If you follow FOX’s New Girl from early on, then you remember the awesome cameo late musician Prince made in the sitcom’s third season back in 2014. Zooey Deschanel, who stars as kooky teacher Jess on the show, recently recalled Prince’s cameo during her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, saying it was an amazing experience.
“It was a highlight of my whole life,” Deschanel told Kimmel. “It was amazing just to get to hang out with him. To the very last second, we weren’t sure if he was going to come to set… We were like, ‘I hope he’s the type that shows up.'”
Zooey Deschanel also revealed that Prince’s manager reached out and said the legendary musician would like to appear on New Girl. The 38-year-old actress first thought it was some kind of prank, but it turned out that Prince was just a big fan.
“You know, you never know,” she said. “When you put stuff out there, you’re in the entertainment business, you never know who might just be flipping channels and find your show. And randomly, Prince found the show, and he was watching it every week with his band, and they’d watch it on tour, and it was like he couldn’t miss it, and they were really invested in the Nick and Jess’ relationship. It was just one of those really surreal moments.”
In the end, Prince really did show up on set and did a cameo.
“We had no back-up plan, but he showed up. He was awesome. He was such a pro… A good actor and very kind of chill all the time. Such a cool guy,” explained Deschanel.
You can watch Zooey Deschanel discussing Prince’s cameo with Jimmy Kimmel below.
