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Zooey Deschanel: A ‘fiery feminist’ -- with a hint of Jared Leto?

"New Girl" star Zooey Deschanel talks about Hollywood in the August issue of InStyle.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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No one puts Zooey in the corner!

Zooey Deschanel, InStyle’s August cover star, railed against naysayers in the magazine’s latest issue and gave readers a little bit of insight on her life.

“New Girl’s” “adorkable” hyphenate has achieved massive success but is still frustrated by people’s need to classify her.

“The thing that’s funny about our society is that people love compartmentalizing. Love. It. You almost get mocked for wanting to do more than one thing,” the 34-year-old told the mag.

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And Deschanel is definitely about more than one thing: She’s an actress, a producer, an indie singer, a lifestyle blog co-founder, a fashion designer and an “unapologetic feminist” in her male-dominated industry.

She illustrated that last “compartment” with her reaction to a question about whether she wants to be a mom.

“Like every woman is dying to give birth! I don’t think so. Nobody asks guys that,” she told the magazine. “You go into a supermarket and every tabloid is like, ‘Pregnant and Alone!’ Stuck in this 1950s ideal of how a woman should live her life. That’s not something that defines me at all. ... This brings out the fiery feminist in me.”

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Incidentally, she hasn’t spoken up about the controversy looming around the cover shot. The actress covers the magazine in a Prada dress and scarf, but some claim her cover look is heavily Photoshopped and makes her look like Jared Leto’s transgender character Rayon from “Dallas Buyers Club.”

But the star simply touted the portrait with a “Hooray!!!!” on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Deschanel warned about the dangers of fame and how it can affect people.

“I’ve seen a lot of people turn -- sometimes it unlocks who they really are,” she said. “They turn into celebrities who are separate from themselves. That’s OK, but I just don’t want to be like that. I have to be normal. My mother wouldn’t let me be any other way.”

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The bangs-sporting star also talked about the effects of being bullied as a child, calling seventh grade her absolute low point.

“Having to fight through those years makes you ready for the future,” she said. “I can snap back, I can make fun of myself before they do -- I can do all of it. There’s no way I can ever be as sensitive as I used to be, and it’s sad to lose any sensitivity because it generally makes people very good at art.”

The August issue of InStyle hits newsstands on Friday.

No one puts me in the corner either. Follow me @NardineSaad.

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