Is this your first time hosting a game show? I did Your Food’s Roots, which was more interviews and things like that. This just sounded like fun. It functions like the old Dating Game in that someone is picking a person to go on a date with, but contestants are also trying to guess who the celebrity is. Michael sings clues about who the celebrity is. Did you ever tune into The Dating Game when it was hosted by Jim Lange? I had only seen clips of stuff from a long time ago. I hadn’t ever seen it before, so it was pretty new to me. Is this like TheMasked Singer, where the contestants have to try to guess who the celebrity is? By the time he sings the clues, sometimes it’s not quite as obscure as Masked Singer, because it’s not over many episodes. It’s one episode. You have one celebrity per episode, so the clues make it a little bit more obvious than The Masked Singer. Sometimes the people have a really hard time guessing who it is. No matter how famous they are, it doesn’t really matter, sometimes the clues just don’t tap into what they know about the person. But it’s really fun to see whether people are able to guess who it is or not. Michael Bolton sings, of course. Will you be doing some singing too? Probably next season. I ended up getting involved in this late in the game. By the time I was involved, everything was set with Michael. So, I just said I’ll handle the massive amounts of talking. And Michael talks, too, but I have to say a whole lot. So, I said maybe next season I’ll do a duet or two with Michael. The celebrities that have been announced are Hannah Brown, Iggy Azalea and Taye Diggs. Since Hannah Brown was The Bachelorette, do you think she has an advantage over the other two, having done a search for love? I don’t know. It’s really interesting to see everyone on this show because it’s open-ended. Each person really reacts in a situation differently, and it’s really fun people-watching. I really enjoy just seeing how people interact with other folks, who are on the other side of a wall. Not seeing them and just getting clues from their voices and what they say. If you weren’t already dating Jonathan Scott of the Property Brothers, would you have been a celebrity guest? I’m pretty private, so probably not. But, of course, I am taken. It’s funny because you and Jonathan met on a game show too. You were playing Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. That’s right. This was filmed in February 2021 here in Los Angeles at the height of the pandemic. What protocols were in place? We basically had to be COVID tested every single day. There’s so much security on the lot. Everyone gets temperature checked every day and COVID tested every day. It was a lot of jumping through hoops, but it was worth it because I felt safe. We also had to keep our masks on all the time. Everyone had to keep masks and face shields on if you weren’t on camera. It was locked up pretty tight. You’re known for your unique fashion style. Will you be using that for this, or did they try to get you into more conservative clothing? No, we had a great costume designer. Basically, it’s just my style, but it has to fit in with the colors of the set. But it’s all stuff I would wear. In fact, some of it was my own. I brought a couple of my own things. Around Christmas time, you had posted some music on your Instagram. Are you working on a new album? We are, actually. We have new music coming. [I have] a lot of new music because we’ve been recording basically the whole pandemic. So, stay tuned for that. You have almost 7 million followers on Instagram, and some of the comments talk about how you inspire them. Who inspires you? I’m going to keep it simple and say my mom [actress Mary Jo Deschanel]. She is such a wonderful person, always so kind to others. She’s such a good friend, such a good listener. I aspire to be like her. What else are you working on? You mentioned music and you’re hosting The Celebrity Dating Game, but are you looking for another series? I have a lot of development stuff that I’m working on. Everything is in various stages of fruition. I like to be very involved, which means everything takes longer, but it’s more rewarding for me that way. You’re known to be crafty. What do you make? I’ve been sewing since I was a little kid. If I’m not working, I’m always doing something crafty, sewing or making something. I like to make stuff quickly, which is why I like sewing clothes for my kids [Elsie Otter, 5, and Charlie Wolf, 4] because they’re so small that I can make something in a couple of hours. You also garden and cook from your garden? I co-founded this company called Lettuce Grow. It’s actually a hydroponics system and it makes gardening very easy. So, I can’t claim that I’m a really good gardener with soil, but that’s why I have been involved in inventing a system and a subscription service to help those without green thumbs grow at home. It’s cleaner, and it uses less water believe it or not. It sounds counterintuitive because it’s hydroponic, it grows in water. But nothing is absorbing all the water away. When you water plants, a lot of the water goes into the soil and doesn’t get used for the plants. In a hydroponic system, it’s all pretty much getting used except for that which evaporates. What have you learned this last year about yourself while we were in lockdown? I learned that I’m not crazy social. I actually like being alone. I like just being with my boyfriend, my kids and my family. I don’t need to go out all the time or go to parties or anything like that. It’s been nice to spend quality time with my loved ones. That was rewarding for me. Next, Why Zooey Deschanel Stopped Wearing High Heels
