If you’re anything like me, your family makes it a point to watch Elf, one of the best Christmas movies ever, every year. I know we’re not alone. My brother-in-law insists on it, and who am I to argue about it? It’s a stone-cold comedy classic. However, it turns out that one of the stars of the movie, Zooey Deschanel, hasn’t seen the movie since it premiered in 2003!
While promoting her latest movie, Merv, which you can catch now with an Amazon Prime subscription, her co-star Charlie Cox was shocked to learn it had been more than 20 years since Deschanel had seen it. Though it does seem like she may end up watching it this year. The interaction is fantastic.
Charlie Cox Loves Elf
In an interview together with Jake Hamilton at Good Day Chicago, Deschanel is asked by Hamilton if her family finds it on the Christmas movie schedule every year (like the rest of us). Deschanel admits that she doesn’t, but that her daughter asked her this year to watch it. Cox then asks Deschanel when the last time she’d seen Elf, and she reveals that she has not seen it since the premiere, which blows Cox’s mind. He says:
You’ve not seen it since the premiere?? Can I tell you something? It’s really good. And you’re really good in it!
She takes the compliment, but Cox is still flabbergasted, adding what we’re all already thinking:
Everyone in the world probably knows that movie better than you!
Deschanel has seen clips from it, she says, but perhaps the most famous scene of hers in the movie, she even missed at the premiere. She tells Cox and Hamilton in the interview that during the scene where she sings with Will Ferrell in the shower, she had excused herself to use the bathroom.
Though she does say that she has seen that clip the most of any of them, which checks out given it went viral again this year thanks to Ferrell’s kids recreating the shower scene.
Ultimately, it’s not all that strange that an actor doesn’t go back and revisit previous work, but when you’re part of a beloved Christmas classic that has become ubiquitous at this time of year, it is a little surprising that Deschanel hasn’t seen it at least once. Now that she has kids, I’m sure she doesn’t stand a chance of avoiding it anymore.
My niece and nephew adore the movie, and even in the middle of the hot summer, I catch my niece quoting scenes (she especially loves the Will Ferrell quote recounting how he got from the North Pole to New York City). They insist on watching every year (on Christmas itself, naturally). I have a feeling Deschanel and her kids will be doing the same over the next few years.