We’ve covered Zoey Deutch a couple of times, she’s in The Politician on Netflix and the Zombieland sequel. She’s the daughter of Lea Thompson and director Howard Deutch and she’s just 25, which is surprising to me because she seems wise for her age. Zoey did a recent essay for Vulture about how she’s dealing in lockdown. She’s alone with her rockstar dog, Maybelle (she has her own Instagram), and has been enjoying cooking and playing Animal Crossing. She prefers the Sims though, because you can make the characters have sex. She’s just like us! Zoey is getting the most press for revealing her coronavirus struggle and the fact that she had the virus early on and found it debilitating. Her friend also had it and was totally fine.
She recovered from coronavirus
I had the coronavirus early on, before the shutdown, and a group of my friends also got it. People keep asking me, “Where did you get it?” and I wish I knew. I feel like I could have spoken in a more eloquent way about my experience had I known. I continued testing positive for a month, which is longer than they’re saying you’re supposed to. I’m okay now. I’m so grateful for my health and I also feel guilty, in a way, for making it out okay. I think this virus is bringing up so many conflicting emotions. I have to say I’m also so grateful for my inherent neuroses, which caused me to stay inside before I was supposed to. I’ve been quarantined longer than there was a mandated shut-in.The reason I want to talk about it now is because it’s so important to wear masks. So many people don’t show symptoms, and my experience was that me and my friends who got it all had such drastically different symptoms. I had a sore throat and felt totally delirious, like I was losing my mind. It was different than the normal “me feeling like I’m losing my mind.” One of my friends only lost taste and smell. One went to the hospital with the “normal” symptoms, but another friend had absolutely no symptoms at all. I stayed inside for almost two months, and I still very minimally go out, with a mask.
I hate to sound like I’m trying to be preachy, but it’s so important to wear a mask when you go out, even if you think you’re okay and think you don’t have it or think it’s allergies. You just don’t know if you have it or not. I really want to be able to donate blood and get groceries for people who haven’t had it and be more of service than I have been able to. I am so lucky to be healthy, that I’m safe and not immunocompromised and have access to doctors; I am incredibly privileged. But not everyone shares that privilege — so we need to be extra careful for those who don’t by wearing masks.
On playing Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing has also been addictive right now, but I will say, it’s not The Sims. It’s great, but not the same. A huge part of the problem is that I can’t make the characters have sex. I loved Sims because I could create chaos amongst them, and you can’t do that on Animal Crossing. It needs the love tub — the hot tub in Sims where you can have sex. I also need incentive to bring other animals to my island. Otherwise, it’s like, “Why do I want to muddy up my beautiful island?” One time, I did all this work and I collected a ghost, and it was like, “Do you want something expensive or something you don’t have?” And I said, “Something I don’t have,” and it gave me a beach ball. After doing all of that work! I was so devastated and confused at the lack of awareness of the amount of work I did. The culture is out of control, but I’m contributing to it.
There’s more in there about her joy of cooking and how she’s distraught that Chrissy Teigen and Alison Roman got into it, because she likes both of them. She also sounded apologetic about the fact that she doesn’t have a lot of hobbies other than cooking, which I found endearing.
Like Zoey I summoned the ghost in Animal Crossing! It cleans up all your weeds for you on the GameCube version, and I deliberately moved the time a few hours ahead so I could find the ghost and didn’t have to do all that weeding. This also reminds me that I need to start playing The Sims again. I enjoyed old school early 2000s Sims when you could murder them in swimming pools and make their ghosts haunt the property. The newer Sim versions were too confusing for me, but I should give it a try again.
I’m glad Zoey is ok and that she’s getting the word out about asymptomatic people. So many young people think they’re immune or that they don’t have it when they’re out there spreading it.
Photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
Great PSA! Mask use is for the well being of others, it’s not for you (unless N95)!
Dan Levy also put out a video on Instagram about mask use trying to re-frame the narrative similarly. He got lots of support from what I was reading but also a surprising amount of crazies
I like this one! Her comments on the Teigen/Roman feud are so funny and I’m glad she was able to recover from the virus (and that she sticks to all the prevention measures). Also, if I were a casting director who was put in charge of Halsey’s biopic, I’d cast Zoey in a heartbeat!
I’ve never heard of her but I love her comments! It’s a constant struggle with people around me to get people to understand the no-symptoms thing. People DO NOT GET IT. My boomer mom keeps saying “Just use common sense!” to mean we should all be touching people we know as long as they’re not showing symptoms. Drives me crazy.
As for Animal Crossing and Sims I agree! I played sooo much Sims 2 and 3, but now really miss the open world of the Sims 3. I get that it’s computer ram hungry but I want it back. I just couldn’t get into the newer Sims, I want to go jog around the world in real time and watch the sun set in the distance.
I didn’t know she was Lea Thompson’s daughter. I feel so old now!
I find it so odd that mask shaming has become a new thing for toxic people to bully others about while they literally scream in public how it’s their God given right in ‘Murica to not wear one. Then it should be the free choice of the rest of us to wear one. Stop the trolling and bullying of people, especially men, who choose to wear masks in public.
And these same people who would be fine with “no shoes, no shirt, no service” will also threaten the life of a clerk trying to enforce a simple “no mask no service” rule.
I also find it odd how this has also become divided along political parties. I would have thought one’s concern for health and safety of one’s self and family and community would transcend partisanship. But defying lockdowns and mask rules seem to be the rallying cry of the far right. Yet the people among them who have to work with the public stand as much to lose from slapdash re-openings and getting Covid germs in their face as any other mortal.
I love all of the Sims games from Sims 1-4. But I just don’t have the time for it these days and have turned it all over to my daughter who spends most of her time building houses.
I think it’s a bit strange to want characters to have sex in Animal Crossing. It was hilarious in Sims. But Animal Crossing really is meant to be cutesy. I do try to make some time to check in on my town every day. We are all playing the game as a family.