Zooey Deschanel Nearly Lost Her Elf Role To A Batman Begins Star

Like "A Christmas Story" and "Home Alone," "Elf" is one of those Christmas comedies that's pretty much impossible to ignore around the holidays, and for good reason. The Jon Favreau-directed fantasy-comedy is still very funny over two decades since its theatrical release. After all, where else will you learn not to eat gum off the street? At the center of syrup-infused spaghetti, fake Santa brawls, and stuffing 11 cookies in the VCR is an appropriately spirited Will Ferrell performance that's so genuine you can't help but root for Buddy. It also helps that "Elf" features a who's who supporting cast with the likes of Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen, and the great James Caan. Among them is Zooey Deschanel as Jovie, the department store employee Buddy falls for. Everybody knows Deschanel now for "500 Days of Summer" and seven seasons of "New Girl," but "Elf" really put her in the spotlight. Although there's an alternate universe where Buddy ice skates in Rockefeller Center with someone else.

During an interview with the Call Her Daddy podcast, Deschanel revealed that the role of Jovie had initially gone to Katie Holmes. But after she dropped out, her not-quite audition charmed Favreau enough to give her the part:

"When you're an actor, you first start auditioning, you get nervous and you're like psyching yourself up. I wasn't nervous at all because I was like well, I'm not getting the part. So it was kinda great cause I wasn't nervous. Then when she had some scheduling conflict, and then were like, 'Who should we have?' I think the character was worked around whoever played her and they knew I sang because I had a cabaret act where I do jazz standards and stuff, so that kind of worked out with the character."

Katie Holmes, who would later go on to play Rachel Dawes in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins," was in the midst of working on "Dawson's Creek," in addition to starring in Joel Schumacher's "Phone Booth." Around the same time, Deschanel had started making appearances on the big screen in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" and Barry Sonnenfeld's "Big Trouble." Ironically enough, both Holmes and Deschanel would star together in the 2002 psychological thriller "Abandon." Saying that one actor would have been better than the other is conjecture because we can't really know that for sure, but Jovie would have definitely been a much different character.

Deschanel's Jovie puts up her walls at work, as she initially converses with Buddy in a slightly deadpan manner. Anyone working retail over the stressful holiday season can attest to socialization being on the back burner until it's absolutely necessary. In Jovie's case, being surrounded by the living personification of Christmas spirit in the middle of one of the biggest shopping centers in New York City would also cause me to retreat inward. But the thing about her character is that she's not an inherently cold person. 

Jovie warms up to Buddy because he's a kind presence who genuinely shows an interest in her singing voice. When a smile slips out, it means something. Deschanel and Ferrell are the right kind of opposites to see why they end up falling for one another. Again, it's difficult to say whether Holmes would have shared that same chemistry. But considering "Elf" has become such an ingrained holiday staple, it would be like trying to imagine anyone other than Bonnie Bedelia in "Die Hard" or Lauren Graham in "Bad Santa."

"Elf" is currently streaming on HBO Max.