You might not recognise Zooey Deschanel, or even be sure how to pronounce her name, but the blue-eyed songbird has been busy wowing Hollywood for a decade.

Her latest movie, 500 Days Of Summer, was a hit at indie festival Sundance earlier this year and follows roles in more mainstream hits like Yes Man, Elf, and Brad Pitt's pithily titled The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.

Named after JD Salinger's Zooey (from his third novel, Franny and Zooey), acting is in Zooey's blood.

Her dad Caleb is an Oscar-winning director and cinematographer, mum Mary Jo appeared in Twin Peaks and older sister Emily is also an actress.

But Zooey, pronounced 'Zoe', has never allowed herself to become pigeon-holed by Hollywood. Equally intent on pursuing her music career, the kooky dresser released her debut album last year and sings on several of her movies, including performing a cover of The Smiths' Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want in 500 Days.

The film pairs her up with her friend of eight years 3rd Rock From The Sun's Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Tom, a greetings card writer who falls for his co-worker Summer (Zooey).

Yet it's no ordinary boy meets girl tale. The film rewrites traditional romcom rules by telling the story from Tom's point of view.

In a clever reversal of gender roles, Tom is the angst-ridden romantic, while Summer refuses to be tied down.

"I hesitate to even say that this is a romantic comedy, because I don't think it is," asserts Zooey, 29.

"It's more of a coming of age story about romance, but it walks a lot of genre lines. 'Romantic comedy' at this point is used to describe a very, very narrow genre that isn't really usually something I connect with."

For Zooey, the film's appeal lay in its unique structure and well-written characters.

"I really loved the characters and the way this story was told. In Tom's mind, Summer's the ideal woman. But she's just a smart, independent, interesting girl. I like the fact that Tom's perspective added a style to the film.

"She helps him grow because he's kind of stuck in a little fantasy world. He's not quite a real man yet and he needs to be. Summer helps Tom become a man."

Hollywood has long churned out schmaltzy romcoms and, in more recent years, the 'bromance' has also taken off, with the likes of Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd sharing their feelings for their male friends.

Could 500 Days spark of a new wave of comedies told from the sensitive man's point of view?

"I hope so!" says Zooey. "You'd hope that along with the progress of women's liberation there has been a progression for men as well.

"Our time is definitely raising some more sensitive men, which is fantastic and I feel like this is the movie that can be the touchstone for every sensitive young man out there.

"It's just as relevant to have a film about a guy and his first real heartbreak as is it to have a film about a woman's. I think it's about time."

The movie was shot in Zooey's native Los Angeles: "It's a beautiful city and I was really happy somebody came along to romanticise it a little bit."

It also helped that Zooey and Joseph already knew each other.

"I feel very comfortable with him," she says. "Our styles work very well together and I'm completely at ease working with him.

"He's fun to watch as an actor. He's really sweet and adorable and he's able to communicate that sense of being charming, even in the character's naivete."

While she may play a feisty, independent woman in the film, in real life, Zooey's lovelife couldn't be more important to her - she announced her engagement to Ben Gibbard, frontman of the band Death Cab For Cutie in December last year.

She's no stranger to falling in love - her first boyfriend was actor Jason Schwartzman - and she readily admits she's "a romantic".

"Love can mean a lot of different things," she says, tackling the all-important L-word.

"The fear of losing it is the dark side, but the wonderful side is the feeling that you get when you fall in love.

"Everyone has the heartbreak that shapes them in a way that they could never go back to the innocence that they had before.

"It's beautiful and poignant and bittersweet to explore. That's why it is a universally appealing theme, because if you haven't been through this then you probably will go through it at some point."

Zooey's sideline as a singer-songwriter and her love of music has helped her to deal with loss in the past.

"I write music so I'm always channelling feelings. They're not necessarily all of my own stories but I'm always channelling feelings into music, whether they are mine or somebody else's.

"I also love listening to music, it is very important to me. It changes every time but I couldn't name one thing that always gets me through hard times.

"I usually like to listen to optimistic music. I would say that like my taste is 70% optimistic and 30% not pessimistic but sullen. It's hard to name one song, but music is one of the most important things in my life."

Luckily for her fans, acting is also important to Zooey - she's teaming up with Danny McBride, Natalie Portman and James Franco in fantasy comedy Your Highness and there's a Janis Joplin biopic waiting in the wings.