Buddy almost had a different Jovie.
Zooey Deschanel revealed that she originally was not cast as Will Ferrell’s love interest in the beloved holiday hit “Elf.”
Instead, Katie Holmes was offered the part.
“When I met with Jon Favreau, the director, I walked in and he was like, ‘Oh, you don’t need to read. We just offered it to Katie Holmes,’” Deschanel told Alex Cooper on Wednesday’s episode of “Call Her Daddy.”
“And I was like, ‘Oh, Ok, cool,’” the actress continued. “And he’s like, ‘Well sit down and talk for a minute.’ I was like, ‘Okay!’”
Deschanel revealed that she was actually relieved she didn’t get the lead female part at first.
“What was great about that was like, I wasn’t nervous,” she told Cooper. “It’s like when you’re an actor, you’re like first starting, and you’re auditioning, you get nervous, and you’re like psyching yourself up. I wasn’t nervous at all, because I was like, ‘Well, I’m not getting the part.’ It was kind of great cause I was not nervous.”
But Holmes ultimately didn’t play Jovie, the unenthusiastic Gimbels employee and Buddy’s eventual wife, because “she had some scheduling conflict,” according to Deschanel.
“And then they were like, ‘Who should we have?’ I think the character was kind of meant to be worked around whoever played her, and they knew I sang because I had a Cabaret act, so that kind of worked out with the character,” the “New Girl” star shared.
“Elf” came out in 2003, the same year that Holmes ended her six-year run on the teen drama series “Dawson’s Creek.”
Holmes starred in three films in 2003: the psychological thriller “Phone Booth,” the musical crime comedy “The Singing Detective,” and the comedy drama “Pieces of April.”
But none of those movies were as big as “Elf,” which grossed over $228 million worldwide and is considered one of the greatest Christmas films of all time.
The movie stars Ferrell, 58, as Buddy Hobbs, a human raised by elves who sets out to find his birth father in New York City.
Deschanel knew the movie would be a hit from the first script.
“When I read it, I remember giggling out loud and I was really enjoying myself,” she said.
Deschanel also gushed over getting to work with Ferrell.
“He’s like the nicest human being. Anyone who’s worked with him, there’s no bad experiences with him,” she shared. “He’s so nice. He’s nice to everyone. He’s so fun. He’s game for anything.”
“And I think the thing about Will is he’s super playful and fun and open and a nice person, and I think that informs who he is as an actor,” Deschanel added. “He’s so willing to play.”
