Zooey Deschanel Fires Back at "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" Trope
New Girl star Zooey Deschanel is, for many, the face of the so-called manic pixie dream girl thanks, in part, to her role in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's 2009 film 500 Days of Summer. However. Deschanel herself doesn't feel like the descriptor is accurate at all and in a recent interview with The Guardian rejects the label, saying she's not one-dimensional as the stereotype would suggest.
"I don't feel it's accurate," Deschanel said. "I'm not a girl. I'm a woman. It doesn't hurt my feelings, but it's a way of making a woman one-dimensional and I'm not one-dimensional"
She continued, "I think the tendency is still to make women one-dimensional, so you have to add dimension, if you can. The more screen time a female character gets, the more space there is to show complexities, but there has been a shift, so I'm optimistic."
For those who aren't fully certain of what a manic pixie dream girl is, it is generally a stereotype of female characters who are generally eccentric and quirky and very feminine and girlish and are often portrayed as the romantic interest for a male protagonist. The manic pixie dream girl is often idealized, but rarely do audiences learn anything about the character outside her appearance and her quirkiness. Some commonly cited examples of the type are Natalie Portman's character in Garden State, and Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown.
As for Deschanel, the actor is definitely moving beyond that stereotype in her more recent work. It was announced earlier this year that she will appear in Harold and the Purple Crayon alongside Zachary Levi and Lil Rey Howery in the live-action adaptation of the beloved children's book. Harold and the Purple Crayon centers on a four-year-old boy who creates imaginary worlds with his crayon. The book was first published in 1955 and was written by Crockett Johnson.
Oscar nominee Carlos Saldanha will direct the film from a screenplay by Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb creative team David Guion and Michael Handelman. John Davis (Dolemite Is My Name) is producing through Davis Entertainment. This will be the latest adaptation of the series, which was first brought to life as animated short films in 1959, 1971, and 1974, and a 13-episode HBO series in 2002, which was narrated by Sharon Stone.
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