What To Know
- Zooey Deschanel revealed that she and her New Girl castmates actively campaigned for Lamorne Morris to be cast as Winston.
- Deschanel read with every actor auditioning for Winston but strongly advocated for Morris.
- The cast wrote to studio and network executives to support Morris, and Deschanel emphasized that the show would not be the same without him.
New Girl, new revelations. Zooey Deschanel, a star and producer of the 2010s sitcom, said that she and her costars had to campaign to get Lamorne Morris added to the cast.
As New Girl devotees know, Morris joined the show in the second episode of Season 1 to replace the character Coach, played by Damon Wayans, Jr., who had to return to Happy Endings when that show was renewed for a second season.
“Lamorne was the one that we had to fight for,” Deschanel said on the Zach Sang Show. “’Cause he had come in for Coach but then didn’t test ’cause he had gotten an offer on another pilot that didn’t end up going. … Then we had the Winston character, [and] we had other people come in.”
Deschanel, who played Jessica on the show, said she read with every actor who got a callback for the part of Winston, but her heart was set on Morris. “I was just like, ‘What about Lamorne? That guy’s so good.’ He’s so talented, and Jake [Johnson, who played Nick] loved him and Max [Greenfield, who played Schmidt] — they all knew him because they’d all been in the audition process together originally.”
@zachsangshow @zooeydeschanel on having to fight for Lamorne Morris to play Winston in ‘New Girl’ #zooeydeschanel #newgirl #lamornemorris #zachsangshow #fyp ♬ original sound – Zach Sang Show
So Deschanel and her cast mates conspired to get Morris on the show. “We kind of did this thing where I wrote to the heads of the studio and the network, and Jake wrote to [executive producer] Jake Kasdan, maybe. Like, everyone was writing to somebody different. So we’re all like, ‘Just putting my two cents in. We think Lamorne is the best, best, best for this character and such a great addition.’”
She went on: “Like, I was like, I can’t see anybody else playing this part, and I know they’re gonna see it eventually. … He was the one that everyone was like, ‘Uh, I don’t know.’ And now I’m like, ‘Guys, he has an Emmy [for Fargo], and he’s killing it.’ … You cannot [imagine the show without him]. It’s not possible.”