New Girl - Exec producers and cast interview

8 December 2011

When Zooey was confirmed for the part of Jess, did you start to tailor the writing of the character very specifically to suit her? 

LIZ MERIWETHER (Creator/Executive Producer/Writer):  Actually, I remember the first time that she came in, she read with the guys who were auditioning to play Jess's flatmates, and I remember what the feeling in the room was, just the second she opened her mouth to do this scene, and everybody knew this is a perfect match of character and actress. She's so smart and Jess is, you know, a little out there, so we really were trying for a different kind of female character. Zooey's able to play the comedy on the surface and also deliver the scene underneath, which is just so important, and I think, for me, is what really makes something actually funny.  We just got so lucky.  Zooey, she's just the cat's meow.

 

How would you describe Jess as a character and her relationship with the three guys?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL (Plays Jess):  I think she's someone who expresses her emotions all the time.  She's very much herself, and she's almost too in touch with her emotions, which I think is a really great contrast with the other characters, who are, like, less in touch with their emotions, and I think that's sort of ‑‑ a lot of the comedy comes out of that juxtaposition. 

BRETT BAER(Executive Producer):  I think at the beginning of the pilot when she gets crushed by catching her fiancé or boyfriend cheating on her, I think it's one of those moments where she has to start over again and find herself, and that kind of dings her positive attitude. 

DAVE FINKEL(Executive Producer):  These four characters, it's almost like therapy; they get together and sort of help each other, force each other to be honest and address what's really going on in their lives and for the first time really step out in the universe and on their own.

LIZ MERIWETHER:  It's like if your therapist were, like, a three‑hat dude. I think that's part of the fun of the show, is that there is some chemistry with the guys, and they give her some tough love, but there's also some flirting too.   

 

It does seem that the guys embrace Jess as a little sister that they want to protect, but also, there is the suggestion of spark between Nick and her.  Is that something which will remain the show goes on?

LIZ MERIWETHER:  I think that's, implicit with the show about a girl moving in with three guys, and I think we do kind of want to explore that, and personally as a TV fan, I love those sort of storylines.  I always hook into them.  I think that we're going to go there in the future for sure, and I think I'm looking forward to that.  I think it's kind of a fun part of the show. 

DAVE FINKEL:  Like anything else on this show, it just feels like it wants to play out in the most natural way possible where we're not trying to force something, to try and fill some sort of a romantic thing.  We're going to sort of let it build and let it build as long as we can.
BRETT BAER:  I think what we've talked about is that these characters have some work to do on themselves before they're ready to move into that part of their lives with each other or elsewhere.  That's what we think the show is, is these guys helping each other get to where they need to get to be able to move into that next phase of life, 29 to 30. 

 

How many seasons can this show go with the title New Girl? 

LIZ MERIWETHER:  Ten. 

BRETT BAER:  16.  22. 

DAVE FINKEL:  She moves out in every episode. 

ZOOEY DESCHANEL:  New guys every time.

LIZ MERIWETHER:  Maybe the tenth season will be "Newish Girl." 

 

How would you describe the musical aspect of the series?

BRETT BAER:  Most of the songs that Jess sings are made up in the moment. So they usually deal with the tension of what's happening right there and she sort of sings her emotions.  

 

Jake, do you and your co-stars have friends like this and are you basing maybe loosely, on anyone you might know?

JAKE JOHNSON (Plays Nick):  Yeah, I think we do. When Larmone first came in, we really all wanted him and liked him.  And we've all kind of become buddies, so I do have friends like this, and I consider these guys friends.  And, you know, Zooey's the best. It's easy to act with Zooey and with this character because she's good and she's nice.  And, you know, we all hang out with each other and we like it.

 

If I could ask, whose idea was it for the jar? 

LIZ MERIWETHER:  I think it was like a late‑night, sort of, like 3am in the morning ‘give him a jar.'  But it turned out to be this really important thing because I felt like it helped us really get into Schmidt's character, a character that I just love.  But it's not just that he's an idiot, it's like he's an idiot that wants to better himself. 

DAVE FINKEL:  It would have been easy without that thing, oddly, to make him a two‑dimensional character.  But for whatever reason, because it's such a reflective thing, the fact that he actually consciously has to do something whenever he knows he's being an idiot, to pay for it.

MAX GREENFIELD:  He's just a guy who's coming of age, trying to figure out how to be a man.

BRETT BAER:  There's a line in the second episode where Nick tells Winston, "I'm training him not to be a douchebag."  And I think one of the great elements of the show is that the characters care enough about each other.  So on some TV shows, the douchebag would sort of be alienated from the rest of the group and pop in and make a comment and they'd kind of excise him.  But in this show, they care about each other enough to make that extra effort to help him not be such a douche.

BRETT BAER:  We wanted the rest of the cast to be able to fill out the other characters with the same level of depth that we have with Jess.  And I think that's one of the great things about Max, is that he's able to play both levels.  You love this character.  You love him.  He cares about taking care of Jess in the pilot, and there's these two things going on.

DAVE FINKEL:  That's one of the things when we write these episodes that became quickly evident to us.  It's very easy just to write the surface.  And for this show, it's really important that we go in and find the emotional, like, the real honest core of what the episodes mean and then build the comedy on top of that.  It makes it a richer tableau to be able to write towards.  When it's dishonest and the jokes feel dishonest, like, you can smell it and we cut them.  It just doesn't work.

LIZ MERIWETHER:  And it also gave us one of our episodes that's coming up.  One of the prop guys put a 50‑dollar bill in the douchebag jar on the set of the pilot.  And we were just kind of all sitting around, talking, and I looked over and it was like there's a 50 in there?  And it was like how did that 50 get in there?  What did he do to put a 50 in?  And then, so one of the episodes we have coming up is the story of the 50, like, how the 50 got in the douchebag jar.