“This is a female-driven show, the lead of our show is Zooey [Deschanel] and the story is always going to be told from that female perspective. And what was really great with what [Meriwether] did with Cece, she reflected something happening a lot especially in this generation; she had such a fear of emotional intimacy. So when it came to Schmidt, she was driving the boat of ‘we can hook up and hang out, but if I actually start to feel something with you, that’s scary.’ I think that’s why people responded to the characters, the story was always told through those big emotional choices, and how we protected ourselves, and dealt with our vulnerabilities and insecurities. It wasn’t a guy walking into a room and saying, ‘she’s super hot, let’s see if I can get her.’ There were always so many layers, and we tapped into the emotion behind everything. And I think that’s because women are emotional creatures, that’s how we function.”