Zooey Deschanel Defends Her Manic Pixie Dream Girl-Ness [Video]

Believe it or not, even Zooey Deschanel has her critics.

The 33-year-old New Girl star has been criticized for being a little too over-the-top, with some even branding her a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” a disparaging term referring to a stock character in fiction that frequently exhibits quirky personality traits and is seemingly so “perfect” that it’s completely forced.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is, essentially, the ideal woman for a writer who has never met an actual woman.

If you’ve ever seen anything Deschanel is in, you know she’s quirky.

Anyway, though audiences and critics are mostly taken with her, she has fallen into the trap of paying way too much attention to the naysayers online who criticize her wardrobe choices and the funny way she talks.

In the September 2013 issue of Marie Claire, Deschanel took these critics to task, offering the following retort:

“I became aware that people were criticizing the way I speak, which seems weird to me. I speak the way I speak, and I am an intelligent person. Sometimes I lean into California-speak more for entertainment value. It’s not that I can’t live in a world without the word ‘like.'”

Deschanel said that she tries not to pay any mind to her critics, but admitted that criticism can take a personal toll beyond hurt feelings.

“There are worse consequences, but online negativity stops people from being creative, part of which is having bad ideas as well as good ideas. When somebody says, ‘That idea’s stupid,’ you stop your flow of ideas. We can’t have the next generation be so afraid because they have been attacked.”

But it does seem like her feelings are at least a little hurt by some of the negativity.

“It’s just attacking who I am. A lot of times it doesn’t have to do with what I get paid to do. It has to do with, ‘Oh, you stupid person.’ Even I get slammed and overwhelmed by how negative the internet can get, and I’m an adult. I don’t pay any mind to it, but it’s pretty shocking how when you give people anonymity — it’s like the worst of human nature.”

What do you think? Is Zooey Deschanel a Manic Pixie Dream Girl? Are you a fan, or a critic? You can check out an SNL clip of the actress having a sense of humor about her quirkiness below:

[Image: Shutterstock]