Liz Meriwether
by Fred Topel for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

I fell in love with Liz Meriwether when she presented her new show, New Girl, to the Television Critics Association over the summer. I would have naturally had affection for anyone who created such a warm, quirky show, but freckles and glasses just completely did me in.

New Girl stars Zooey Deschanel as Jess, a woman who moves in with three male roommates after catching her live-in boyfriend cheating. As she starts to date again, she sings her own theme song to get through the heartbreaks, and dances in celebration a lot. The rough version of the pilot even had a title song set to a sequence of freeze frames where Deschanel posed in different adorable positions. Deschanel sings the theme, lending her musical talents to the show too.

So this innocent reaction to typical sitcom plot lines (wacky roommates, crazy dates) already endeared Meriwether to me. I ran into her later at the party Fox held for its new batch of shows at Gladstones in Malibu. Standing in the beach air at dusk, Meriwether was starstruck herself to see chef Gordon Ramsay at the same party. She was concerned she was not yet drunk enough to be an entertaining interview. Little did she know I was smitten by her natural charm, no drunken word vomit necessary.

SuicideGirls: The opening titles of the show, freeze frames, will that be the title sequence?

Liz Meriwether: I think we are going to get a different main title.

SG: NOOO!!! WHY?

LM: I know, it’s so great. I don’t know, I guess we’re going to look at some other options from the people that do main titles. But we are keeping the theme song which we love, which Zooey wrote and recorded. We love that music.

SG: Doesn’t everybody wish they had their own theme song?

LM: It sort of came from living in New York and walking on the streets of New York and kind of singing to yourself in your head. Maybe you don’t do that. It came from when I was living in New York as I made my daily commute every day. How am I going to get through this? I was a receptionist. It was a daily grind. Sometimes you have to sing yourself a theme song to get yourself through the day a little bit. I would always just be like, “I’m gonna make it!” Things like that.

SG: Have you had different theme songs at different points?

LM: Probably, probably. Like the drama and the comedy. I bet Jess will also have different theme songs.

SG: You should release them on iTunes like Glee does.

LM: Yeah, I think we are releasing the theme song that we have on iTunes but we’re not there yet. We’ll get there.

SG: How many times are you going to make Jess dance per episode?

LM: We might have to limit ourselves actually. I feel like when she sings and dances, it’s so funny that we can’t overuse it. You have to use just the right amount of it. Her physical comedy is so fantastic. She has this amazing ability to make anything funny and she’s fearless. She’s not afraid of the joke. She wants to look stupid and she wants to go for it.

SG: The thing is, the more stupid stuff she does, the hotter she actually looks.

LM: You should tell her that. That’s good. That means I can make her do even stupider stuff because she looks even hotter.

SG: Some people, when they come out and say they’re dorky, you feel like they don’t really get it. What is the trick to really embracing dorkiness?

LM: I think it’s just really who she is. She is this person who’s full of energy and I think openness. She is not self-conscious and someone who hangs back and judges people. She’s this person who’s really open and fun and effusive. It’s not an act. Pretending to be dorky, I don’t think you can really pull that off.

SG: For example, Megan Fox talks about Lord of the Rings and she’s very knowledgable but I still don’t think that makes her a dork.

LM: I think you’re probably right about that. Are you asking me the difference between Megan Fox and Zooey Deschanel?

SG: I guess that was implicit but I didn’t mean to.

LM: I think one Lord of the Rings reference does not a dork make.

SG: I should give her credit. She really knows her shit.

LM: Megan Fox? Maybe she is a dork.

SG: Did you make up the Lord of the Rings references in New Girl, and will there be more?

LM: I like other weird things but the Lord of the Rings references came from my showrunner, Dave [Finkel], who is obsessed with all fantasy things everywhere. He’s really into Game of Thrones now. I think what she’s into is definitely going to be kookier things, fun things that aren’t necessarily what everybody else is into.

SG: What crazy antics are coming up for Jess?

LM: There’s an episode where she walks in on Nick, who’s played by Jake Johnson, naked. She sees him naked and it sort of unravels the whole balance of the house. She can’t say the word penis without laughing so she has all these euphemisms for it. It sort of becomes this huge issue for them and they have to figure it out. Every time she sees his penis she lets out a giggle scream. Half giggle, half scream. That’s coming up, it’s going to be episode three.

SG: Has it been hard to think of ongoing weekly episodes?

LM: No. Obviously it’s just a challenge to be running a show. I come from film and theater so it’s like a new world for me but really I love the characters so much, I just find myself writing for them easily. Even at four in the morning when most of the writing takes place.

SG: Is that your natural schedule?

LM: Yeah, I’m nocturnal.

SG: I am too. Do you have to be up early for table reads?

LM: Yeah, you end up doing a lot of production stuff during the day and I end up writing all night. I couldn’t do that unless I really loved the characters, but I do. I don’t know America will love them. I hope they will but I love them so it’s been fun. It’s just been a great job.

SG: I was surprised how much I loved No Strings Attached. I didn’t mean to make that a backhanded compliment.

LM: Everybody does that. “I did not think I was going to like it.”

SG: Because it’s sold as the typical romantic comedy, but the characters actually make smart decisions for themselves. Was that something you had to fight for?

LM: A lot of people like Ivan [Reitmna] and the people at Paramount, they wanted to make an interesting romantic comedy. They didn’t want to make your run of the mill romantic comedy so I did have a lot of support in that. I think it’s funny that both Ashton and I are now doing TV this season.

SG: He’s been a TV mogul for a while.

LM: Yeah, of course. I’m excited to see him on that show.

SG: Could you see yourself branching out and having a bunch of shows on the air?

LM: I’m just focusing on this right now but of course, I’d love to do more stuff. This is taking everything I have and I’m totally happy to be doing it. Do I have designs on being a mogul? Probably not.

SG: Is this what you imagined when you came to Hollywood?

LM: I think Hollywood always surprises you. I don’t think you can ever know what is going to happen. I came from the theater world. Actually, the first job that I had in TV and film was writing a pilot for FOX which didn’t get picked up. That was called Sluts so it was the first job I had. It’s kind of nice to be back at FOX with a little more experience under my belt. I don’t really wear belts though.

SG: What could Sluts have been if it had made it this far?

LM: Well, we would probably be on the fourth season. They would be old sluts. It wouldn’t be working as well.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Liz+Meriwether/