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Welcome To Our Show is the newest rewatch podcast on the scene and it’s awesome. Hosted by the New Girl herself, Zooey Deschanel, as well as Hannah Simone (who played her model best friend CeCe Parekh) and Lamorne Morris (who played lovable goof Winston Bishop), this podcast takes us all back to apartment 4D to hear about the making of all seven seasons of the hilarious hit sitcom New Girl. On the very first episode, they all share their audition stories, debate how high the rent would be on a loft that size today, disagree on the perfect party, and play a short (but hilarious) round of True American.
Zooey had done dozens of movies by the time the script for New Girl came along, and at the time, “there wasn’t a lot of crossover,” she remembers. “You were a movie actor or a TV actor.” But the script was too funny, and she decided it would be a chance to dive a little deeper into a character than she usually got to do. And once she was in, she was all in: She decided to become involved in the casting process and had “chemistry reads” with everyone who auditioned. She remembers that Silicon Valley’s T.J. Miller came in with an entourage to read for the part of Schmidt, and “did the scene covered in baby oil for no reason,” she laughs. But even though a lot of great actors came in to read for every part, “it was so clear” who the final selections had to be.
Of course they get into Lamorne’s winding road to the show, plus how he got into commercial work, and he and Hannah share audition gambits that felt risky, but totally paid off. They all commiserate about how hard it is when fun gags get cut and you end up in a scene wearing jorts with no explanation, in Lamorne’s case (“they thought it was just my fashion choice!” he laughs), or in Hannah’s case, spend hours shooting in an ostrich costume with a live vulture glaring at you that no one ever sees (“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I risked my life!’”). Plus, what happened with Damon Wayans, why David Neher was the “MVP actor,” what Hannah considers a “wild night,” and so much more; get all this New Girl goodness and more on the brand-new rewatch podcast Welcome To Our Show.
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