Written by Erin Tatum.
Admit it – we all fantasize about meeting a celebrity. Some of us are…a little more determined than others. Such is the case with Alex (Ari Berkowitz), a starry-eyed Ohio native who moves to LA along with her friends Haley (Brittany Belland) and Chris (Ben Smith) in hopes of pursuing careers in show business. Alex’s personal and professional aspirations center around becoming Zooey Deschanel’s personal assistant and eventual best friend. Her efforts to track down Zooey are chronicled in Me and Zooey D., a six-part web series available to watch on YouTube.
Berkowitz does a great job of consciously channeling the look and mannerisms of Zooey’s persona as a means of illustrating that Alex and Zooey are birds of a feather, but not in the aloof Manic Pixie Dream Girl way that might be alienating. Alex is endearing by sheer force of her naïveté and conviction. You really do root for her to find Zooey, even if her behavior may sometimes teeter on prompting a restraining order. The series’ charm stems from its full-fledged embrace of its own zaniness. One description on the official website declares that Me and Zooey D. “is about believing in your dreams and pursuing them like a stalker.”
Ari was kind enough to do a little Q&A about the show and even teased us with some possibilities for season two.
Bitch Flicks: First and foremost, what originally attracted you to the series?
Ari Berkowitz: I watch Elf over Christmas every year. I LOVE how Will Ferrel’s character is so unabashedly excited about everything. He’s super naive, but also full of joy! I wanted to try and write a similar character that was so endearing that their obsession ceased to be creepy or weird. And that’s what I tried to do with Alex!
I picked Zooey because I already had her glasses and bangs –so the hardest part was over. It also helped that Zooey was in Elf. I thought she would be a really fun subject matter, and I relish any opportunity to write original songs…to a ukulele I don’t actually know how to play.
BF: What prompted you to use YouTube as a medium for the series?
AB: We picked YouTube because we wanted it to be available to a larger audience. We considered Vimeo, but casual Zooey fans don’t seem to just stumble upon Vimeo webseries.
YouTube was also great because it allowed us to build our own website (or have our baller webdesigner, Alex Lew, build it). Then we just embed the videos! I think WheresZooey.com is fabulous because it allows us to have our episodes, blog, and contact all in one place!
BF: You play Alex, a girl who is more than a little infatuated with Zooey Deschanel. Do you have any celebrity obsessions?
AB: I did a project with James Franco a few years ago, and I was pretty starstruck for the first few months of that. It helped me to be a little calmer with my celebrity obsessions when I finally moved out to LA. Although, I still have a pretty elaborate daydream about becoming BFFs with Amy Poehler. Also, Barbra Streisand.
BF: The last episode ended on quite the cliffhanger! Are there plans in the works for a possible season two?
AB: We would be so excited to do a second season! We had an awesome team working on the show. My director, Hunter Wolk, is an all-star. He and I have talked a little about what we’d like to do with another season. Let’s just say I’ve been working on my Mindy Kaling impression.
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To learn more about Me and Zooey D., check out their website at WheresZooey.com.