15. They had every reason to dream big—especially after Prince came calling. In 2014, Baer told E! News that the music legend contacted Zooey Deschanel and Hannah [Simone] directly to ask about appearing on the show.
Prince initially passed on a season two episode titled “Virgins,” which Meriwether later acknowledged to Vulture was “too racy” in hindsight. Instead, he expressed interest in taking part in a different story. With the episode scheduled to air after the Super Bowl, Baer said, “It was perfect timing.”
He was happy for the cast to wind up at his party, but he had one important condition: Prince wanted to influence the show’s central romance. As Baer put it, “He’s a Nick and Jess shipper!”
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16. Prince also arrived with an extensive list of creative requests. As Meriwether told Vulture, he wanted to select the name of the silent chef character, the chef’s clothes, the paintings on the walls, the bedroom-set linens, his own wardrobe, Zooey’s wardrobe, the music, the pancakes and the hairstyles. He even had a piece of artwork—a poem written in the shape of an egg—flown from Minnesota to be displayed on the set.
During the middle of the overnight shoot, Prince offered Meriwether one more idea. For the moment when he surprises Jess in a dark closet, he suggested flicking a lighter beneath his chin instead of using a flashlight. “I tried to stay cool,” she recalled. “’Yeah, that’s funnier. Let’s do that.’” She added that following Prince’s exact creative vision was “one of the greatest privileges of my life.”