Zooey Deschanel recalls filming 'Elf' as a 21-year-old: 'I basically just dropped out of college'

Before she starred as Jess on New Girl, Zooey Deschanel was Jovie in Elf.

The cult classic Christmas movie premiered Nov. 7, 2003, and starred Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, a human man raised by elves under the impression he, too, was an elf—only to discover his birth father Walter Hobbs (James Caan) lived in New York City. Buddy sets out to find his dad. In the process, he meets and falls in love with Jovie (Deschanel).

Deschanel visited The Kelly Clarkson Show this week and shared that her two young children have never seen Elf before Clarkson asked whether Deschanel knew immediately that the movie would be an eternal hit.

"I feel like with comedies, if I laugh out loud while reading a script, that's a pretty darn good sign," the Emmy-nominated actress said. "I was only 21 when I made that movie. I remember sitting—I was at my parents' house because I basically just dropped out of college to be an actor—and I remember sitting at my parents' house reading that script and laughing out loud. Since then, I've seen that that's a good sign.

She added: "Will Ferrell is just so perfect in that movie."

Ferrell graced the cover of The Hollywood Reporter last month. As described in the below excerpt, he was nowhere near as sure of Elf's success as Deschanel was:

"Elf followed later that year, and though the feel-good Christmas comedy would prove another home run, Ferrell still remembers running around New York in his silly yellow tights, thinking, 'Boy, this could be the end.' Before its release, they’d held a series of test screenings. Ferrell’s manager would call with updates: 'He was like, ‘Well, the family one went great, but we could really get eviscerated in this next one. I’m looking at a bunch of what look like USC frat boys about to go in,'' recounts Ferrell, once a USC frat boy himself. 'Then later I hear, no, that group actually liked it, too. 'The low-budget PG comedy generated raves—except from The Washington Post, which declared it 'the first and possibly the last Will Ferrell star vehicle'—and $220  million at the box office, cementing Ferrell’s status as a bona fide movie star. (A sequel was written, which would’ve paid him $29  million had Ferrell not balked at its rehashed premise. He says the decision to walk away was simple: 'I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money.’ And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.'")

But if you need further proof of Elf's staying power, Ferrell's costume recently went for nearly $300,000 in a memorabilia auction. 

Watch Deschanel's appearance below.