It's hard to envision the quirky sitcom New Girl without Zooey Deschanel's portrayal of Jessica Day. Who could forget her emotional but relatable scene of watching Dirty Dancing with a broken heart? Well, not us. But as it turns out, the Fox series almost didn't happen because of another popular beloved comedy — The Office.
Three years after New Girl fans said farewell to Jess and her friends from the loft, Zooey, Hannah Simone and Lamorne Morris (better known as Cece and Winston, respectively) are reliving some of the best moments from the hit show through their New Girl rewatch podcast called Welcome to Our Show. ICYMI: The costars released their first episode on January 24 on iHeartRadio and in the 90-minute installment, they went down memory lane together.
In particular, Zooey revealed that she spontaneously begun considering making the transition to the small screen after being a film actress for two decades. Folks might remember her in the classic Christmas movie Elf, the rom-com Failure to Launch and the dramedy 500 Days of Summer. At the time, Zooey was mulling over a role on The Office, but she quickly had a change of heart when she read the script for New Girl.
"I was all set to do it," she said on the podcast. "We were kind of just negotiating, and then I got the script for New Girl, and honestly, if I hadn't thought in my mind that I was going to do this arc on The Office, I wouldn't have even been open to reading a TV script."
Zooey admitted that the idea of starring on a TV show hadn't crossed her mind until she begun seeing everyone's favorite mockumentary featuring Steve Carell. "I hadn't thought that much about doing TV [until] I started watching a few comedies on TV," she said. "I was like, 'You know what? This seems like a pretty fun thing to do.' I was watching a lot of 30 Rock and The Office, and I was like, 'Maybe I'd like to do something like this.'"
The actress was inspired to share her personal anecdote when she was looking back at her life before joining the cast. Hannah also opened up about living in many places around the world, including England, India, and Cyprus. What's more, apart from being a model and TV host, she was a human rights and refugees officer for the United Nations. Meanwhile, Lamorne hails from the south side of Chicago and he was an on-air personality for BET.
It's true that fans have missed apartment 4D, but luckily, now many can rewatch New Girl alongside the trio's exciting energy and even hear what went on behind the scenes.
Katherine Tinsley is a pop culture and beauty-obsessed journalist who has worked with Live the Process, The Knockturnal and Dreamlette covering all things beauty, culture and lifestyle. Her work has allowed her to merge all of these interests into her writing and interview style.
