How Zooey Deschanel Won Me Over

The Beginning

This article is dedicated to the beautiful and "adorkable" Zooey Deschanel. This wasn't just a randomly celebrity crush like I usually have. This girl took a while to completely win me over. So I will be giving you the journey of how my relationship with Zooey came to fruition. (Please note: I don't have an actual relationship with her, as realistic as my dreams are.) This topic splits people in to two groups. People who love her and think she's so adorable. And then people who think that her whole act is a schtick and she's dumb. I'm not going to discuss this argument because it's not even worth it. I'm just going to talk about me and her. Her and I. .... Us. Swoon.

The first time I saw her was in the movie The Good Girl (2002) with Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal. I love this movie so much and at first glance, it's all about Jennifer Aniston. It makes me love Jennifer even more than I already did, but that's a whole other article. Zooey played Cheryl, who was the glum, sarcastic girl at the store that did not want to be there. I fell in love with her right away after seeing this scene:

Cheryl: Sit right down here, ma'am. We're going to make you pretty. Now how do you like your hair? 
Big Haired Woman: What are you going to do my hair? 
Cheryl: No, I just need to know if that's your usual way of wearing it, all big and high. If it is, I'll just put more makeup on your chin to offset it. You're going to want to take a whole bottle of this home with you. It's got quite a lot of ingredients in it, so you're getting a good deal. It's got ginkgo extract in it. Do you know what that is? 
Big Haired Woman: No. 
Cheryl: It's extract of the ginkgo, and it makes your skin real slick so that any liquid will roll right off you, be it water, or lemon juice, or urine. I'll put it in a bag for you.

I thought she was hilarious but didn't think too much of it. Lo and behold, this girl shows up again in the movie Elf (2003) with Will Ferrell. This time, it wasn't her comedy chops that got my attention. It was her voice! There were a couple scenes where she is singing Christmas carols and she has that distinct singing voice that grabs your attention. More recently, she started a group with Matt Ward called She and Him. They released their first album in 2008. This is one of those groups where you can just play the music, and chill out. Play it while taking a road trip. It's the perfect compliment to your journey.

Zooey Deschanel Sings in Elf

She and Him

500 Days of Summer

New Girl

The Ups and Downs

Things sort of quieted down for a while for me. She was off making movies and doing TV shows and I was apparently missing them all. The next time I saw her was in The Happening (2008) with Mark Wahlberg. This is the movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Look, I know what you're going to say. But I love every movie M. Night does. As bad and cheesy as they are, I appreciate them because they are original ideas in a world full of sequels, prequels, and remakes. But again, we're not talking about him, we're talking about Zooey. She played the lead girl and was as dramatic and serious as she can be in a movie about plants and trees blowing suicide powder (potion?) in the air to kill off humans because we were super mean to them for some reason. Moving on.

Next up is the movie Yes Man (2008) with Jim Carrey. This is sort of the same as Elf where she plays alongside a funny man and gets to sing. We're in a lull in the relationship after the Happening and so I'm not overly impressed with what's going on. It's almost unforgettable. (I told you this was a journey. There's ups and downs.)

Then a big thing happened in 2009. She bravely portrayed the character of Summer Finn in the movie 500 Days of Summer with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Why do I say bravely? Well for one she's playing the character of the girl that every guy has met and dated. The one that you're so insanely in love with and for some reason or another, it just doesn't work out. She drives you crazy leading you on and then leaves you shattered and broken. At the end of the movie, I hated her guts! But thinking about it, that just shows what great of an actress she is. She is playing a character whose guts you're supposed to hate. She was that girl that every guy has been in contact with that did that to them. This was the romantic movie from the guy's point of view. Do you see what you ladies put us through?!

Next Zooey made me laugh yet again just like the first time I saw her in The Good Girl. This time it was an online viral video from the website Funny or Die. It was called Drunk History Vol. 5. The video shows Jen Kirkman (Chelsea Lately) as she gets drunk and retells the story of Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass. Zooey played the character of Mary Todd Lincoln. These videos are amazing because while they're narrating the story drunk and getting everything wrong, they have celebrities reenact the incorrect scenes that they are telling. Here is the link to the video: Drunk History Vol. 5.

The thing that really sealed the deal for me and Zooey was just this past fall in 2011 when her show New Girl premiered on Fox. The movie star was breaking in to television. In the pilot, she played the lead character of Jess and basically had to carry the entire show by herself. Luckily, she does it with no problems. Also, luckily, the rest of the cast has grown in to their characters and I would now consider it an ensemble show. But I knew after seeing the first episode that I was hooked and I wasn't going to miss anything else this girl does. I almost want to believe that she is in real life exactly like the character that she plays on the show. And I keep having friends that are girls say to me how they want to be Jess and live in a place with 3 guys. Unfortunately, in real life, that doesn't happen. If you are a girl and you live with 3 guys, be prepared to live with some smells. You can't smell what's going on through your TV.

After her show premiered, I watched her in Your Highness (2011) and Our Idiot Brother (2011) and further sealed the deal with my love of Zooey Deschanel. But just when I thought she couldn't get any more adorable, she released a video online of her and Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing a song called "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Seriously? How can you NOT fall in love with this girl?

I can't wait to see what she's going to do next.

What Are You Doing New Years Eve?