Jim and Zooey say "Yes!"

Hey, Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel make a cute couple. Who knew? In the romantic comedy Yes Man, the lead characters Carl and Allison meet cute. He's stranded deep in L.A.'s Griffith Park with no gas and she whizzes by on a scooter. She's a free spirit and he's an uptight and lonely banker who says "no" to almost everything...until he's converted to a positive lifestyle by a weird guru who tells his followers to say "yes" to life... yes to...well, everything. For Carl, this includes Allison.

Cute Zooey, whose character sings in the movie, also belongs to the band "She and Him" in real life and is quite the free spirit herself having appeared in a wide variety of film and TV projects. There is "Tin Man" on HBO and she played a guitar-strumming teacher in The Bridge to Teribithia. Zooey voiced a cute surfer girl penguin in the animated film Surf's Up and had leading roles in Elf and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Jim Carrey gives us his popular mugging and silliness in Yes Man but also gets to display his sensitive, romantic side.

Meeting with the duo at the landmark Beverly Hilton Hotel, we wanted to know how they enjoyed working on the film, did they do all their own stunts? (we were there when Jim bungee-jumped off a bridge in Pasadena) and, hey, what is the stupidest thing each actor has ever said "yes" to? Picture Zooey in black dress topped with an adorable fuchsia sweater by Miu Miu with a cute bow in front and Jim in dapper gray suit jacket over a blue patterned shirt and jeans.

TeenHollywood: Zooey, I enjoyed the music, it was a lot of fun, and I understand you had something to do with the lyrics as well. Was it fun working with the girls from Von Iva?

Zooey: Yeah. I usually write music alone, so it was fun to write with other people, and all those girls are so great and so talented, and funny and smart. It was a fun process, because we had a week to rehearse. So I just joined their band for a week.

Jim: She blew us away with that stuff. We weren't expecting that,

Zooey: (Is she blushing?) Oh, stop.

Jim: We were there on the set, it was just like, 'What? Fantastic.' We loved it.

TeenHollywood: How is your own musical sound compared to your character's?

Zooey: Oh, it's very different but you can hear it. My band's called "She and Him" and our record came out last March so if you want to hear us, pick it up.

TeenHollywood: Both of you, what's the stupidest thing you've ever said 'yes' to?

Jim: It was the Sea Cadets for me. I was like 11 years old and I joined the Sea Cadets, which is like a military version of Boy Scouts, and they shave your head and they humiliate you and they yell at you and they parade you around in front of the rest of the people in the town. You parade around with this uniform on, but, I hadn't done that, I wouldn't know that I'm a useless maggot. So I'm glad, so 'yes' always leads to something good.

Zooey: (laughing) I accidentally entered a youth pageant when I was fourteen, that's like a beauty pageant but without the beauty. It was terrible. I thought it was a talent show. My choir teacher lead me on.

Jim: Then like a fetus should win that. It's a 'youth' pageant. It should be the youngest one.

Zooey: (still laughing) Yeah, that's true.

TeenHollywood: Jim, I got to witness you doing the bungee jump off the bridge in Pasadena so I know it was really you. What was going on in your mind then and what do you think about it now?

Jim: Death, death, a lot of thoughts of death; thoughts of crossing over were actually were going through my mind, it was very strange. It was like, 'They do this all the time, they've got this down, it's no problem,' and then I got to the bridge and that was intense enough, I went, 'Oh my God, what have I done? What am I doing here?' But when I got my feet up on the ledge it literally was like a freight train going through my veins, through my entire body, the whole time until I jumped. It was insane, it was insane, it was unbelievable. I actually had post traumatic stress after it. For about a week after it I dreamed of hitting the ground, all those things, it was amazing. So those people that do that all the time, they are addicted to some kind of an adrenaline rush like you would not believe, because they just can't stop.

TeenHollywood: When you had jumped and were hanging upside down, you whipped out a cell phone and made a call. Was that done later or did you really do that on the location?

Jim: No, I did it in the one jump. I'm always trying to complicate things. For some reason, just like at the last second I'll go, 'Well, maybe I can get that in,' and stuff like that. I always make it really hard for myself, so I had to make a little Styrofoam phone so it wouldn't hit me in the lip or something, but I put it in the pocket and they said, 'You're not going to do the scene when you get to the bottom there,' and I went, 'No, I'll do the scene.' So I gave it a shot and I did it. Once I knew I was alive, I was fine.

TeenHollywood: Would you jump again?

Jim: No, I did that, crossed it off the list. They didn't want me to do it at all and I said, 'Well, I'm going to do it once in my life so you might as well get it on camera.'

TeenHollywood: Jim, when you look back at your own life, have you been mostly a 'yes' man or a 'no' man over the years?

Jim: I would say 'yes', even when I say 'no', because sometimes saying 'no' is saying 'yes' to your own self worth. You know what I'm saying? I like to enjoy life, I engage in life so I would say I'm a yes man. I've said yes to so many things from a sex change to gastric bypass surgery, so it's always paid off for me. I've kept the weight off. I have, I work hard at it. (he's soooo kidding)

TeenHollywood: You're a very positive guy, was it hard to make fun of a philosophy that you personally subscribe to? You believe in the power of positive thinking.

Jim: Yeah, but everything can be made fun of. The most serious things are ripe for making fun of them. I have spiritual beliefs that I could literally go out and make an entire comedy routine about, and tour as some sort of spiritual guru, but it kind of goes against that [as] I actually believe the things, so I'm always kind of caught in the middle.

Zooey: Humor is a part of spirituality.

Jim: That is true. We must laugh at ourselves. Yes. I had no trouble at all.

TeenHollywood: Jim, a lot of your movies have really great messages. What do you want people to walk away with after they've seen this movie?

Jim: You know, mostly just to have a good laugh and to feel good in their heart. I think it's not only a funny movie but I think you really believe the love story and the friendships. I think, if there is a message, it's just engage in life, say 'yes' maybe a little bit more than you did before, and life turns out alright. Usually you regret the things you say 'no' to.

TeenHollywood: We're either in a recession or a depression so is this a good time to make comedies?

Jim: This is what comedy's about; to laugh at the pain, laugh at the confusion, whatever. You need it. Comedy is always welcomed, but especially in times like this. You want to have something positive happen in your life. I think this is it; this is the answer to everything. Yes Man is the answer.

Zooey: Yes it is, yes. I think the best comedies came out during the depression personally.

Jim: Right and musicals.

TeenHollywood: Have you ever said 'no' in the past and looking back now, especially after this movie, you kind of regret it?

Zooey: Well, it's exhausting I think to just say 'yes' to everything for real, even if you do it for a day.

TeenHollywood: Are you ever going to say 'yes' to guest on your sister Emily's show "Bones"?

Zooey: Actually we had talked about it. I was going to be on "Bones" but I was working but maybe some day. I would love to.

TeenHollywood: Jim, you've had a few dark roles recently and this is like a throwback to a silly Jim Carrey comedy. How does it feel to be doing that kind of movie again?

Jim: I like doing everything, I just like being creative, whatever way I have to do it. I just want to tell stories but it's always fun to do something that you know. Ultimately it's not the money, it's certainly not the fame, because it's a pain the a**, but it's really the person in the (movie theater) seat you think about when you sit in the rooms and write and you do all the things you have to do. It really comes down to thinking about someone sitting in a seat laughing, and that's it when you do a movie like this. It's really that that gets me off; the idea of people actually laughing and maybe having something to think about when they leave the theater.

TeenHollywood: Jim, you've said, in regard to this character when he's still a 'no' man, that you've been there yourself at times in your life so you know exactly where he's coming from. True?

Jim: Well, I go in and out of shut-in. My social life goes in bursts, where I'll get like, 'I got to get out and do something, man, I gotta do something.' And I'll go on a motorcycle trip down to Baja for nine hundred miles, and I'll hang out with my friends for like a month, and then they'll never see me for two months or three months, or whatever, and I won't answer any calls. I go back and forth, you know, so it's just kind of a seesaw effect, but I need both. Sometimes I get real busy and all I want to do is hide when I get home, and sometimes I'm not so busy and I want to reach out to friends and stuff. I understand this character definitely.

TeenHollywood: Your character Carl speaks Korean fluently. But how difficult was the preparation for that?

Jim: Well the Korean I just picked that up on the set the day of, I just picked that up (laughter). I just hung out with a couple of Korean people on the set and that was it. I just did it. I just riffed. (laughter) No! Actually it took about four weeks of every day, studying it phonetically. It was so difficult, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life is to study Korean phonetically to get it down. And then to have a Korean coach, who literally is afraid to go back to Korea, if I get it wrong.

TeenHollywood: Zooey, what was it like having to keep your energy up with this guy here? What's it like to work opposite a dynamo like Jim Carrey?

Zooey: Well, it's so fun to work with Jim cause he's so fun. And I just used fun twice in one sentence. That would be like, 'nice job Zooey'. (laughter) He's so fun and fun, totally fun (we laugh).

Jim: Think of something. Hurry!

Zooey: But yeah, it's very contagious, and the fun (laughter) is very contagious. It was always delightful. It was always so amusing on set. I'm a pretty energetic person myself. It's always good I think in general to have like different energies, on screen. It's nice to have different characters go at different speeds, just like different people work at different speeds.

Jim: It was nice because she's completely a different tone than me and our characters kind of really worked well off each other, I thought. Yeah, it was fun, (laughter) but I think also, you really believe it. You believe the relationship at that certain point when we're in the barn and we have that (romantic) moment, you really kind of accept it and you can see why they love each other.

TeenHollywood: Awwww. What are your plans for the holidays and what sort of gifts are you giving considering these tough economic times?

Jim: I'm bailing out the economy. (laughter) No one's getting anything. Isn't that enough, to bail out the economy? No one should buy anything.

Zooey: I'm going to bake things. I'm going to buy some flour and some sugar. I'm a fan of making bar cookies and brownies. Well, actually, over Thanksgiving, I made toffee bit brownies. They had toffee bits in them and roasted almonds. I didn't actually eat them, but they were good, according to everybody else.

TeenHollywood: Yum! There's a weird extreme sport at the end of the movie over the end credits. Did either one of you give any thought to doing any part of that yourselves?

Zooey: For me, absolutely not!

Jim: I tried. (laughs) Well I stood up in the suit really well...

Zooey: Me not so well...

Jim: ... and I tried to get in one shot. It's just literally the shot where I'm leaving frame, and I first hit the deck. And we did a shot where I went probably about 40 feet (laughs). And it was so terrifying! It was ridiculous, out of control, don't know how this guy does it...

TeenHollywood: How did you decide to use this bizarre form of roller bladeing?

Jim: Well, I saw it on the internet. That's how it got in the movie. I'm watching this rocket man that goes down the French Alps at 70 miles an hour, he's passing motorcycles, and things like that. People in cars are going 'whaah?!' (laughter) and get whiplash. It was the coolest thing I ever saw. So I said we got to get these suits. We've got to do this. (laughs) And it was so terrifying. I mean you even almost went off the cliff at one point. Did you ever try to stop on roller blades going downhill? I mean it was just insane and your chin is this close to the ground (indicates an inch). It's really hard not to break it.

Zooey: To stand up on that hill just on roller blades was terrifying. I sort of did (the stunt) on a treadmill. But, I did ride the bike (scooter). My stunt double got really injured on it. I did some of the driving on the back roads but I didn't do anything very dangerous.

TeenHollywood: Jim, what advice would you give to a "no" man who is just down in the dumps?

Jim: Eat a ton of sweets and take your life. (laughter) All right, option two. Let's go with option two. I would say hang in there. Invite some people over. (laughter) I don't know. I think the devil works for God, that's my concept. The bad times are supposed to force you into actually getting out of your shell and going out into the world and making friendships and having love. I guess those times in your life force you to become a better person.

TeenHollywood: Zooey, when you first meet Jim's character Carl you kind of impulsively kiss him. Would you advise someone to do that?

Zooey: You mean to make out with somebody that you just met? Absolutely not! (Jim looks disappointed) No. I mean, it's a great idea. What I mean to say is 'yes'.

Jim: So you've never done that, you've never kissed somebody when you first met them?

Zooey: No.

Jim: You've never like grabbed some guy and said 'I saw you and I just had to have you?'

Zooey: No. No. Have you done that?

Jim: I've never grabbed a guy and told him that I have to have him....except on camera.

TeenHollywood: Which scene was the most difficult to get through? There is a bar fight, you get beaten up in an alley....you slip and fall...

Jim: I broke my ribs. (in a scene where he slips in a restaurant)

Zooey: And you were amazingly good-natured about it. Like I came in the next day after that happened and you had like, 'cracked them'. And then you'd laugh and then you'd be like, 'ow!'.

Jim: Yeah, they just had to take all the physical stuff and stick it to the end of the movie, because I had three fractured ribs.

Zooey: But it did not slow you down at all.

Jim: Not really.