Zooey Deschanel dislikes pretty girl characters

Zooey Deschanel doesn't like playing "pretty girls".

The 31-year-old actress-and-singer- decided she wanted to star in forthcoming picture 'Your Highness' with Natalie Portman and James Franco to get the chance to play someone unusual from other films she gets offered.

She said: "My character has been trapped by an evil wizard for most of her life, so she's pretty weird.

"I like getting to be unselfconscious - I don't really feel so comfortable playing just, like a pretty girl - so to be able to be a maiden who has no table manners, that was fun."

However, she does know the movie - directed by Gordon David Green and filmed around the Northern Irish capital Belfast - is "silly", but was glad to work with the big-named stars.

She told Total Film magazine: "Great actors definitely make your days a lot better. I mean it's a very silly movie so we were all aware of that, but it was an honour to work with all those great actors."