Hello, everybody.
I am an A2 Film studies student and doing a research study on whether Zooey Deschanel is becoming typecast in her roles or not. So, I need answers, from online messaging forums, and from anyone.
So please, do reply 
Thanks a lot.
I think she is. And for a actress know in my social circle as the next Meryl Streep due to her amazing range and depth, I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.
Is she being typecast, or is she choosing “quirky” roles and turning down anything that doesn’t fit that mold?
What’s the difference between “typecast” and “character actor”?
How can we tell if an actor is being typecast, or if she has a limited acting range?
What if she has a broader range by ability, but chooses the same inflections, mannerisms and line interpretations for characters imagined by their writers to be very different?
I don’t have answers, but maybe those are questions you can explore in your homework.
I don’t know if she has any mad acting skillz, but right now she’s doing well playing what she looks like, a ditzy, pretty young woman. Actors are often cast against type, with varying results. Hulk Hogan played a (bodyguard) nanny. Any of a number of stick insects have played lethal assassins and stone cold killers with machine guns and possessing Bruce Lee martial arts knowledge. I think ‘go with what you know’ brings the best results for an actor, until they lose their looks and have to fall back on character parts.
TEchnically, in order to be “Typecast,” you would have to demonstrate that Ms. Deschanel is deliberately trying to find role that are NOT ditzy, cute girls but is being turned down for them and pushed into ditzy, cute roles. If she’s just going for ditzy/cute to start with, the only person typecasting Zooey Descanel is Zooey Deschanel. So you need some insider information on her career; unless Ms. Deschanel or her agent post here, we can’t tell you.
That said, since she has few recent film roles, you can’t even demonstrate that she plays this role a lot. She has concentrated on her TV show since last year, in which she definitely plays a ditz, but in the preceding years it’s really NOT the case that she always played a ditz.
I’m not aware that she’s played anything but the same character in her roles, though the ditziness level varies. She seems to be a limited character actor, like the majority in the profession.
One of the roles she’s best known for is her character in Elf. She’s not ditzy, and basically comes off as rather surly. Same with Our Idiot Brother and Failure to Launch.
I wouldn’t say she’s typecast at all.
I feel like Zooey just plays who she is in real life. It just seems to me like she really is this ditzy, quirky girl who has a little bit of depth to her (though you have to go looking for it).
She’s just hitting the indie, “random” chord with a lot of people. However, I think she dropped off in quality when (500) Days of Summer wrapped and she got picked up by Fox to be in New Girl. I have no idea if the fault is the writer’s or her own, but that show is insanely cringe-inducing and a horrible comedy. I have absolutely no clue how she got Golden Globe and Emmy nods when shows like Community get jack-shit.
Her character in Elf was “cutsie” in my opinion which isn’t far removed from her usual act. The most I remember from her role in Failure to Launch was her wacky fight against a songbird in scene after scene which, again, isn’t something that would seem out of place in one of her other roles (maybe she’d be less violent but the ‘zany’ schtick is the same). Never saw Our Idiot Brother but the other two roles certainly seem within her usual spectrum. I don’t think her spectrum is “ditzy” so much as “quirky/cute”.
I don’t have strong feelings about her one way or the other but she seems to do the limited thing she does well and get paid for it. Most aspiring actors should be so lucky.
I think there’s a rather large difference between the characters she played in those movies and the one she plays in New Girl. Enough so that I was a bit surprised at the outright goofiness of Jess.
What are her “usual” roles? Yes Man and 500 Days?
She was also the sister of the main character in Almost Famous, and I wouldn’t describe the character there as ditzy. (If you remember, her character became a flight attendant, and only appeared in the beginning and end of the film.)
Trillian in the radio series is quite smart, I don’t remember how much that came though in the HHGttG movie though.
Brian
I like New Girl, but Deschanel’s character is the least interesting part of it, despite the fact that its supposed to basically be a vehicle for her. Its gotten better as its become more of an ensemble comedy.
Agreed. And I was disappointed when Damon Wayans Jr didn’t make it past the pilot, but Lamorne Morris has really grown on me.
Well, the reason that Damon Wayans Jr didn’t make it past the pilot is that he was already committed to Happy Endings, and no one expected that to be picked up, but it was. So it wasn’t that he was written out of the show because they didn’t like him.
Radio-series Trillian would have thought movie-Trillian was an idiot.
I randomly watched an episode of New Girl, and one of the characters said something like “You can’t leave! Our last black guy left and found himself a different group of white people to hang out with!”. I chuckled.
Maybe the typecast isn’t ditzy but rather “girl that doesn’t fit the mold”. That being said, I’m surprised no one has mentioned her role as D.G. in Tin Man. Certainly not a ditz in that one.
She is pretty much the poster child for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
I don’t know that she’s always “ditzy”. I don’t think she has a lot of range. I’m a fan, but she probably shouldn’t stretch herself too much.
No, but I thought she was pretty unwatchable in this. And I say this as a fan.