Zooey Deschanel
Born: January 17th, 1980
Place: Los Angeles, California
Major Awards and Citations: Chlotrudis Awards (2004): Nominated for Best Actress for ‘All the Real Girls’ Independent Spirit Awards (2004): Nominated for Best Female Lead for ‘All the Real Girls’ Mar del Plata Film Festival (2003): Won Best Actress for ‘All the Real Girls’ Satellite Awards (2009): Nominated for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for ‘(500) Days of Summer’

Oscar Snubs: ‘All the Real Girls’ (2003), ‘Winter Passing’ (2005), ‘The Go-Getter’ (2007), and ‘(500) Days of Summer’ (2009)

Few actresses embody that certain something known as “indie spirit” better than Zooey Deschanel.  The pixie-like actress is rarely given the credit that she deserves in the industry, when in reality she’s easily one of the most underrated performers out there today.  She’s managed to leave her mark on almost every film that she’s appeared in.  If there’s one notable thing to consider about her, it’s how often she seems to shun the spotlight for more quirky supporting roles.  This makes her more memorable, but oddly enough lowers her profile.  I feel like she’s one big leading role away from the A list, and the heat she received for ‘(500) Days of Summer’ does nothing to dissuade me from that opinion (nor does the fact that she had won the coveted role of playing Janis Joplin in a rather hyped biopic that ultimately fell apart).  As you’ll see in this piece, Deschanel has been doing fine work for almost a decade and a half now, and there’s no reason to think that her best days (and work) aren’t still ahead of her come.

Starting at the beginning, Zooey Deschanel (who happens to be the offspring of 5 time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel and Mary Jo Deschanel) first appeared to audiences on the big screen in 1999 (following a debut on the sitcom ‘Veronica’s Closet’ the year before) with a litte role in the comedy ‘Mumford’.  Her stature in Hollywood took a big step forward the next year when Cameron Crowe cast her in a small but pivotal role in ‘Almost Famous’.  Her character is essentially the catalyst for everything the protagonist does, giving her role added weight.  For many, this was the first time that they got a glimpse of Deschanel, but it clearly wouldn’t be the last.  She followed that up with the super indie ‘Manic‘ (2001), which ironically also featured Joseph Gordon-Levitt (more on him later).  It’s an intense and moving flick, with a very different performance by her than you usually see.  It was undeniable that she was showing her range.  2002 would consist in her taking supporting parts in slightly bigger films like ‘Abandon’, ‘Big Trouble’, and ‘The New Guy’…though she also found time for a scene stealing part in the small scale dramedy ‘The Good Girl’.  That was the best work she turned in during the year, but she was right on the cusp of really wowing audiences.

When David Gordon Green cast her in 2003’s ‘All the Real Girls’, he hit an absolute home run.  She received loads of critical acclaim, including some mentions on the precursor circuit.  For my money, it was perhaps the finestperformance by an actress that year and easily worthy of an Academy Award nomination.  She’d have to settle for the Spirit Awards being the height of her acclaim, though I maintain it was a huge snub in the Best Actress category.  Those who didn’t get the treat of seeing her in this wonderful film also got to see her charm them in ‘Elf’, which came out the same year.  These two roles (along with a part in the microscopic flick ‘It’s Better to be Wanted for Murder Than Not to be Wanted at All’) made up perhaps the best year of her career in terms of acclaim and audience building, but it was only a taste of her skills as an actress.

Armed with this newfound success, Deschanel mixed things up during the next few years, alternating between studio films like the underrated ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ (2005), ‘Failure to Launch‘ (2006), ‘Bridge to Terabithia‘ (2007), and ‘Surf’s Up‘ (2007), as well as notable parts in independent fare like ‘Eulogy’ (2004), ‘Live Free or Die’ (2006), ‘The Good Life’ (2007), and ‘Flakes’ (also 2007).  During this period she also co-starred in the Oscar player (though ultimately not the hit that was hoped for) ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ (2007).  For me though, her two most wonderful roles during this time were in the underrated dramedy ‘Winter Passing’ (2005) and the masterful road trip/coming of age flick ‘The Go-Getter’ (2007).  The former is a good flick boosted by one of her best performances (worthy of a Best Actress nomination), and the latter is an amazing movie made all but perfect by her ethereal part (which is even better than the other one, for my money and would have garnered her a real shot at a Best Supporting Actress nomination if literally anyone besides me had seen the film).  So far, she could do no wrong, but like many artists, a bit of a letdown was coming her way.

That letdown was in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Crappening’…my mistake: ‘The Happening’ (2008).  I’ve never seen Deschanel misused more than in this disaster of a film.  It all but hurt to watch her in it.  Luckily, that same year she washed out the bad taste of that role with a great performance in the quirky indie ‘Gigantic’ as well as her first real stab at being the romantic comedy object of affection in Jim Carrey’s surprisingly entertaining ‘Yes Man’.  This put her back on track, and the next year she’d do what many consider to be her career’s best work.  The film in question?  2009’s ‘(500) Days of Summer’.

I was wowed by Zooey Deschanel’s ability to make Summer Finn however Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Tom Hansen saw her in any particular moment during the film.  She wasn’t playing the love interest, she was playing his interpretation of her as the love interest.  It’s a stunning achievement, and I was floored that the precursor season all but ignored her work.  The only major citation came from the Satellite Awards.  It was yet another snub for Deschanel, as I came out of that flick confident that she was going to be a major player in the Best Actress race.  She had won the hearts and minds of critics and audiences, but apparently not the Academy.

Since then, she’s been pretty choosy, only doing a few guest spots on television and this year re-uniting with David Gordon Green for the mediocre stoner comedy ‘Your Highness’, contributing some music to ‘Winnie the Pooh’, and just recently popping up with a main supporting part in the Paul Rudd comedy ‘Our Idiot Brother’.  Though she won’t be getting any Oscar consideration this year for either live action role, she stands an outside shot of a Best Original Song nomination for her singing (she deserves it too).  Next up for her is a TV comedy vehicle called ‘New Girl’ which actually looks like it might be a hit.  Can she ever get to the point where the Oscars won’t be able to ignore her acting?  I think if that Joplin biopic (called ‘The Gospel According to Janis’) ever winds up being revived, she could steamroll through the race (since she’s an accomplished singer with the band She & Him and could do justice to the tunes in the flick).  Time will tell, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.

Suffice to say, Zooey Deschanel is someone you can count on to do fine work in anything she picks.  I’m confident that one days she’ll be known as “Academy Award Nominee Zooey Deschanel”, but until that day comes, we’ll just have to enjoy her as the buried treasure that she is…unless of course her singing gets her there before her acting!

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