Ep. 254: Zooey Deschanel | Her Secret Identity + The Journey of She & Him

Today's guest is one of the most recognizable faces of her generation — an actor whose voice you'd know in a single frame. But her real story isn't the one you've watched. It's the one she kept secret: for 20 years she's been a songwriter, and barely anyone — even people who know her — knew it.
This is one of the more honest conversations we've had about being underestimated — as an actor who "couldn't" really be a musician, and as a woman the industry assumed didn't write her own songs — and about what it costs to keep making things purely because you love them.
And The Writer Is... Zooey Deschanel of She & Him!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

• Why she erased social media off her own devices
• The "industry plant" myth — why the industry "can't make anything happen" anymore
• Being told "you'll never make a record, no one will take you seriously" as an actor
• Her "secret agent" identity
• The misogyny she goes to bat against
• Her North Star she chases
• And much more...
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A special thank you to our lead sponsor NMPA for making these conversations possible.
NMPA is the National Music Publishers' Association. They fight for songwriters and they fight for this podcast, too.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 Meet Zooey Deschanel
1:51 Writing alone — and erasing social media to do it
4:49 Why the "industry plant" is a myth
6:37 "You'll never be taken seriously as a musician"
7:25 Her secret identity as a songwriter
11:15 How She & Him released with no name attached
13:01 "I Thought I Saw Your Face Today" — never a single, now #1 on TikTok
15:35 The story behind writing "I Thought I Saw Your Face Today"
17:24 Her dad, the records, and growing up musical
22:44 Brian Wilson, Gershwin, and the Great American Songbook
26:13 Five desert island albums
28:21 Why "A Hard Day's Night" beats the White Album
30:16 Teaching herself piano at six
32:46 Writing her first song at ten
38:42 "I identify as a songwriter, not an actor"
42:15 Dropping out of Northwestern
45:59 A word from our lead sponsor, NMPA
49:23 Finding her voice in the studio — the mic chain
51:56 Recording with Brian Wilson & the gifted mic
55:57 Why she never sold out — turning in finished records
67:03 The lonely sets where her first two records were written
69:35 Almost Famous & Cameron Crowe
72:50 "I'm allergic to selling myself"
76:19 Nobody believes a woman writes her own songs
79:00 Writing for other artists & how publishing splits really work
82:07 Why she loves writing Christmas songs
84:24 500 Days of Summer & music in film
88:36 The songwriting trick: "What if I am her?"
93:21 Dyslexia, reading scripts & why melody sticks
94:56 Why she doesn't do more theater
98:38 Staying clean through party-era Hollywood
100:50 M. Ward — 20 years, never one fight
109:57 Writing alone when everyone's afraid to
111:43 The biggest misconception about her
114:18 Finding your North Star

Credits:
Hosted by Ross Golan
Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad
Edited by Jad Saad

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