She had a small part in Almost Famous. Now she really is.

Some background: a) Zooey Deschanel, best known for playing the role of the hero's older sister in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, is one of the stars of an upcoming movie I wrote and directed, titled Abandon; b) Zooey, 21 has two films coming out this fall - Barry Sonnenfeld's ensemble picture Big Trouble, and Ed Decter's teen comedy The New Guy; c) Zooey is a hollywood legacy: her mother Mary Jo in an actress (The Right Stuff, 1983) and her father, Caleb, is one of the top cinematographers in the world. He's been nominated for a zillion Academy Awards, and shot Being There (1979) and The Black Stallion (1979) - which pretty much says it all; d) in my twenties I failed as a journalist because I was too self-involved to ask questions about anyone other than myself.
Stephen Gaghan: So you're about to have a very big fall, with two movies coming out. You're hot with a capital T: hoT!
Zooey Deschanel: [laughs] This has been a really good year. Well, from June to June has. Before that, there were nine months where I wasn't working at all. It was a hard time. I kept wondering, "Why am I not getting any work?" I'd only had one thing that'd come out, and name recognition means a lot in the film industry, as we all know.
SG: I don't think I've ever talked to anyone your age who has seen as many movies as you have. Godard has made about 100 films, and I think that you're the only person on Earth, besides him, who's seen at least 90 of them. [both laugh] I think that must have something to do with the household you grew up in.
ZD: Oh, definitely. My dad started us out pretty young. Early on, I saw almost all of Hitchcock's movies, and I didn't really understand them at the time, because I was only about 10.
SG: I was surprised, when on the set of our film, I'd say things like, "We screened The Conformist [1970] up here," and you'd say, "Oh, I have that on laser disc."
ZD: It's funny - when I first saw that film, I was 17, and I saw it at the Academy [screening room in L.A.]. [Directer Bernardo] Bertolucci was speaking afterwards, but I didn't know that beforehand. I couldn't drive yet, so my mom took me, and arranged to pick me up after the film was over. She was like, "You'd better be outside at 9:15!" And so after the film was over, I discovered Bertolucci was speaking, so I sat there, already half-an-hour late to meet my mom, and I knew I was gonna get killed.
SG: So what happened? You stood up and walked out on the maestro?
ZD: Yeah - it was probably that worst experience of my life.
SG: So let me ask you: You grew up in a household where your dad's working behind the camera, making these incredible movies. What was the inspiration for you to go in front of the camera? How did that happen?
ZD: I was always performing for people. I liked the attention being on me. I wasn't really the most charming person, socially - it took me a long time to develop my people skills - but the one place I was always comfortable was onstage, acting or singing.
SG: How did you end up working with Barry Sonnenfeld? How did Big Trouble come about?
ZD: It's funny, because I auditioned for that movie a long time before I got it. I think they wanted Katie Holmes - I know you're not supposed to say those things, but I'm going to, anyway, because I don't listen to what "they" say.
SG: Truth in Hollywood. Wow. You could start a movement.
ZD: I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm really excited about it. Barry has an incredible, very dry sense of humor. He was always saying, "Drier plus faster equals funnier." [both laugh]
SG: A few weeks after that film is released, another project, The New Guy, comes out. Tell me, are there any non-Zooey Deschanel movies coming out this fall?
ZD: I'm sure there may be one or two. [laughs] This one is a broad, physical comedy, which I really liked. I'm a big Jerry Lewis fan, you know. The directer, Ed Decter, wrote There's Something About Mary [1998] so obviously, he's got an incredible sense of humor.
SG: What are you doing now? Tell me about a typical day.
ZD: I'm writing a script with a friend. We'll write for a while and then procrastinate for long periods of time - play chess, play pool, have some coffee.
SG: And then what happens is that not writing gets to be very hard work.
ZD: For me, writing is 75 percent procrastinating and 25 percent actually sitting down and working. It's like when you're in school and you're studying for a test. You're like, "I must have a stack of clean, lined paper, seven pencils, two pens, a glass of water, a clean room..."
SG: My friend Shannon always jokes that he can tell when I'm about to actually do something because I clean my office.
ZD: Exactly! You don't want to work in a dirty space.
SG: You just don't want to work.
ZD: [laughs] You're the honest one.