Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and Ashlyn Sanchez in The Happening Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

What did you think of the violence?
Yeah, I was reading the script [and] I thought it was effective, and seeing the movie, I thought it was very effective... I was not around a lot of it when we were shooting. I had a couple of [scenes]. I don't like fake blood [laughs]. I'm kinda scared of blood, so I was like, this is a little bit jarring for me. I thought it worked in the context of the movie.

In 2003 you told the LA Times that you found out that there's a kind of "find us a Zooey Deschanel character" attitude. Do you still feel that you're being pigeonholed in that way?
You know, even then I didn't feel like I was being pigeonholed. I thought it was funny that there was a Zooey Deschanel type [because] I didn't realize I was a type. No, I never felt like I was being pigeonholed; I just thought it was funny that somebody had said that. I feel like I've had amazing opportunities to be very diverse in my choices, you know, like I guess if you consider the whole picture of all the different things that I've been fortunate enough to do.

It was so serendipitous that you met M. Ward on the set of The Go-Getter, and I love your album [She & Him: Volume One by her band with M. Ward, She & Him].
Thank you so much!

Zooey Deschanel at Sundance Photo by Jennifer Cooper

It's sort of a magical happening that you guys met. And it's so interesting that it sort of abutted The Happening, these drastically different films. How did you did you change from one skin to another?
I actually shot The Go-Getter way before The Happening. I shot The Go-Getter in November of, let's see, I feel like, November of 2005. So I had done a bunch of other things in between that... They came out next to each other, I know. The Go-Getter was one of those little indie movies that goes to Sundance and then takes forever to come out. A lot of the movies that go to Sundance take a lot of time to come out.

Do you have any talismans like the mood ring in the movie?
No, I'm not that superstitious. I feel like if you have it, you have it. You don't need some trinket. Make the trinket yourself. [laughs]

How was doing the action part of the movie?
It was tiring. It was a lot of running. I hurt my leg towards the end, which I didn't want to tell anybody about. I was sort of like, pretending like it didn't happen. But then the last day I was limping and Night was like, "What's wrong with you?!" and I was like, "I can't walk!" He was like, "Stop limping! What's wrong with you?" I'm like, "I pulled a muscle!" But yeah, it was a lot of running. But it was really great 'cause I love Night and I love Mark, and they're just really great people to work with all the time. Mark's a really generous actor, and Night's such a passionate person and director and he loves film and he loves making movies, he loves making movies that he thinks will entertain and excite people. It was really good company. I was definitely tired at the end of it. I went right into another movie... I went right into filming the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man.

And now you're filming 500 Days of Summer with Joseph Gordon-Levitt...
He's wonderful, I love working with him. The director is a guy named Marc Webb, who's a first-time movie director but he's directed all these really great music videos, so it's fun. I love working with them.

What are you wearing right now?
This is H&M. [laughs] This is like, the one thing I was told not to say! Well, no, not really. It's cute. I like it... I choose mostly for color. And this is such a cute dress. I like it.

What are you wearing to the premiere?
It's a surprise! I can't tell you. It's tomorrow.

Have you ever thought about designing clothes?
I have, but there are other things that I would rather do first. But I like to sew.

I bet there would be a lot of people who would want to wear your creations.
Maybe one day I will!