One of my favorite holiday movies to watch every December is Elf. This Will Ferrell flick about a grown man who was raised as an elf and sets off to find his human father is pure comedic gold. On top of its comedy, it also tells an adorable love story between Buddy the Elf and Jovie, a department store employee who has to dress like an elf. As we know, Zooey Deschanel played that role to cynical perfection. But, during a Call Me Daddy podcast interview, Deschanel revealed that Katie Holmes actually won the role of Jovie in the Elf movie.
The only reason that Holmes wasn’t in the film was due to a scheduling conflict. When Deschanel came in to audition, director Jon Favreau told her that she didn’t need to read for it because Holmes was offered the part. However, they did sit down and have a conversation.
Later on, when Katie Holmes dropped out of her Elf role, Deschanel was back in the running once again and was a good fit. “I think the character was kind of meant to be worked around whoever played her, and they knew I sang because I had a cabaret act, so that kind of worked out with the character,” said Deschanel. And the rest was merry movie history.