INTERVIEW WITH ZOOEY DESCHANEL ('Trillian'):
How is "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" going?
It’s great. It’s done. It was great. It was so much
fun to make that movie. We had these 7' tall
alien Vogon puppets. They built four different alien
planets, the Heart of Gold set, like the most amazing
sets. And all the actors were great. I’m making up my
own system to control the ship and everything. It was
really fun. That was a real like 'going back to your
childhood' sort of thing. To walk on set and have it be
a spaceship that you’re running around and you have to
pretend to be hit by missiles. It’s just the most
fun.
What's your costume?
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be talking about it
because they were very protective. We had to wear
robes if we were ever out in public. We shot in the
Freemason’s Hall at one point and we had to like cover
up. But I have like a one piece suit. I have a couple
different costumes but the main one is this sort of
aqua one piece suit, sort of like a karate one piece.
It’s really cool.
Is the movie pretty close to the book?
Yeah. Pretty much everything from the book is
included. There’s an added character. Most everything
that was changed was Douglas Adams’ idea to begin
with. It was in his hard drive. They had his hard
drive, so any changes that were made were pretty much
according to his wishes. But there’s a new character
played by John Malkovich who’s like the leader of a
cult, a sneezing cult. They worship the mighty
Arkleseizure. And it’s on planet Viltvodle Six and we
go there and it’s great. With each incarnation of that
story, there were changes made. Between the radio
series and the book and the TV series, there were a
lot of different things.
Are you signed for the whole series?
Well, they don’t have any plans. I think they’re
going to see how the first one does to see if they
want to actually do the rest. But yeah, we all
[signed] sequel parts of the contract.
What was it like working with Martin Freeman?
Yeah, a great Arthur Dent. He’s a really good actor
and he’s perfect for the part. He really works. It’s
different than the original Arthur, Simon Jones. Very
different but still so great, and Sam Rockwell is
playing Zaphod and that’s great. Mos Def is amazing
and so funny as Ford Prefect. It’s a great cast.
Is this the biggest budget film you’ve worked on?
Yeah, I think that’s probably the biggest budget.
It’s a big movie.
What are the differences?
Some movies require more funds. We had a lot of
time to shoot it and I mean, they had to create entire
alien planets and spaceships. They had to create all
this stuff and that takes a lot of time and money and
energy, so you need that extra money. I mean, they had
the most amazing puppets and stuff. We didn’t need any
puppets for "Eulogy," you know what I mean? It’s
a character piece. But the interesting thing about
"Hitchhiker’s" is it’s also a character piece.
It’s just within the context of all this fantasy.
