Photo: Rob Latour/REX USA.Years from now, when every big-network sitcom stars a quirky indie darling, we'll look back and thank Zooey Deschanel for breaking down those barriers. One of the actresses she blazed the trail for is Greta Gerwig, who was just cast as the lead in the How I Met Your Mother spinoff called, you guessed it, How I Met Your Dad.
Gerwig will play Sally, a woman described as "a female Peter Pan who never has grown up and has no idea where she's going in life," which sounds eerily similar to her Golden Globe-nominated role in last year's Frances Ha. She'll also serve as a producer and writer, which might explain how CBS was able to lure the actress away from a burgeoning film career.
Some observers however, feel that Gerwig's decision to migrate to the small screen was purely a financial one, something that she's already taken a considerable amount of heat for. New York Magazine's Matt Zoller Seitz, for example, wrote that "Maybe Greta Gerwig is tired of living out of suitcases and wants to try the whole 'boring homeowner' thing." Others came to the actress' defense, like LA Weekly's Amy Nicholson, who tweeted: "Wait, more female writers and actresses and storylines on network TV is a bad thing?"
Maybe it all comes back to Deschanel, who caught a lot of flack when she made the move from movies to television. But, the same people that criticized her then, now go dark with the rest of the country on Tuesday nights, because that's when New Girl is on. Since Deschanel's bold move, other young female film stars like Anna Faris and Kat Dennings have also had success in the world of multi-camera sitcoms. So, before we judge Gerwig for making this unexpected transition, let's see what one of the brightest young female voices out there can bring to the genre. Something tells us she's going to be a game changer. (Deadline)