{"id":757217,"date":"2026-07-11T19:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/757217\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T19:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:20:12","slug":"zooey-deschanel-reveals-the-new-girl-cast-member-she-put-up-a-fight-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/757217\/","title":{"rendered":"Zooey Deschanel reveals the New Girl cast member she put up a fight over"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Zooey Deschanel <\/a>has recalled the lengths she went to ensure Lamorne Morris was cast as Winston in New Girl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deschanel<\/a>, 46, starred in the beloved seven-season sitcom <\/a>as Jessica Day, a newly single school teacher who moves in with three single men: Nick (Jake Johnson)<\/a>, Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.). <\/p>\n

Appearing on a recent episode of the Zach Sang Show, the Elf star revealed that Morris<\/a>, 42, had originally auditioned for the part of Coach, before it ultimately went to Wayans Jr., who was already known for his performance on Happy Endings. <\/p>\n

Wayans Jr.\u2019s time on New Girl, however, was short-lived once Happy Endings was renewed. Following the pilot episode, Coach was written out of the show. While Wayans Jr. later returned for a guest arc in seasons three and four and made occasional appearances in the remaining seasons, his departure paved the way for the character Winston.<\/p>\n

Deschanel said she read scenes with several actors auditioning for the role, but Morris stood out.<\/p>\n

\"LamorneLamorne Morris joined \u2018New Girl\u2019 in the second episode as Winston after Zooey Deschanel campaigned for him to join the cast (FOX)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just like, \u2018What about Lamorne?<\/a> That guy\u2019s so good. He\u2019s so talented,\u2019\u201d Deschanel said, adding that Johnson and Greenfield were equally enthusiastic about Morris. <\/p>\n

Rather than leaving the decision to chance, the 500 Days of Summer actor wrote the studio heads to advocate for Morris\u2019s casting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote to the heads of the studio and the network… Jake wrote… like, everyone was writing to somebody different,\u201d Deschanel revealed. \u201cSo we were all like, \u2018Just putting my two cents in, you know… we think Lamorne is the best, best, best for this character, and [would be] such a great addition.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris joined New Girl in the second episode of season one and remained a member of the main cast for the rest of the show\u2019s run, which lasted from 2011 to 2018.<\/p>\n

\"ZooeyZooey Deschanel and her co-stars wrote to the studio heads to hire Morris for \u2018New Girl\u2019 after Damon Wayans Jr. left the cast (Getty)<\/p>\n

He previously opened up about <\/a>struggling with a bout of depression during production on the show\u2019s iconic \u201cPrince\u201d episode. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember doing a scene, then going in my trailer and just crying for no reason,\u201d Morris said on a 2024 episode of the Podcrushed podcast. <\/p>\n

\u201cWork was going great. Everybody was healthy in my family. It was like, \u2018What am I complaining about?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know. I couldn\u2019t pinpoint it to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only when Morris\u2019s then-girlfriend helped him change his diet, cooked him healthy foods and made him \u201cfresh juice in the morning\u201d that Morris noticed his mood had \u201cshifted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I know it, those [depressive] days are over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-757217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757217","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=757217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}