Zooey Deschanel has leapt to the defence of the character she played in the classic 2009 rom-com, 500 Days of Summer, after revealing she used to be abused for it.
The actress, 44, played the titular role of Summer in the film opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young man called Tom who falls for, and pursues, her – but she doesn’t believe true love exists.
A sleeper hit, which earned $60.7 million (£47.6m) on its very modest $7.5m (£5.8m) budget, the movie is considered a stand-out in the genre, especially because it doesn’t follow the conventions of other rom-coms.
It’s also inspired fierce debate with fans taking ‘sides’ with each character, as some see Summer as callous and accuse her of stringing Tom along, while others consider Tom selfish and pig-headed for ignoring everything that Summer tells him about her approach to love.
Now New Girl star Zooey has shared that some of that fierce reaction made it her way in real life too.
Asked by host Dev Griffin on the Heart Evening Show with Dev if there were any questions she was tired of hearing, the star explained that she was very much over people’s negative reactions towards Summer.
‘People say negative things about Zooey’s character. It gets interpreted that it’s a story about this innocent guy who’s so nice and loves his girlfriend so much, and then she breaks up with him, and how could she do that?’ he observed to The i in June.
‘But what you really ought to pay attention to is that my character was not listening. He ignores a lot of what Summer says.’
The 43-year-old, whose most recent film Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was a big hit for Netflix, also pointed out that the narrator of 500 Days of Summer keeps interrupting her when she’s trying to talk about a recurring dream.
He called it ‘a great cinematic representation of a selfish young man who’s not even listening to his girlfriend’ and added that it’s ‘no wonder she broke up with him’.
It’s also not the first time he’s pointed out his view on things, correcting a fan who tweeted that they still hadn’t ‘forgiven Zooey Deschanel for what she did to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer’.
‘Watch it again. It’s mostly Tom’s fault. He’s projecting. He’s not listening. He’s selfish. Luckily he grows by the end,’ he responded on X in 2018.
In real life, Zooey is engaged to Property Brothers host Jonathan Scott, 46, who she has been dating since 2019.
Previously, Zooey was married to second husband Jacob Pechenik, 52, with whom she shares daughter Elsie, nine, and son Charlie, seven, and Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, 47, from whom she split in 2012 after a three-year marriage.
Jonathan was previously married to flight coordinator Kelsy Ully.