Zooey Deschanel reveals how she earned her role in ‘Elf'

Zooey Deschanel shared what happened behind-the-scenes in the making of Jon Favreau’s 2003 Christmas movie classic, Elf.

The actress, who starred as Jovie in the film, revealed that she was not the first choice for the role.

In a recent podcast episode of Call Her Daddy, Deschanel revealed that she was offered the role only after Katie Holmes dropped out of the film due to scheduling conflicts.

The New Girl star was only 21 years old when she auditioned for the movie, although she revealed Favreau told her they didn’t need to run any lines together because “we just offered it to Katie Holmes.”

“And I was like, ‘Oh, Ok, cool,’” Deschanel remembered, adding that she proceeded to “audition” for the movie just by staying in the room and chatting with the director as if they were just meeting up to talk.

Deschanel recalled that one good thing about the whole meeting was that since she knew she was not getting the role, the Yes Man star wasn’t “nervous at all “while giving her audition.

Her lack of nervousness helped her earn the role, since she left a good enough impression on Favreau to be offered the part.

Jovie's role was a department store worker who became the love interest of Will Ferrell’s Buddy, a human raised by Santa’s elves.

Deschanel said the role “was kind of meant to be like worked around whoever played her,” so the screenwriting team wrote in scenes where Jovie sings in the shower since Deschanel was a singer.

Elf earned over $220 million at the worldwide box office at the time of its release and remains a Christmas classic.