Zooey Deschanel on her ‘New Girl’ role: ‘If I had read this character in a movie script, I would’ve jumped on board immediately’

If you were five-alarm charmed by Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer, there’s one day on the fall calendar you might want to circle: Sept. 20, when New Girl debuts on Fox. (For the more impatient, you can download the first episode from iTunes for free right now.) The blue-eyed indie film vet stars as Jess, a freshly dumped but adorable she-nerd who moves in with a trio of dudes, and it turns out everyone has a lot of learning to do about the opposite sex. EW spoke with Deschanel and series creator Liz Meriwether about their twentysomething comedy.

On signing on to the show

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: “I don’t think there are that many awesome roles out there, whether we’re talking about movies or TV. It’s rare that you read something this funny and well-written. And if I had read this character in a movie script. I would’ve jumped on board immediately, anyway…. [Liz] can write this character and I can play this character. We both get this weird girl who’s not exactly like your average woman. I grew up the type of person where I always thought I was being normal and everybody else would think I was being weird all the time. I like that [Jess] is completely herself and unabashedly emotional, but not in an obnoxious way. She means well but she just messes up sometimes…. It felt really like a very easy decision to say yes to.”

Read more at http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/09/14/zooey-deschanel-new-girl/