OPENING SPREAD
The Marc Jacobs dress.
Jimmy Choo heels.
Area earrings
OPPOSITE PAGE
Monse dress. Nicholas
Kirkwood heels. Mi
Manera earrings. Giles
& Brother bracelet
(right arm). Calvin Klein
bracelet (left arm)without a blowout, btw) to the
other side. “I came into this world
with anxiety,” she says. “I used to
hold my breath from anxiety when
I was a baby and it would make me
faint. There are times when it’s
debilitating, and there are times
when it makes me laugh, like in the
car today when I lost the plot
entirely. But I actually feel like my
superpower is my anxiety. It’s one
of my key motivators, and it’s at
the center of my ambition.”
Zoey started acting at 15 and has
been working steadily ever since.
But despite what is now nearly a
decade-long career, she has
remained the kind of actress who
i s p e r e n n i a l ly on t he c u s p of s t a r -
dom. (“I think they should stop
doing It Girl lists and start doing
Staying Here Girl
lists,” she says.) She
doesn’t have the
instantly recognizable
face spread across
tabloid covers, and
she’s not the kind of
celebrity who gets
mobbed by paparazzi
outside nightclubs or
launches their own
athleisure brand.
I n s t e a d , Z o e y i s a n
extremely rare flavor of 2019 star:
You’ve seen her around for years
without knowing much, if any-
thing, about her.
She was in 14 movies from 2016
to the first half of 2019—yes,But not to scare them away. Instead,
she wants them to come closer. “Hi,
babies!” she calls out, waving.
“Hi, little babies!” She keeps trying
to get their attention, but the pack’s
leader, a dog walker, maneuvers
them the opposite way, farther
down Wilshire Boulevard. Zoey
deflates a little bit and continues to
stare after them wistfully. “I’m sur-
prised they didn’t come over here,”
she says. “I smell like dogs.”
I’m surprised too—after all, she
is sitting on the ground, dog-level,
eating a quesadilla. We’re at the
Los Angeles County Museum of
Art, and although there’s a cock-
tail bar with frosé and chairs
galore a few yards away, Zoey has
opted for taco-truck takeout and a
shady spot of sidewalk.
For the record, Zoey does not
s me l l l i ke do g s —s he j u s t s p e nd s a
lot of time with them. The daugh-
ter of Back to the Future actress
Lea Thompson and Pretty in Pink
director Howard Deutch, Zoey’s
home base is a place near her fam,
where she’s surrounded by rescue
animals—chickens, horses, the
aforementioned dogs—and the
current love of her life, Maybelle, a
mush-faced pit bull she adopted
four years ago.“It was literally love at first
sight. I saw her and I was like, This
is God in dog form. I’ve never seen
a ny t h i n g s o go o d i n my l i fe. We do
not deserve this creature,” Zoey
says. The infatuation hasn’t faded:
She has a Maybelle nameplate
around her neck, Maybelle tattoos
on her leg and heel, and before the
i nt e r v ie w, Z o e y e x pl a i n s t h a t t he
only reason she’s not turning off
her phone is because she’s waiting
for a call from the vet.
She’s wearing a thrifted floral
maxi dress, gold hoops, and sneak-
ers, and as she sips a horchata with
a palm-tree Prada bag by her side,
Zoey appears every inch a laid-
back California cool girl. Until she
insists that’s not the case. “Oh my
god, I’m a wreck,” she laughs,
before recounting how she spent
her morning trying, and mostly
failing, to get super
prepared for our inter-
view. “I was like, Get
your shit together and
look like a decent
human being,” she
says. “Don’t be late. Pee
before. Get your hair
done.” She made, then
missed, a Drybar
appointment. I first
spotted her from the
vantage point of our
meeting location as she sprinted
across the grounds in search of a
bathroom.
“In the car, I realized I had
packed six outfit changes, as if I
would change before I got here?”
She shakes her head and runs her
fingers through her hair, flipping
her auburn bob (which looks greatZoey Deutch
is screaming at a
pack
of dogs.
108
Cosmopolitan November 2019