Do we like Zooey Deschanel?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, and there is real climate and feminist advocacy, but the record we could open is on the thin side.
Zooey Deschanel is the quirky-cool actress and singer most people know as Jess from New Girl. Her recent screen work is lower key: Amazon MGM Studios signed her to lead the rom-com Merv, directed by Jessica Swale, and it reached Prime Video in late 2025 to a mixed critical reception.
On the harm test, there's nothing grim to report. In a 2013 Glamour interview she said she's a feminist and that femininity and feminism aren't opposites, pushing back at people who wave off women who like pink and Peter Pan collars. We found no anti-LGBTQ+ words, no vaccine nonsense and no grievance slide in anything we could open.
On the planet, she walks the walk. In 2020 she joined the Creative Council Advisory Board of Climate Power 2020, saying she was excited to fight climate change. In 2021 she was also promoting a World Wildlife Fund partnership to seed native wildflower habitat for pollinators.
As for how she treats people, we found no pattern of bad behaviour in the pages we could open. In 2024 she copped plenty of online flak for saying she doesn't think nepotism got her work, though she also credited her family's creative help. Thin skin about a nepo-baby label is hardly a crime.
The honest gap: the record is mostly interviews and lifestyle coverage, with no deep reporting on her politics or conduct either way. That keeps her out of the 9s and 10s for us. But with no harmful company and some real climate advocacy, she's an easy yes.