Why Zooey Deschanel originally lost 'Elf' role

In 2003, Zooey Deschanel, a promising young actress, turned up to audition for the upcoming festive flick, Elf, only to be shown the door minutes later.

As we now know, however, despite her initial rejection, a 21-year-old Deschanel went on to land the widely sought role of Jovie - a deadpan toy-store employee who becomes the love interest of Will Ferrell's Buddy the Elf.

For those in need of a reminder, the movie stars a human baby put up for adoption, only to be raised in the North Pole by Santa Claus' elves.

Realising his true heritage, however, Buddy heads to New York to meet his biological father (played by James Caan) who had no idea of his existence, and has since build both a family and a publishing empire of his own.

With a little help of his new friends - potential beau Jovie, his step-mother Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and his little half-brother Michael (Daniel Tay) - Buddy forms the family he's hoped for, saving Christmas along the way.

Whilst Elf failed to rake in any notable awards, each cast member has received mass praise for their contribution to making it one of the most widely-adored Christmas films of all time, including Deschanel.

As we say, however, the now 45-year-old wasn't always fated to feature in the film, revealing this week that 'Jovie' was initially given to another actress - none other than Katie Holmes.

Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week, Deschanel was asked to clarify the rumours, explaining: "When I met with Jon Favreau, the director, I walked in and he was like, 'Oh, you don't need to read, we just offered it to Katie Holmes'.

"I was like, 'Oh, okay, cool', and he was like, 'Well, sit down and talk for a minute'."

Katie Holmes was originally cast in the role (Vera Anderson/WireImage)

Claiming she and Favreau enjoyed a laid back catch-up, the mother-of-two went on to call: "What was great about that, was I wasn't nervous

"When you're an actor first starting out and you're auditioning, you get nervous. You're like, psyching yourself up - but I wasn't nervous at all, because I was like, 'I'm not getting the part'."

In the weeks that followed, Deschanel was told that Holmes had 'some scheduling conflict', and would be dropping out of the family favourite.

"They were like, 'Who should we have?', and I think the character was meant to be worked around whoever played her," the actress continued. "And they knew I sang because I had a cabaret act where I did like jazz and stuff.

"So, that kind-of worked out with the character and stuff."

The actress eventually landed the role (Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images)

Despite Elf bringing in more than $220 million at the global box office, Deschanel never received the chance to reprise her role as Jovie, with Ferrell later revealing he shut down a possible sequel, despite being offered $29m for it.

Of the notion, the actor, now 58, previously confessed: "I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, 'Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money'.

"And I thought, 'Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.'"