted. You never want to stop being accepted in a way. For me, I’m always trying to do good work and get better. Not a lot of jobs are like this where you have to keep reinventing yourself.

What’s your dream project?

I don’t know. I don’t really have one. You never know until [a project’s] done. It’s hard to think of it because that’s like knowing no bounds. I don’t know if I assembled it, if [I would think,] “It can be this person, and then me, and then this story…” I don’t know if it would end up being a good movie, you know? All of the things that are the best usually happen by accident. I’m a fan of happy accidents, I think.

So did you get to keep your costume from Elf?

No, they only let, like, J-Lo keep her costume. (Laughs)