{"id":354708,"date":"2025-12-17T20:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T20:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/354708\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T20:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T20:04:11","slug":"zooey-deschanel-reveals-big-name-actor-was-originally-cast-in-her-role-in-elf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/354708\/","title":{"rendered":"Zooey Deschanel reveals big-name actor was originally cast in her role in Elf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zooey Deschanel has revealed that the role that made her a holiday staple nearly went to someone else \u2014 and the original casting choice might surprise Elf fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New Girl actor<\/a> appeared on Wednesday\u2019s episode of Alex Cooper\u2019s Call Her Daddy podcast<\/a>, where she spoke about her time on the 2003 holiday movie alongside Will Ferrell.<\/p>\n

At the time of her audition, when she was 21 years old, Deschanel said she appeared before director Jon Favreau and was told not to read any lines because the part of Jovie was already given to someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018We just offered it to Katie Holmes,\u2019\u201d she recalled Favreau telling her. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Oh, OK, cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the director still asked her to sit down for a conversation about the movie.<\/p>\n

\"Deschanel<\/p>\n

Deschanel recalled walking into her audition and immediately being told the role was offered to Katie Holmes (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the film, Deschanel played Jovie, a holiday department store employee with a hidden singing talent (New Line Productions)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what was great about that was like, I wasn\u2019t nervous,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you\u2019re an actor, you\u2019re like first starting, and you\u2019re auditioning, you get nervous, and you\u2019re like psyching yourself up. I wasn\u2019t nervous at all, because I was like, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not getting the part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes ultimately couldn\u2019t take on the role of Jovie because of a scheduling conflict, prompting the casting team to circle back to Deschanel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the character was kind of meant to be like worked around whoever played her,\u201d the actor said. \u201cAnd they knew I sang because I had a cabaret act where I\u2019d do like jazz standards and stuff. And so that kind of worked out with the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

That skillset was added to the film, where Deschanel\u2019s character, Jovie, is singing in the shower. During the scene, Ferrell\u2019s titular character Buddy the Elf walks into the women\u2019s changing room at Jovie\u2019s work and hears her singing Ella Fitzgerald\u2019s \u201cBaby, It\u2019s Cold Outside.\u201d He joins in, performing from the other side of the curtain rail and giving Jovie a fright.<\/p>\n

In a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the (500) Days of Summer actor admitted she was surprised by Ferrell\u2019s singing skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he wasn\u2019t a singer, so I wasn\u2019t expecting much,\u201d she told the publication at the time. \u201cBut his dad [Roy Lee Ferrell Jr] is a great musician. I should\u2019ve known he\u2019d be secretly good!\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt\u2019s funny because obviously everyone knows it\u2019s not appropriate to walk in the girls\u2019 bathroom when someone\u2019s showering, but he\u2019s so believable as this guileless elf.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird he\u2019s in there, but you totally buy that his intentions are pure and innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zooey Deschanel has revealed that the role that made her a holiday staple nearly went to someone else…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,102190,176153,26495,14072,176152],"class_list":["post-354708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-jon-favreau","tag-jovie","tag-katie-holmes","tag-will-ferrell","tag-zooey-deschanel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}