Zooey Deschanel remembers plenty of laughing on the New Girl set, including nights when the cast was still cracking each other up at 3 a.m. Getting home afterward could be much less funny.
Deschanel reunited with Jake Johnson on the September 2 episode of We’re Here to Help and recalled driving herself home after shoots when she was so exhausted that she felt close to falling asleep behind the wheel. Johnson agreed that the hours had been “too much.”
Deschanel said production did not provide rides and that the cast was “forced to drive home.” On particularly bad nights, her mother would wake up and stay on the phone with her so she could remain alert until she made it back safely.
Looking back, Deschanel did not treat that exhaustion as a harmless television production story. She called parts of the experience “dangerous,” even while she and Johnson remembered how being severely overtired sometimes produced some of the show’s strangest and funniest moments.
Deschanel Says Her Mom Helped Keep Her Awake
The conversation turned to the schedule while Deschanel and Johnson were looking back at the early years of New Girl. “The hours were insane,” Deschanel said. She remembered driving home from work and feeling as though she was almost falling asleep.
Her solution on some nights was to call her mother. “My mom would wake up in the middle of the night because I’d be like, ‘I’m so tired. I can’t drive home,’” Deschanel said. “And she would wake up to talk to me so I’d stay awake.” Entertainment Weekly also highlighted the story after the podcast aired.
One especially exhausting morning followed an Emmys appearance. Deschanel remembered arriving for work around 5 a.m. with a raspy voice and very little sleep before filming the “puppy in a cup” scene. She was supposed to cry over the tiny dog, and she said the tears came unusually easily because she was so tired.
She Previously Recalled 16 and 17 Hour Workdays
Deschanel had already described the show’s punishing schedule during a December 2025 appearance on Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce. She said some workdays lasted 16 or 17 hours before the cast still had to drive home.
Six day weeks could stretch even further. Deschanel recalled occasions when they were working until around 6 a.m. on Sunday and still needed to finish pickups from an earlier episode. Eventually, she said, the body simply stopped cooperating with what they were trying to make it do.
The exhaustion also fed some of the show’s bloopers. Deschanel said the cast became “unbelievably delirious,” particularly during the first season, when even crew members sometimes struggled not to laugh. She remembered realizing the boom operator was laughing because the microphone itself started shaking.
A 13 Hour Shoot Brought the Feeling Back for Jake Johnson
Johnson said he does not usually work those hours anymore, but a recent shoot with fellow New Girl alum Damon Wayans Jr. brought the sensation back. The pair filmed a Hulu comedy pilot inspired by The Cable Guy, with Johnson playing old school cable technician Chip Douglas and Wayans playing Steven Stephens.
Johnson remembered reaching roughly hour 13 and becoming so overtired that the work started changing. Instead of concentrating only on the scene, he and Wayans began doing things simply to make each other laugh. “You only get here after hour 13,” Johnson recalled, when the overriding feeling becomes a need to go home.
Hulu has ordered only the pilot, not a full series. The project filmed in Vancouver this summer and reunites Johnson and Wayans more than a decade after their run together on New Girl. For Johnson, those long production days briefly recreated a very familiar late night rhythm, minus the loft and, thankfully, the drive home from a 3 a.m. shoot.