Catching Up With Zooey

The first year of marriage and motherhood is supposed to be brutal, but for Zooey Deschanel, it has been all love. Here, the New Girl star talks Twitter fails and finding her happy ending.

- Katie L. Connor

Put Zooey Deschanel in front of a camera and she’s all fish gape, surprise smile, leg up, leg down. The bangs shine, and yuuuge blue eyes pop. On the L.A. set of her Cosmo cover shoot, she turns to the side and rests a hand on her stomach before catching herself. That pose is napalm for pregnancy rumors. “I already had the baby!” she jokes, referring to her 15 month-old daughter with producer/investor Jacob Pechenik. They met working on last year’s movie Rock the Kasbah and married shortly before baby Elsie Otter Pechenik came last August.

WE BREAK FOR LUNCH and a chat. Zooey in front of a recorder is stiffer, more measured. She doesn’t really want to be here. It’s nothing personal; she’s just not much for publicity. Lately, she tells me, she’s not much for anything beyond hanging out with her new family. But then, she’s super stoked for her new animated film, Trolls, so here we are.

It has been a long buildup to the kiddie musical’s November 4 release. Zooey’s costars Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake have done the bulk of the junketing. Justin’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”—written for the DreamWorks’ feature—dropped last May and was if not the song of the summer, certainly one of them. In July, MAC Cosmetics pinged nostalgia for the neon-haired, bare-assed toys with its limited edition Good Luck Trolls collection. And designer Betsey Johnson’s xox Trolls Collection hit Macy’s in September.