Zoey Deutch Knew She Had to Play Our Town's Emily Webb, and the Universe Obliged

Age: 29

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Current Role: Zoey Deutch is making her Broadway debut as Emily Webb in Our Town, a revival of Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, directed by Kenny Leon.

Credits: Deutch started her career at 15 as Maya Bennett on Disney Channel’s Suite Life on Deck. Her film credits include The Outfit, Not Okay, Something From Tiffany’s, Buffaloed, Zombieland: Double Tap and Set It Up, among others. Her upcoming film projects also include Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2.

*Photos shot at Bo Peep NYC

"Another Day's Begun"
Zoey Deutch’s artistic pedigree is usually boiled down to the same few talking points: Her mother is Lea Thompson, the actress and singer permanently linked to Lorraine Baines from the Back to the Future trilogy; her father is Howard Deutch, the film director behind John Hughes classics Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful (also starring her mother). But when Deutch considers her own upbringing, those shiny credits don’t make the headline. “That might be a surprising element of my childhood when people create the story in their mind,” she says. “The Hollywood element of it—we would have dinner every night, and it wasn't like that was ever a discussion. I barely knew anything about my parents' work life.” What she remembers instead is her dad’s “impeccable taste in music” and her regular trips to the theater. “They nurtured much more of an interest in the arts and a lot less of a fascination with the business side of it,” Deutch says. She also stresses that her family tree of artists “extends way further than just my mother and father: My grandma was an amazing painter, my grandpa was a jazz drummer, my great uncle is an actor, my sister is a writer…” The list goes on. “I had the great, great fortune of being consistently surrounded by artists and people who chose that as a life path. The gift of witnessing that that's possible is immeasurable.” She saw up close how many different shapes the life of an artist could take—and still, she only ever considered one. “I was always going to be an actress. There was never another path.”

Rebel Rebel
Deutch was four when she staunchly declared her intentions to be an actor. “My parents were, understandably, very hesitant to allow me to do it as a child.” She displayed all the classic symptoms of the drama bug, her Ken and Barbie constantly mired in a tortured love affair. A “ham” isn’t how she would describe her young self, but she allows, “I’m sure [my parents] would say that.” Her parents managed to keep a lid on her professional aspirations for a decade, until her teen years forced their hand. After a year-and-a-half at the performing arts high school LACHSA, she started “going down the rebellious teen path,” as she calls it. “My mother knew that I needed to channel all of that energy and those hormones into something more productive. She finally said, ‘OK, if this will get you on a better track, you can start auditioning.” Deutch hears the irony when she says it out loud. “To most people, the last thing that somebody who's going a little bit crazy needs is the responsibility of being a full adult and working in this generally intense environment. But it totally redirected me. I was so passionate, I was so focused, I was so ambitious. It's interesting now looking back—I just was so sure about it.”

Setting Sail
Deutch booked her first acting job at 15 as Maya Bennett, a season-three love interest for Dylan Sprouse’s character on Disney Channel’s Suite Life on Deck. While Katharine Hepburn eventually became her acting north star (“Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby changed everything for me”), she credits her “moment in time” in the vaudevillian (and “extremely cutthroat”) world of children’s sitcom with building her understanding of cadence and playing against an audience: “There's a rhythm to it that I genuinely enjoyed and knew was specific.” Her towering IMDb page offers a snapshot of what came next. “I love to work,” she says plainly. And with a career in bloom, she stuck to learning her craft on the job.

“Once I started working, [college] seemed counterproductive,” Deutch explains. “But as a result, there have been definite moments where I've felt feelings of inadequacy or shame.” She remembers being in New York City, floating from her time filming Set It Up—a 2018 Netflix romcom that she led alongside Glen Powell, Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs: “I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really living my dream.’” Later, on a walk through Washington Square Park, she stumbled upon a sea of NYU graduates in full regalia. “I touched my face and I was sobbing," she recounts. "All my friends from elementary school were graduating, and it was a moment that I realized, ‘Oh, did I f**k up?’ Did I miss this monumental moment in my life?’” After that, she says, “I just decided, ‘How do you channel that into something more useful than regret?' How do you translate that to curiosity? It propelled me to find education elsewhere." Now, you'll never not find her in class. "The fact that I didn't go to school makes me feel like I need to be in school forever.”

A Dream Waiting Bedside
“It has been the dream of my life to play Emily Webb,” Deutch says without hyperbole. “I can't describe it other than I knew I needed to play her.” She first read Our Town at 13 and a copy of the play has lived on every bedside table she’s had since. “No matter where I’m living, it’s always with me.” Not typically the over-confident, “blindly ambitious” actor willing to lobby for roles, for this, she made an exception. “I promise you, I have to play this part,” she told her agent, knowing dozens of other actresses with more stage experience were likely above her on the list of potential Emilys. “He fought so hard for me and got me in a room with Kenny.” Deutch brought the same unwavering conviction—and the performance to back it up—to her meeting with Leon. And “he trusted that,” she says. “I feel forever grateful to him.” Her dream role suddenly became her Broadway debut. After the first week of rehearsals, she remembers saying, “This entire experience could end today, and it would still have changed my life completely.”

"...Every, Every Minute"
There’s only one other role that stands on as high a pedestal as the one she has now: “It’s Emily Webb and Sally Bowles,” Deutch says. “I have to do Cabaret—have to, have to” (her mother happened to make her own Broadway debut as Sally Bowles in the Sam Mendes revival 24 years ago). Beyond those two formidable characters, she doesn't tend to play the "dream role" game, though is "much more irritated and scared of the question when it pertains to film." But she has a thoughtful diagnosis for the aversion: "It’s really hard to be clear with yourself about what it is that you actually want—not just with your career but with your life. If you're really clear about something that you have to do, the universe oftentimes conspires to help you.” Case in point: Deutch will be celebrating her 30th birthday inside the world that has sat beside her pillow for 17 years. “Honestly, I’m right where I want to be and where I'm supposed to be,” she says. “So often in my twenties I did not feel that way—I was looking and wishing and wanting. But I’m just so where I want to be." She adds, "I have a twinkle in my eye right now," evoking a giddy Emily Webb infatuated with the boy next door. "I've fallen in love and I will be begging to come back soon.”