If you've ever wondered why the stars of the TV shows Bones and New Girl look and sound
like they could be related... it's because they are.
Emily Deschanel, who starred on Bones for 12 seasons, and Zooey Deschanel, who currently
stars on the sitcom New Girl, are sisters.
Individually, they're each highly successful actors, and together, they're an inspiring
pair who support each other in a tough industry.
From their childhood in LA to their adulthood as TV stars, here is the untold truth of the
Deschanel sisters.
"You definitely were a really good big sister…"
"Oh thanks.
Not always."
"Sometimes you were mean."
Different plans
As children, the sisters didn't always have the same career goals in mind.
Zooey knew early on that she wanted to act.
Their father told The Hollywood Reporter,
"...from a very early age, our daughter Zooey wanted to crawl into The Wizard of Oz and
be in that movie.
She's always been that way."
Emily was more on the fence.
In a 2009 BuddyTV interview, she said,
"I think Zooey knew she wanted to be an actress from when she was very young.
Whereas I didn't think I wanted to do that."
A lover of art and science, Emily initially thought she would be an architect, but fell
in love with acting from doing high school plays.
By college, she had gotten fully on board and decided to study theater at Boston University.
Mental games
Big sisters often tease their younger siblings, and it's no surprise that for the Deschanel
sisters, the teasing involved acting.
Emily confessed on Conan that she used to try to scare Zooey by pretending to be an
evil alien who had gotten rid of Emily, taken over her body, and planned to get rid of Zooey
next.
"I would kind of torture her.
I was the older sister and it's just the two of us and we would physically fight all the
time but then I'd play kind of mental games with her."
Family business
It makes sense that the parents of two successful actresses would also be in the entertainment
industry.
The Deschanel sisters' mom, Mary Jo Deschanel, is an actress too.
Her professional roles go all the way back to 1967, and she's appeared in notable projects
like Twin Peaks and The Right Stuff.
Their father, Caleb Deschanel, is a successful cinematographer.
He's been the director of photography for more than 20 movies, including National Treasure
and Fly Away Home.
He's been nominated for five Oscars, most recently in 2005 for The Passion of the Christ.
Pretty impressive family.
California girls
The Deschanels were a true LA family, but the sisters have different memories of their
Hollywood childhoods.
Emily loved it.
She told Los Angeles magazine in 2013,
"I grew up near Santa Monica and the Palisades, but we traveled with my dad for his work,
so we always had an outside perspective and appreciated what Los Angeles has to offer."
Zooey, on the other hand, feels the pressure of living in such an appearance-focused environment.
She told Vulture in 2011,
"I just feel like growing up in Los Angeles, you learn, 'Well you're never gonna be the
prettiest girl in the room, so just don't even try.'
I mean, I care about being pretty, but it's not my most valued thing."
Baby cousins
In 2015, Emily and Zooey both had babies within two months of each other.
They swear it wasn't planned, but these little Deschanel kids will get to grow up with a
cousin who's almost the exact same age.
In June 2015, Emily gave birth to her second child, a baby boy.
Soon after, in July, Zooey gave birth to a daughter.
"We couldn't have planned it better.
It's amazing.
Except for the fact that we even work on the same lots and we bring our babies to work
and yet it's so hard to get them together."
Joining forces
The first time the sisters got to work together professionally wasn't until 2009.
"Bones, I love you, you're my sister."
In the fifth season of Bones, Zooey guest starred in the show's holiday episode as a
cousin of Emily's character.
While Emily has never appeared on Zooey's comedy New Girl, there's still time for Emily
to appear as Jess Day's cousin before the series ends.
Fingers crossed.
Role model siblings
The Deschanels are not the only successful sisters in the limelight and they look to
other sibling pairs as role models.
When asked which ones they admire, Emily named the Kardashians and the Arquettes.
Zooey pointed to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as well as fashion designers Kate and Laura
Mulleavy.
Imagine all the sibling crossover possibilities among these families!
Veganism
Emily is a committed vegan who has refrained from animal products since she was a teenager.
She told Vegetarian Times that animal rights are so important to her that while working
on Bones, she requested, quote,
"... that there's a character to present the case for animals in every episode."
Zooey, on the other hand, is not vegan — but her sister did inspire her to try out the
lifestyle briefly.
She explained to Vulture that when she found out she was allergic to dairy, eggs, and wheat,
she thought she might as well go full vegetarian, explaining,
"In the back of my mind, I was like, 'It'll be easy!
I can't have that stuff anyway.'
But I didn't realize you have so few options in the end.
To be a gluten-free vegan is, like, the most difficult thing you can possibly be.
And I lasted, like, six months."
The main difference
When asked by Women's Health how the two sisters are different, Emily said her younger sister
is more fearless, explaining,
"In seventh grade this kid didn't invite Zooey to his bar mitzvah.
And she went right up to him and shouted, 'Why didn't you invite me to your bar mitzvah?'
I just love that.
She is fearless.
I would have called my mom crying."
"I always thought you were very cool."
"Oh really?
I tried to play it cool."
"Would played it cool.
I was less cool."
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