Zooey Deschanel is tired of being linked to the "insulting" Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope.
During a recent interview for the Call Her Daddy podcast, the New Girl actress discussed her longtime association with the term, which film critic Nathan Rabin first coined to describe Kirsten Dunst's character in the 2005 film Elizabethtown.
"It's the term everyone seemed to use to describe any female in a movie that was left of centre or different, that wasn't just like the hot girl," she began. "Someone that had thoughts in her head, had opinions, was a little different... every time I would be in something I would be reduced to this."
Zooey went on to argue that the use of the phrase felt like a way to make her characters seem "one-dimensional" when they weren't.
She noted the likes of Katie Holmes and Natalie Portman have often had their performances associated with the term too.
"I'm like, 'I don't think all these characters are the same.' Let's be a little more creative because it started to also feel like an insult or something," the 45-year-old continued. "I was like, 'No, actually the point is to make a character three-dimensional.' Look, you have to take everything in stride and realise that people call you stuff all the time, and you have to have a thick skin about it, and it's fine. But, in my opinion, I think it's lazy to keep using it."
Elsewhere in the conversation, Zooey recalled how she was "really shocked" that her titular character in the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer was viewed as the antagonist opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Tom.
"When it came out, all of a sudden, it wasn't so much the girls, it was guys. They'd be like, 'I f**king hate you, Summer.' I'd be like, 'Whoa, wait a second.' Wait, she's very clear with him from the beginning.' I'm like, 'What more do you want from her?' So, she has to do what he wants? Like, no matter what?" she mused. "I was just really surprised that that was the takeaway, and I understand that sometimes people don't know what to do with their emotions, and probably they just felt like they're really shipping this couple. They want them to be together."
Zooey is currently promoting her new romantic comedy, Merv.
Co-starring Charlie Cox, the feature is now streaming on Prime Video.
