By Thomas Chau in New York City

There’s something very sweet and charming about Zooey Deschanel which makes me think that she’d be my kind of girl. In addition to her bright blue eyes, she possesses a youthful shyness and playful sense of humor that convinces you she’s an all around cool person to get to know.

At the Ritz Carlton in the Battery Park district of Manhattan, Zooey talks about her newest and perhaps biggest feature film to date. She stars as Trillian in the movie adaptation of Douglas Adams’ beloved book, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy.” Known to fans everywhere for its imaginative settings and quirky humor, the book was anything but alien territory to Zooey; she was the only one amongst the principal cast members that was familiar with the book.

Below, Zooey talks about transitioning from the indie screen to the summer blockbuster and what lies ahead in her future.

Q: We heard among all the people in the cast that you were the only one that was familiar with the book.

ZOOEY: That’s probably true.

Q: You were the biggest fan?

ZOOEY: Yeah. I was the only one in the cast with a computer or an iPod too.

Q: What’s up with that?

ZOOEY: I don’t know! None of them have computers. Even those who did, they were like, “Yeah, I got one but I don’t use it or I don’t set it up yet or my assistant hasn’t set it up yet” or something and I was like, “What? C’mon you guys.” Martin only listens to vinyl and he’s like, “Computers? Ugh.”

Q: Do you remember what you thought then?

ZOOEY: I thought it was just the coolest, most sophisticated thing ever but I had no idea what I was reading. I read the words but did I understand them? I don’t think so.

Q: But you had a love for that ever since that time?

ZOOEY: I hadn’t read the whole series. I read that book and thought it was fantastic. Then, I went back to it when I found out I was doing a screen test with Martin. I reread the book on the plane on the way over. I was like, “Oh my God, I’m so lucky. This is the greatest.” Yeah, I’m into the book.

Q: Who is Trillian for people who aren’t familiar with her in the books?

ZOOEY: She’s an incredibly intelligent person who is lured off the face of the Earth by a very charismatic, galactic politician. She is so bored with being on planet Earth.

Q: Can you talk about the romance between Trillian and Arthur Dent, because that’s not really apparent in the books and it’s one of the things that was changed for the movie. What relationship did you and Martin Freeman try to create?

ZOOEY: We certainly looked at movies like “The Apartment’ and “Annie Hall” and a lot of screwball comedies in the thirties. I think we tried to create a tension where it’s so obvious these two people should be together but for different reasons, they’re against it. He’s bitter and she’s stubborn but you want for them to be together and you can see that they just love each other but they can’t do it for some reason. I always find it interesting, no matter how many times I see it. I always liked that in a film and I think that kind of thing can make a romance really interesting. It’s there but it’s very, very underlying. Part of translating the source material into the film is making it one whole piece because the book is told in episodes. For a movie, you have to make it one whole thing and this is a thread that you can continue through episodes throughout the movie and throughout the book. This was a connecting element, as well, storywise.

Q: Since you have a computer, have you been reading up with the fans on the Internet?

ZOOEY: I try not to, no. That would be crazy. You can choose to read that stuff, or not. What good is it going to do me? I just try my best to make the character the best I can and make it the most interesting and also entertaining and also true to the book that I can. If I’m trying to please every craze fan, then I can’t. Of course, we all want to please the fans. Everyone wants to do justice to the book and make it the best we can and the most entertaining movie and also get new fans on board. That’s all we want – fans on board the Hitchhiker’s franchise, whether it be the movie, the book, the radio series, or the TV shows.

Q: If you were to go to sci-fi conventions and met the “real fans” do you think you could handle it?

ZOOEY: I don’t know! It’d be really interesting. I love that movie “Galaxy Quest” that Sam’s in. So funny.

Q: What do you think is the magnet that pulls fans towards this movie or even the book?

ZOOEY: I think that the book is just so clever and really brilliant and it’s got this underlying, philosophical element I think works on many different levels which is what a lot a things that have big followings have. People can get different things and every time you read it, you get something different from it. It’s really funny, let’s not forget how funny.

Q: What do you think that the film has captured from the essence of the book? What was your sense of being on set?

ZOOEY: I think with a book that got a lot of fantastic elements to it, every time you translate a book to the screen, it’s like making it grounded in some kind of reality was very important. You get that across in the language of the book but you can’t have every single piece of narration from the book so I think to create that with a character and with the dialogue and what happens was the most important thing – to make a movie that is entertaining and makes sense and also maintains this fantastical element as well.

Q: Your character is the most intelligent amongst the cast. Did you feel like you had to be the caretaker of her to constantly remind the audience that she’s not the damsel in distress?

ZOOEY: Keeping her intelligence intact was one of my main goals for the character because that’s the main thing you get from her in the book. The character’s not that well-developed in the book; she’s sort of the background character and developing her was part of when Douglas was adapting the book. That was one of his goals – to make the character of Trillian a little more flushed out and absolutely keeping her intellect as strong as it was in the book and the radio series was important to me.

In the TV series, it’s played out incredibly differently and she’s very funny but she’s like a blonde. She wears a leotard and played a little more ditzy, more like Marilyn Monroe but 80s. Crimped hair. That was important to me because I thought Trillian’s attractiveness comes from her intellect. You also see how different she is from Zephod. Somehow, he’s attracted to her and she’s attracted to him but they’re complete opposites and when you first see them on the ship, it was important to me that you see that they have this unbelievable piece of machinery on your hands and all you’re doing is watching television.

Q: Are you going to work on “Elf 2”?

ZOOEY: People keep asking me about that. It’s so early on in the process and I don’t know anything about it at all.

Q: Do you have a favorite movie you like to watch over and over again?

ZOOEY: Yeah, I have lots of favorite movies. Actually a movie that has always been one of my favorite movies and that I watched a lot during this movie was “The Apartment.” It’s a movie I love. Fran Kubelik [Shirley MacClaine] is so sympathetic. She really is different from anybody else - Shirley MacClaine as an actress. I can’t explain it. She’s got a softness and sweetness to her that I think is really wonderful. Although she makes mistakes, you really feel sympathy for her and it’s actually one of the movies I talked about with Garth and Nick when I first met with them. They were saying they loved that movie, and I said that’s one of my favorite movies. That was one of the things that bonded all of us together.

Q: Do you have a favorite CD you’re listening to now?

ZOOEY: My boyfriend just got me into this band called the Raspberries. Do you know that band? I have the Capitol collection, that’s all I could get on iTunes. It’s this nice, catchy melody and Beatle-y.

Q: Is your boyfriend a musician?

ZOOEY: He’s an actor and a musician.

Q: Do we know who he is?

ZOOEY: Jason Schwartzman?

Q: How long have you guys been a couple?

ZOOEY: A year and a half.

Q: So now that you have two blockbusters underneath your belt, do you think you’re going to be sucked into these kinds of films?

ZOOEY: I usually choose movies for the characters. Is this something I can do something with? Is this something I can contribute to? Sometimes I’ll get a script and I’ll say, “I don’t think I’m right for this.” Even if I think it’s good, sometimes it’s not just right for you. I usually know deep down if I know something is a good character for me and it’s hard to describe and put it in words, but the main thing is making sure you’re not miscast or typecast because you want to keep your range open. You don’t want to get too narrow.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" opens in theaters April 29th.