Although Zooey Deschanel broke through with her romantic leading role in 2003’s Elf, she originally lost the part to another big name.
The 2x Golden Globe nominee recently revealed that the role of cynical department store employee Jovie went to Katie Holmes at first, before “some scheduling conflict” took her out of the Will Ferrell-led holiday comedy.
“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,’ she recalled on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “And I was like, ‘Oh, OK, cool.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, sit down and talk for a minute.’ I was like, ‘OK!’”
Deschanel added, “What was great about that was, I wasn’t nervous. When you’re an actor, you’re first starting, and you’re auditioning, you get nervous, and you’re 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.”
Noting that Holmes ultimately dropped out of the role due to a scheduling conflict, Deschanel was back in the running.
Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel in ‘Elf‘ (2003) (New Line/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“And then they were like, ‘Who should we have?’” said Deschanel. “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.”
In addition to wrapping up Dawson’s Creek‘s six-season run on The WB in 2003, Holmes also starred that year in Thanksgiving film Pieces of April and the little-known, yet star-studded musical crime comedy The Singing Detective.