Zooey Deschanel Talks About Abandon

Can you describe your character in this film?
I play a college student who is very neurotic. I'm kind of like the comic relief. I'm Katie Holmes' best friend.

Did you go to college?
Yeah, I went for a year - I would be graduating this year - I went to Northwestern University. I was in the theater program.

Was your college experience as high pressure as the college experience this film portrays?
It's a top 10 school and there's pressure but I only went for freshman year. Also, if your major is theater, it's a different type of pressure for engineers, etc.

How would you describe your experience working with Stephen Gaghan as a first-time director?
It was wonderful. He's a very sensitive and thoughtful person. You would never know that it was his first movie. He seems like he was born to make movies. He's just a wonderful writer and it just seems like the next step was to be a director. He's wonderful at working with actors and very personable.

As the writer/director, did he allow you to interject ideas?
Oh yeah, it was definitely a dialogue. It was back and forth; that's the best way to work. I'd say, "Well I felt this," and he'd go, "Oh great," or "Oh no." That's the best way to work - when it's definitely a dialogue and everybody is being open for other people's ideas.

The scene where we are on Katie's bed and we're eating cereal out of a box, that is what me and my best friend did in college. I asked Stephen, "Please can we eat cereal out of a box because that's what my best friend and I do?" He said, "That's a great idea."

How does this role differ from other roles that you've played?
All my roles are really different. Everybody keeps finding similarities. Everybody I talk to is like, "You play this kind of role," and I was like "Not really. They are all pretty different." I think this is an interesting role because she always says exactly what is on her mind. She is totally uninhibited and she's very eloquent.

Which role have you felt most comfortable with?
I don't like to pick favorites. I don't like to hurt any of my characters' feelings (laughing). They are all really different and that's what I really like. It's great to do a dramatic role after doing comedic roles - or doing a comedic role after doing a lot of dramatic roles. I just really like to change a lot. That's a lot of where the fun lies for me.

You recently co-starred in The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston. In that film, your character goes through a lot of different looks. Was that difficult on you?
It was good! It was like frantic because it was an independent film and we moved fast. It'd be like, "Okay, it's day 5 and you have the Showgirl look today." You'd go in and do the Showgirl look and then they're like, "Oh no, now is your Elvira look!" They'd be changing the makeup all the time.