Zooey Deschanel almost joined The Office in season 8, and here is the character she likely would've played. Deschanel is now best known for playing Jessica Day on the comedy New Girl, which ran from 2011 to 2018. It was an incredibly successful role for the actress, as she even received an Emmy nomination for her performance. Before she landed the lead role on Fox's hit series, though, Zooey Deschanel was close to joining the cast of NBC's The Office for season 8.
It was first announced in early 2011 that Zooey Deschanel was going to work with Elizabeth Meriwether on New Girl, originally known as Chicks & Dicks. However, multiple trade reports revealed that she was considering taking a role opposite Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rain Wilson, Jenna Fischer, and the rest of The Office's cast before she read New Girl's script. Zooey Deschanel has since confirmed that she was very close to appearing in The Office, and she even credits the show as opening her mind to doing a TV show like New Girl. Despite her openness about turning down a spot on The Office, she's never said what character she was close to playing.
Based on the timing of New Girl's development and the state of The Office when Zooey Deschanel was nearly cast, it is quite easy to figure out the answer. Zooey Deschanel was going to play Cathy Simms in The Office season 8. Since Deschanel was in talks to join The Office in early 2011, that limits the possibility of her appearing to the end of season 7 at the earliest. There weren't any major new female characters introduced at that time, so it seems that she was being eyed early on to be Pam's replacement while she was on maternity leave. Once Deschanel decided to go with New Girl instead, The Office pivoted and cast Lindsey Broad to play Cathy Simms.
Zooey Deschanel playing Cathy in The Office season 8 would've been quite a change for the NBC sitcom and New Girl. She would've joined the show and immediately become a bit of an unlikeable character for viewers, as Cathy was positioned as a possible romantic interest for Jim. While it would be interesting to see how Deschanel played the role, it worked out for the best that she didn't take the role. Cathy was only in 12 episodes of The Office, so her missing out on New Girl for a small role like this would've been quite disappointing.
The sitcom might have missed out on having Zooey Deschanel as part of The Office's season 8 cast, but the writers did include a fun joke about her afterward. When Erin has to go undercover as a consumer for Sabre's new store in season 8, episode 7, she says, "I haven't had so much fun since seeing Zooey Des-channel at the Catcherella music festival." Erin mispronounced Zooey Deschanel's name as part of the gag. So even though she didn't ultimately play a role on The Office, NBC's show got a funny moment out of her departure, and New Girl became a huge hit with Deschanel aboard.