While many Northwestern students did interesting things over break, few can match Zooey Deschanel's "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" story. You may have landed an internship or taken a vacation, but Zooey was shooting a new film by Cameron Crowe (Jerry McGuire, Say Anything), hobnobbing with celebrities and meeting the press to promote the feature film Mumford, in which she plays Nessa Watkins.

Mumford tells the story of a young psychiatrist named Mumford who takes up residence in a small town of the same name and begins shrinking the heads of quirky locals. Trouble brews when his credentials are questioned by his rival, the town's local psychiatrist. "Mumford focuses on the human element of the people in town. I think that's really the main point of the movie," Zooey says. The film was written and directed by four-time Academy Award-nominee Lawrence Kasdan. Other cast members include Loren Dean, Ted Danson, Mary McDonnell, Hope Davis and Martin Short. Mumford was released on September 24 by Touchstone Pictures, and is currently playing in theaters in the greater Chicago area.

Zooey is one of those people whom you can't help but like. She looks like a movie star, but in a way more reminiscent of a '40s fashion plate than today's typical teenage actress. Zooey is, for someone with two major feature films to her credit, refreshingly grounded.

She currently lives in L.A. where she attended a performing arts high school. She spent last year in Evanston, as a freshman at NU studying theater. Her lasting impression: "It was very cold," she says. "It was quite a shock coming from L.A. because of the cold weather factor." Despite the sub-zero temperatures, Zooey looks back on her time at NU fondly. "There are many Northwestern people with whom I became friends, who I will remain friends with, who are great people. I enjoyed my first year at Northwestern." Her plans for pursuing her film career this year don't allow an immediate return to school. "It's a very unpredictable business. You can never know exactly what you're doing necessarily. I'm auditioning now and taking some acting classes in L.A."

A+P spoke with her just after Mumford premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11. "It was overwhelming," she says of the three-day festival, a non-stop cycle of press conferences, interviews and sound bites. "It's just a big party-it's like summer camp or something. Everybody's there to promote a movie, so it's just rampant with movie people. No one is special, really-it's just one big happy, movie-promoting family. You get in the elevator and everyone's a producer or an actor. They wear sunglasses, which I think is funny-like that's really inconspicuous."

Although promoting the film was exhausting, Zooey had a great time at the festival. "There are a lot of parties going on. I went to this party held by George Christie who writes the back page of the Hollywood Reporter, and I ended up in his column. It was really neat. So there's a picture of me with Roger Ebert on the back of the Hollywood Reporter."

Next came Mumford's premiere. "You go down this red carpet and you have E! and Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood standing there. So you go down the line and they ask you questions and you have to answer them somewhat intelligently, which is overwhelming. Then at the end of the line there's a big pool of photographers from all of the style magazines and they're all tying to get your attention yelling 'Zooey, Zooey, Zooey!'" Seeing the film with an audience was gratifying, she says. "It was great to hear them laughing at it. Then there's a party afterwards and the press is there, so there's no getting away from it for three days."

Zooey is no stranger to the film industry. "I traveled a lot as a kid because my dad's a cinematographer," she says. Her father, Academy Award-nominated Caleb Deschanel, worked on The Black Stallion, Fly Away Home and The Right Stuff, and directed an episode of the TV series Twin Peaks. Her mother, actress Mary Jo Deschanel, can be seen in The Right Stuff. Zooey spent much of her childhood on location. "As a kid, I was mostly on sets [with the crew] where my dad was working. They're mainly loading film and pulling focus and operating the camera. There's usually a big separation between the actors and the crew when you work, but when I'm working I'm always hanging out with the crew. I think they're great."

Acting has always been a part of her life. "I've pretty much always wanted to be an actress and I guess that's just because I like to show off," she laughs. "I'd done so much theater in high school-outside of school and in school." Her work before Mumford includes an appearance on Veronica's Closet and regional theater work as Little Red Riding Hood in the musical Into the Woods. "Once I started doing film, I knew it was what I wanted to do because it's a medium I'm really comfortable with."

Her experience growing up on sets helped to ease the transition to being on camera, but working with veteran actors was much different than the world behind the scenes in which she'd grown up. "I was always around the business," Zooey says, "but really not the aspect I am now. Even though I was around sets a lot as a kid, when I did Mumford a lot of the things you have to do as an actor were surprising to me. Experiencing them first hand was new, and making that transition from sort of being a voyeur to being an actual participant in the making of films is interesting and difficult."

Zooey admits that beginning her first film alongside accomplished actors Martin Short and Ted Danson was more than a little scary. "Oh my God, I was so intimidated," she says. "I was incredibly intimidated. We did a week of rehearsal before we started filming and I was like a little mouse - I barely talked." As the shoot progressed, Zooey became more comfortable with the cast and the process. "It was a great first film because everybody was supportive and understood where I was coming from. And everybody understands that you can't always predict the way films will turn out so you're nervous for that reason. And you're nervous because you're meeting new people."

Zooey has certainly proven herself up to the challenges facing a young actress. She finished shooting Mumford last summer, and last winter landed a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's newest film. The film, which is still untitled, was shot this summer. A tight wrap is being kept on the details and the script has not been released. "It focuses on a young boy who becomes involved in the world of '70s rock bands," she says. "It starts in 1968 and then it ends up in 1972. It's a really interesting point of view through which they see the whole '70s rock movement."

The film, in which Zooey plays the boy's older sister, has a cast including Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand. The lead role is played by newcomer Patrick Fugit. "It's his first movie and he's really phenomenal," she says. Zooey describes filming as "an incredible experience. It's a great cast and Cameron Crowe is a very intelligent and ginger man. He's really nice, as well as being a genius, which is exactly what I'd say about Lawrence Kasdan [Mumford's director]. They're both sweet people as well as great directors - especially for actors. They focus on that element and take a lot of time to get it right.

"I've been lucky as far as being able to work with inspirational people like Lawrence Kasdan and Cameron Crowe, and all of the actors I've worked with have been just phenomenal. Watching them has been educational, too."

This summer, Zooey also shot an Offspring video for "She's Got Issues," which began airing in September. "It was really fun to do, mostly because the directors are well known. They've done all these great videos so I really wanted to work with them." The directors also shot the video for the Smashing Pumpkins song "Tonight." Zooey found shooting a video much different than the other work she'd done. "It's like silent film acting, not like acting in a film at all." The band was there for a half day of the shoot, so Zooey got to meet them. "But I had no idea who they were," says Zooey, whose tastes lean more towards Ella Fitzgerald. "She's Got Issues" is the subject of an MTV Making of the Video special.

Besides being seen on film and video, Zooey is featured as a rising young actress in the October issue of British Vogue. So forget about the Jonathan Taylor Thomas rumors-now you can all call your friends and tell them you really do go to school with a celebrity.