The Insider.com

You know Zooey Deschanel from films like Elf and Yes Man and as a quirky character on New Girl, but this Pop Culture Rewind takes you back to one of her less known films--and lesser known looks.

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In the featured flashback, you may have trouble recognizing Deschanel at first on the set of Big Trouble, as she sports a blonde bob cut that looks drastically different from the brunette wavy 'do that she currently has.

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In addition to sporting a starkly different hair style, the then-20-year-old actress also plays a much different character than the one that she plays on New Girl.

"I think I'm one of the smarter characters in the piece," Deschanel says of her character in the film, which stars Tim Allen and Rene Russo. "It provides a good contrast because they're a lot of stupid characters. This movie really goes by the theory that stupid people are funny, which they are."

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Deschanel also talks about her then-upcoming project Almost Famous, a film that proved to be her breakout film as she played the protagonist's older sister.

Big Trouble was originally slated for release a year later in September, but due to the unfortunate timing of the tragic September 11th attacks, the film was released the following spring and proved to be a box-office bomb after the rescheduling.

Check out the full video above to see Deschanel, as well as her co-star Tim Allen, on the set of Big Trouble.

Previous Pop Culture Rewind: Salma Hayek on Her Famous Sex Scene