The Late Show Transcript

David Letterman Interviewing Zooey Deschanel

LETTERMAN: Our next guest is a very talented young actress. She's appearing in a new motion picture entitled, The Good Girl, it opens August 9th. Please welcome Zooey Deschanel everyone.

(Paul and the band play music)
(Zooey enters, very excited and waving with both hands. They shake hands and she sits)

LETTERMAN: Welcome to the show.

DESCHANEL: Thank you!

LETTERMAN: You look wonderful.

DESCHANEL: Thank you.

LETTERMAN: Do me a favour and others and tell us a little bit about yourself. Where you're from and what your life was like growing up, that kind of thing.

DESCHANEL: Okay, well, um. I'm from Los Angeles, but my dad's a cinematographer, so I went on location a lot as a kid. So I lived in a lot of different places.

LETTERMAN: All over the world?

DESCHANEL: All over the world. Um, we lived in the Seychelle Islands --

LETTERMAN: Wow. That's fairly exotic, huh?

DESCHANEL: It's very exotic.

LETTERMAN: Where exactly are the Seychelle Islands?

DESCHANEL: The Seychelle Islands are off the east coast of Africa.

LETTERMAN: Ah, yeah. It's beautiful.

DESCHANEL: It's beautiful. It's under a Socialistic Dictatorship, though. So it's kind of difficult, because people are listening to your phone conversations all the time.

LETTERMAN: Really?

DESCHANEL: Yeah.

(Zooey and the audience laugh)

LETTERMAN: How old were you when you were there?

DESCHANEL: Seven.

LETTERMAN: Seven years old.

DESCHANEL: Yeah. And, um, you know, things are scarce there. Because, you know, there's not a lot of stuff. Consumerism is not --

LETTERMAN: Right.

(Audience laughs)

DESCHANEL: And um, there was one store, and it pretty much carried everything. It was like a grocery store, it had clothes, and it had a video club in the back that had two videos.

(Audience laughs)

DESCHANEL: (Laughing) One was the second half of Gandhi and the other one was This is Spinal Tap, so --

LETTERMAN: Well, there you go.

(Audience applauds)

LETTERMAN: That's all you need to run a socialist island. And did you like this, did you find it adventurous, or were you kind of --

DESCHANEL: Well, I mean, I hated it, because I had to get shots actually. And I had to get a Typhoid shot to go to the Seychelles, and that kind of makes you sick. But you have to get two when you're a kid. So the first one I got, and I thought it was over with, and then I was tricked into going to the doctor again. And I was chased around a room for forty-five minutes. I alluded him, but -- I tried to reason with him, but, uh, it didn't work, so --

LETTERMAN: But, he was only trying to help, though.

DESCHANEL: He was only trying to help. I didn't realize what a horrible disease Typhoid was and that I didn't want to get it. I just didn't want to be pricked with a needle.

LETTERMAN: And when you were a kid, where else did you live?

DESCHANEL: Um, I lived on Yugoslavia. Um, in Yugoslavia.

(Audience laughs)
(Zooey smiles and shrugs her shoulders)

Yeah, that was like the land of milk and honey after the Seychelles. We went there right afterwards and um, the Yugoslavian people are a sort of interesting...brand...of people.

(Audience chuckles)

They're still really angry about a war that happened, like, four hundred years ago I think.

(Audience laughs)

And um, they drink Vodka all day long.

LETTERMAN: Wow!

DESCHANEL: Yeah. They wake up at one in the afternoon. And like, [in a Yugoslavian accent] "I wake up at one in the afternoon, and I drink Vodka..."

(Audience laughs)

DESCHANEL: "And then I have some paprika, and then I drink more Vodka." And it usually goes on to like Vodka, food, Vodka, food, party, Vodka, food, Vodka, and then bed at four.

LETTERMAN: Yeah, sounds like it could be a very pleasant way of life.

DESCHANEL: It could be, I mean, it just depends on how much you like Vodka.

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: Well sure! Well, who doesn't like Vodka?

(Audience laughs)

DESCHANEL: Who doesn't really?

LETTERMAN: What about your schooling? How were you able to -- did you go to school every place you lived?

DESCHANEL: Yeah, I mean, we went to the American School in London when we were there. And then I went to like a progressive high school.

LETTERMAN: Now, what do you mean "progressive high school"? Is that a good thing?

DESCHANEL: It's a good thing. I mean, I did very well in high school. But, in elementary school I was a terrible troublemaker, and I was in the office everyday, and my teachers hated me. And, I just actually went over all my report cards from when I was a kid, and they're all just scathing. My teachers just hated me. My sixth grade teacher told me I'd never make it through seventh grade.

LETTERMAN: Oh my God.

DESCHANEL: It's true. So I was basically, like, in the office everyday, and there was like a pentagonal fish tank and I would just sit and watch the fishes, like, circulate.

(Audience laughs)

It was like an exercise in boredom. So, it was -- I mean, it was fu- uhh, fun.

LETTERMAN: And were they worried for you? Did they make comments about you?

DESCHANEL: Well, they tried to get my parents to send me to a psychologist when I was in kindergarten.

(Audience laughs)

Because I would take food from my lunch before it was time for lunch.

LETTERMAN: Mm hmm, well that doesn't seem like a major psychological disorder.

DESCHANEL: Like, I was hungry. God forbid! So they were like, "Um, Zooey takes food from her lunch, like at 10 a.m."

LETTERMAN: That would be a snack.

DESCHANEL: Yeah, that would be a snack. Exactly.

LETTERMAN: Now that you're older and you have a career, and I know it's very taxing working on films, and you seem like now you've kind of done it all your life because of your father's experience and your experience.

DESCHANEL: Yes, yes.

LETTERMAN: And when you have free time, what sort of things do you pursue? Do you have hobbies?

DESCHANEL: Oh, uh. It's funny you should mention that Dave, because I have a lot of hobbies.

(The audience, Dave and Zooey all laugh)

LETTERMAN: Well, what do you know? I hit pay dirt.

(Zooey and Dave both look offstage, still laughing. Zooey clasps her hands together and raises them in the air)
(Audience applauds)

DESCHANEL: Yeah, I like to um --well, I sing, and I play the ukulele, I play piano. Oh, baritone ukulele, excuse me. And um, I like to make color Xeroxes of things.

(Audience laughs)

I clip out pictures of Liza Minnelli and her husband from magazines (laughing again) and I fax them to people...anonymously.

(Audience laughs)

LETTERMAN: Let's go back to the color Xeroxing.

(Audience laughs)

DESCHANEL: Yeah.

LETTERMAN: What exactly are you xeroxing? What are you copying?

DESCHANEL: Well, just funny pictures. I have a color xeroxer at my house. It comes in handy. I make, you know, collages, funny things. Just little...little...little anecdotes.

LETTERMAN: Are you living at a Kinko's? Is that how -- how is that possible? You have a color Xeroxer.

(Audience laughs)

DESCHANEL: I am. I am living at a Kinko's.

LETTERMAN: Well, you're a lovely young woman. It's a pleasure to meet you.

DESCHANEL: It's a pleasure to meet you!

LETTERMAN: And I hope you can come back and see us often.

DESCHANEL: I would love to come back.

LETTERMAN: Now let's mention your movie.

DESCHANEL: It's called The Good Girl.

LETTERMAN: The Good Girl, and it opens August 9th.

DESCHANEL: August 9th.

LETTERMAN: And uh, you and also Jennifer Aniston.

DESCHANEL: Jennifer Aniston, who's wonderful and I love her.

LETTERMAN: Yeah, good to see you.

DESCHANEL: Good to see you.

LETTERMAN: Nice to meet you.

DESCHANEL: Thank you!

LETTERMAN: Zooey Deschanel.

(Zooey stands up and Dave motions for her to sit back down)

LETTERMAN: Just stay there. We'll be right back.

THE END

Late Show With David Letterman Webpage>

Zooey Deschanel
The Late Show

July 30th 2002

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