There's definitely something about Zooey. America's most enigmatic sweetheart -- and former BlackBook cover girl -- has done more in her 29 years than most actors will accomplish in their snail-paced career parabola from ingénue to Oscar winner to syndicated TV relic. Each project she tackles carries with it the heft of an anxious creative looking to break from convention. It’s for this reason, presumably, that she’s followed such a wayward career path. Most people will say that Deschanel’s part in Mumford was her breakthrough role, but they are wrong. There’s actually a specific moment, down to the minute, when her star was born. As Cheryl in Miguel Arteta’s The Good Girl, a sardonic department store clerk who wages war on boredom -- and the shop’s ticky-tacky patrons -- Deschanel says, “Attention, shoppers. There's a Retail Rodeo special on aisle 3. Liquid Drain Cleaner, two 12-ounce cans for five dollars. Liquid Drain Cleaner has churning power and it will churn right through your pipes. Ladies, you need female plumbing. Shove something clean and new up your filthy pipes.” Her perfect-circle eyes radiate sweetness and obscenity in equal measure.

From there, she proved capable of more than one-liners in David Gordon Green’s All the Real Girls (with whom, it was recently announced, she’ll reteam on Your Highness, a medieval stoner comedy). There were hits (her recurring burst of insanity on TV’s Weeds), misses (Yes Man) and The Happening (presumably the final nail in M. Night Shyalaman’s film career). And then she began a music career with M. Ward as part of She & Him. Small, humble and assured, this cross-medium leap further cemented her reputation as a serious talent. With her latest film, (500) Days of Summer, alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, she stars as the title season, a woman for whom love is an oppressive marketing ploy. Again, she steals the show.

That said, there’s definitely something off about Zooey. Her honesty is guarded, her laughter reserved. She is neither a vapid starlet, nor an unpredictable Hollywood outsider. She is in but not of her environment. When she says that her goal is to be as “honest as possible,” she is both lying and telling the truth. It sounds callous, but when speaking with Zooey, her charm and trepidation mix together to create an idiosyncratic Stepford daughter.

Lengthy articles have been written about who Zooey Deschanel really is, as if perhaps a DUI, a public outburst of emotion or even an out-of-turn wardrobe choice might make her less unpindownable. (Ironically, she even invokes in writers the use of neologisms in a futile attempt to pin her down.) Less generous critics have suggested that Deschanel isn’t mysterious, but rather a hollow shell of a woman with less depth than she’s given credit for. These people are also wrong.

It’s my belief that Deschanel is a keen observer of life’s ugly side, as proved by her music and film work, and that she has made a shrewd decision to simultaneously appear edgy and transparent, but also grounded and sane. It’s been said that she seems of a different era, which makes sense given what an anomaly she is when compared with a generation of women who consider it their responsibility and privilege to divulge the most precious pieces of themselves to journalists in search of pull-quotes. Intelligent beyond her years, she has learned, early in life, that career longevity is more than the sum of its scandalous parts -- a real girl, indeed. Here, a few questions -- nary a salacious answer in sight -- with the star of this month’s (500) Days of Summer.

This is your second time working with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, although Manic was much darker by comparison. It must have been nice to add a little levity to your professional relationship. He's such a great actor and collaborator. It’s easier to work with actors who are your friends. It’s funny that after Manic, his first serious role, everyone said, “He’s so serious. We didn’t know he could do comedy.” I just thought, Didn’t you see him slipping on banana peels, being hilarious for, like, six years on Third Rock From The Sun?

In (500) Days of Summer, Tom and Summer bond over their shared love of music. Can you recall either falling for someone or acquiring a friendship with someone over a shared love of a band? If music is important to you, then it’s hard to relate on a deep level with someone who doesn’t understand how important it is. It always surprises me when people say, “Oh, I just listen to whatever is on the radio.” The worst is when people say, “I’ll listen to anything but metal and country.” Awful! Or, “I like all kinds.” I have eclectic taste, obviously, but it surprises me when people don’t have such a vested interest in music. It plays such a huge part of my life. I suppose it’s reductive to assume that actors pulls inspiration from things that happen in their personal lives -- I don’t do that. That’s not what I do. As an actor, if you’re just pulling from your personal experiences, you’re going to be very limited. I’ve been an actor since I was 17. But I’m always using my own emotions, because emotions are universal and experiences are not.

In this film, your character, when discussing relationships, says, “I don’t feel comfortable being anyone’s anything.” It’s a sentiment that seems to translate into the way you present yourself in public. Every story written about you says how enigmatic you are. Has that been a conscious decision? When I first started acting and auditioning, people wanted me to be as generic as possible. When you’re going out for the part of “High School Girl #2,” people want you to be a stereotype. But I was never easily categorized. It was always difficult to reduce me to two sentences. Casting agents don’t want unique -- they want, “That girl looks like a bitch,” or, “That girl looks like a princess.” Eventually, though, you end up building your career on things that are different from other people, but in the beginning it was frustrating. I just try to be myself and as honest as possible -- but I have limits.

As you should. As an actress, do you think you owe the public anything more than a solid performance? I can’t think, “This is the way I need to be perceived. How do I become this particular person?” I always need to do things from the inside out. Hopefully I seem as “me” as possible, but obviously, everyone has a public persona that’s separate from their private lives. I’d be insane if I started to identify with my public persona -- started to think I was either too great or too terrible -- because it’s created for me.

You can’t walk around thinking, “I’m an quirky indie girl!” Exactly.

Tell me about the new film you’re working on with David Gordon Green. What about your experience with him on the set of All the Real Girls prompted you to take a part in a medieval stoner comedy? He is one of the best directors in the world. I love him so much. I was just dying to work with him again.

But this one is so wholly anathema to your first collaboration. Totally. For a long time, before Pineapple Express, no one would let him touch comedy. Everyone thought, “David Green? He makes serious indie movies.” But he’s hilarious, so I always knew he was going to direct a good comedy. Pineapple Express was one of my favorite movies last year.

Do you have a favorite nightlife spot? Well, if I tell you where I actually like to go, then people will go there. So I am going to refrain.