Zoey Deutch Enjoys ‘The Joy of Cooking’ and Casual Tracksuit E! News UK

Zoey Deutch wanted to be honest. “I’m rarely drawn to super happy material,” she said. “I have, at least for the last couple of years, been interested in darker, weirder pieces.”

An influencer who pretends to have survived a terrorist attack in “Not Okay”. An FBI informant in “The Outfit.”

But four years ago, she recalls, Reese Witherspoon tweeted that she had seen and loved Deutch in “Set It Up,” about a few overworked assistants who try to create breathing room by bringing their bosses together.

The two women started talking, which resulted in Melissa Hill’s novel “Something From Tiffany’s” being sent to Deutch. This led to their collaboration on the Amazon Prime video adaptation (Witherspoon as producer, Deutch as star and executive producer) on the mixed bags of Tiffany, a zingy New York baker (Deutch) stunned by an engagement ring from the boyfriend she’s unsure of, and a captivating widower (Kendrick Sampson) whose proposal is scuppered when his girlfriend opens her own blue box — and the ring isn’t there.

Rarely has so much bread been consumed on screen in pursuit of diamonds and love.

“So now we can share our big feel-good romantic flick,” Deutch said, not sounding remotely somber during a video call from his home in Los Angeles, before giving details of the paws delight. of her dog, the importance of her grandmother. paintings and lessons that can be found in “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

1. “The Book of Symbols” It was introduced into my life by my technique teacher Alexander many years ago when I was preparing a film. One of the reasons he gave it to me is because when we’re working on a new character or a new project, we like to choose animals, colors, and symbols and create a visual board for the character. It has become a sort of beacon. I have a million copies down there because I always give them to people.

2. Farmers Markets I went to see an acupuncturist one day who told me something that struck me: that it is so important, especially in our time when we receive our groceries at home, to go to the grocery store or to the market farmer and look at the food, as we drift further and further away from our instincts. And we have great instincts about what our body needs if we listen to it. The more I started to grow and choose my own food, the more I realized that things looked good to me not just because they were necessarily pretty, but because my body craved them and needed those specific nutrients.

3. My dog’s paws You know that peculiar smell of dog paws when they sleep? They smell like corn chips, like Fritos. It’s actually one thing. They have some kind of bacteria in their paws and the smell is like corn chips and it is released when they sleep.

4. “The pleasure of cooking” The bases are really fantastic. I put my own spin on things, but I always come back to this roast chicken recipe with just butter and salt.

5. Grandma’s Paintings My grandmother was an incredible and prolific artist and a witty and eccentric woman. She inspired me in every way and I always carry her with me. Specifically, I take with me a painting that I have above my fireplace around which I designed my whole house. She painted a lot of abstract things, but oddly this one is a naked woman on a red background. It feels good to be able to see her working every day.

6. “Our Town” I prefer reading plays to books or scripts. It’s very calming for me. I first read “Our Town” when I was 14 or 15, and since then I’ve read it every two years. It’s just a beautiful heartbreaking story that touches me every time. It is how little we appreciate the simple joys of life and fail to understand the value of life while we are living it.

7. Ceramics My love for ceramics started with my great-grandmother, who had a little box of Atomic Starburst, a pretty famous dish. Saw these in my mom’s garage and loved them. Then I started collecting them and now I have a whole set. I think hunting is a lot of fun, with this one in particular, because I know exactly what I’m looking for. And I started collecting ceramics in Ischia, in Ravello, in Oaxaca.

8. “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari The way he explains things works for my brain. It’s like the intersection between the natural sciences and the social sciences. It’s very stimulating. It’s also great fun to chat — table conversations that are very, like, “Whoa, I never thought of it that way.”

9. Matching Tracksuits As a little girl, I aspired to be both an actress and a fashion designer. So it seems a bit counterintuitive to say that I love matching tracksuits, which are basically just pajamas that you wear. But after spending half my life trying on for jobs or events or whatever, the last thing I want to do is try on clothes. I just want to be comfortable.

10. Adventure My parents worked so hard when we were growing up and didn’t really take much time for them. And what happened as a result was that I became obsessed with traveling and planning and doing things and enjoying the fruits of my labor and seeing the world and having a really full life. It’s hard not to feel guilty because I have the part of my brain that says, “Work all the time. And then I have to go to the other part of my brain, which is, “Enjoy your life.” I’m trying to reframe my American mindset of live to work, not work to live. In the spirit of “Our Town,” you never know how good it is until it’s gone.