Zooey Deschanel says Lamorne Morris did not just walk into New Girl as Winston Bishop. She and Jake Johnson pressed the case for him with studio and network leaders while the casting process was still unfolding, because Deschanel had already decided early that Morris was the right fit.
That story is drawing fresh attention now because Deschanel revisited the casting fight in a recent appearance on The Zach Sang Show, where she walked through how the sitcom's ensemble came together. She said Johnson and Max Greenfield were cast quickly, while Morris needed far more push behind the scenes.
Deschanel said she knew early in the audition process that Morris would be perfect for Winston. She also said she read with every person who came in for the part after Damon Wayans left the pilot and the show held another round of auditions for the character. Morris had already auditioned for Coach, the role Wayans played in the pilot, before landing Winston Bishop.
The back-and-forth matters because Deschanel's account makes the casting sound less like a clean decision and more like a hard sell. She said she wrote to the heads of the studio and the network, while Johnson wrote to Jake Kasdan, and that the message was simple: Morris was best for the character and would be a great addition. In Deschanel's telling, the rest of the cast was easy to assemble, but Morris was the one they had to fight for.
That fight paid off. Morris landed the role, Winston became a fan-favorite through the end of the series, and he later reunited with Hannah Simone on the rewatch podcast The Mess Around With Hannah and Lamorne. Deschanel's recollection leaves one clear impression: the part that helped define New Girl's ensemble almost went to someone else until a few cast members decided to make the argument themselves, and Jake Johnson was part of the reason that argument reached the people who could say yes.
