Zooey Deschanel nearly missed out on Elf because Katie Holmes had already been cast

Zooey Deschanel originally lost out on Elf to Katie Holmes.

The New Girl star arrived to audition for the Christmas classic when she was just 21 years old, only to be told by director Jon Favreau that she didn't need to read any lines because Jovie had already been cast.

Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she recalled the filmmaker saying: "'We just offered it to Katie Holmes'.

"An I was like, 'Oh, OK, cool.' "

Favreau asked her to sit down and chat about the film anyway, and Deschanel felt a freedom in the exchange.

She said: “So what was great about that was like, I wasn’t nervous.

"It’s like when you’re an actor, you’re like first starting, and you’re auditioning, you get nervous, and you’re like psyching yourself up.

"I wasn’t nervous at all, because I was like, ‘Well, I’m not getting the part.' "

In the end, Holmes had to back out of the film due to scheduling conflicts, and the casting team revisited the idea of Deschanel taking on the role.

Despite not being the first choice, the 45-year-old star revealed how her joining the movie had an impact on Jovie as a character.

She explained: “I think the character was kind of meant to be like worked around whoever played her.

“And they knew I sang because I had a cabaret act where I’d do like jazz standards and stuff. And so that kind of worked out with the character.”

As well as singing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town outside Central Park in the film's Christmas Eve finale, Deschanel also showed off her singing skills in an earlier scene.

Jovie is seen singing Baby, It's Cold Outside in the shower when Buddy the Elf - played by Will Ferrell - walks into the women's changing room and joins in on the other side of the shower curtain.

Deschanel admitted she didn't expect her co-star to be able to sing as well as he did.

She told Entertainment Weekly back in 2020: "He said he wasn’t a singer, so I wasn’t expecting much.

“But his dad [Roy Lee Ferrell Jr] is a great musician. I should’ve known he’d be secretly good.”

The movie became a major critical and commercial success, grossing $228.9 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $33 million.

Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema tried to get a sequel underway, but Ferrell turned down a $29 million offer to return.

In 2021, he explained to The Hollywood Reporter: "I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money.’”

But the Step Brothers actor found he just couldn’t sign on to a film he didn’t have his heart in.

He added: "I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.’”