Zooey Deschanel’s thing is that she has those huge blue eyes, and a lot of magazines make the most of it by using some of her particularly “wide eyed” expressions in their editorials. But I have to think that the choice of this photo for Cosmopolitan’s cover was some kind of mistake? She doesn’t look “surprised,” she looks mad. Anyway, Zooey chats with Cosmo’s November issue because she’s promoting Trolls, the animated film. But the most interesting quotes are about humanity, social media and maternity leave.

On having to record a rap verse for a remix of Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” for her new animated film, Trolls: “They were like, are you ready to rap? I was like, uhhh… Justin Timberlake was producing it. He was there, and obviously, I have great admiration for the man. I didn’t want to screw it up, but the one thing I can’t do is that. It was really scary, but Justin was a great coach.”

On her maternity leave from New Girl: “We live in a country that doesn’t give paid maternity leave. I felt very lucky to have an employer who was understanding and let me have, like, four months with my baby before I had to go back to work.”

On taking a break from social media: “A lot of very strange, tragic, sad, unfathomable things have happened… to the point where you’re like, no amount of thoughts and prayers can make this better. It makes me more reflective. I took a social-media break because everyone feels the need to comment on everything immediately. Sometimes, we need to be thoughtful about what we say.”

On humanity: “When I was growing up, I always thought the world would get less bigoted, less racist, and people would be more open-minded. For a while, I thought that was happening, but it’s been very scary the last few years. I really, truly believe that people are basically good in nature, and in the end, that prevails.”

[From Cosmopolitan]

“A lot of very strange, tragic, sad, unfathomable things have happened… to the point where you’re like, no amount of thoughts and prayers can make this better.” I think she’s talking about the inundation of violence, police shootings, mass shootings, etc? And I feel the same way – on social media, there’s the weird undercurrent of, like, grief-policing. You’re supposed to say “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and then people yell because you’re not being political enough and then if you are political, people yell at you for that. And I agree with her about the bigots and lunatics taking over the asylum – it has been “very scary” the past few years especially.

Photos courtesy of Cosmopolitan.