The New Girl star and Crocs brand ambassador pitches the perfect beach shoe and explains where Game of Thrones went wrong.
You can learn a lot about someone based on how they know Zooey Deschanel. Is it Elf? 500 Days of Summer? New Girl? She & Him? Mostly what you can learn is that the person you’re speaking with has excellent taste in entertainers. A year out from the series finale of New Girl — the beloved FOX sitcom aired its final episode in May 2018 — Deschanel is keeping busy being a mom to her two children and supporting that causes and brands that mean the most to her.
One such brand is Crocs and to launch the third year of the shoe company’s “Come As You Are” global campaign, Deschanel spoke to FanSided about the famous clogs, her own personal style and why New Girl‘s final season worked so well.
Do you remember your first impression of Crocs?
Yeah, I mean, I remember them being extremely comfortable. Very comfortable. I didn’t realize how versatile [they were], like how many different styles they had until I started working with them. You know, you always think of the classic clog, very comfy, kind of iconic for them. But there are so many styles and a lot of them are just really comfortable and blend in.
They have great sandals and really, so many good summer shoes. Beach shoes.
Do you remember the first time you tried on a pair of Crocs?
Probably awhile ago, like one of the classic clogs. And I was like, this is unbelievably comfortable.
Is there anything that surprised you when you started working with the brand?
Yeah, like I said, I was just surprised at how many options there are of styles. And how great that is. Because they’re very comfortable, they’re very versatile.
Is there a Crocs style that you can see your most iconic characters — Jess [New Girl], Summer [500 Days of Summer], Jovie [Elf] — wearing?
I think I wore Crocs in a movie. There’s a picture of me, wearing them, that was in, uh, Bridge to Terabithia, I remember. And I was like, these are so comfortable. And there are so many colors.
Okay, let me think. I think Jess…Jess likes to wear flats, there’s this one style I love, that I wear all the time called the Citilane, it looks kind of like a slip-on sneaker but it actually has holes in it so you can wear it on the beach. I took my pair to Greece last summer and they were like the best, so much better than even wearing flip-flops on the beach.
It’s hard for me to say exactly what each character would wear but I will say I really love their sandals, and I really love that Citilane style. They’re are some new ones that are really meant to go from like day to night. I go from business meetings to picking up my kids and that’s really important to me, to have something that looks like nice but also is comfortable and I can wear all day. I can’t wear high heels all day.
I feel like your personal style has become quite synonymous with how Jess was styled on New Girl. I’m wondering what it’s like to have your fashion entwined with that of a character.
I don’t know…I don’t 100 percent, respectfully, agree with you. Because I don’t…some of it is just that certain shapes look good on my body, so that’s what we went with. We weren’t going to put me in something — unless it was supposed to look bad — we weren’t going to put me in something unflattering. And I think we all have certain shapes that flatter us.
But I would say my personal style is a little more subdued, a little more classic than Jess. Jess is a little bit more…a little bit more cutesy and twee. I like that stuff, I just don’t know wear it in my personal life as much.
In light of all the fan emotion surrounding the Game of Thrones final season, could you talk a bit about the production of the final season of New Girl and the challenges of balancing fan service and telling a story that’s true to the characters?
Yeah, it’s hard to know how to wrap up a show.
I mean, I always feel like the fans don’t know what they want exactly. Part of what they like is they like the show. New Girl was created by Liz Meriwether and so they like her writing style and they like the characters and the way the actors portray them. And you know, so, in a way, I think you get yourself into a little bit of a bind if you start thinking about pandering too much. Because ultimately what they want is to see what Liz writes. Because they love Liz’s writing.
So, you think about it, but you have to think about what’s best for the story, and you hope people love it. I just think you get yourself into a little bit of a bind if you think oh, we have to do this because the fans want it. The fans aren’t writing it. It’s like Liz is writing it! They love Liz! Liz is a great writer. So, we have to think that Liz is going to come up with the best thing for the characters because she created them.
That’s the way about it, you know, and I really do think she took into account what the fans of the show wanted. And I do think she was very cognizant of that, but at the same time, I think it was important for Liz to do what was, you know, best from her point of view, as the show creator.
Some of the cast and crew have spoken about season 7 as feeling like a “second chance” to give the show a proper ending.
Season 7 felt kind of like a bonus season, but it was really fun. It was like we were doing a different show because they decided to put it three years in the future.
I did feel like we weren’t sure if we were going to come back after season 6 and that was kind of hard. I had kind of made peace with actually not coming back. I definitely thought that was the last season and was really happy that we were able to say our goodbyes in a nice way and create some closure for us and the fans. So that was really, that was great for us and I’m happy, and grateful, that we were all able to come back for that final season.
Zooey Deschanel is a brand ambassador for Crocs’ Come As You Are campaign and is featured in digital, social, print and in-store marketing materials in key global markets this year. The campaign highlights the iconic Classic Clog, as well as LiteRide, the brand’s latest innovation in comfort technology, and the popular Crocs Serena and Swiftwater sandal collections.