november / december 2005:

WINTER MOVIE PREVIEW: Zach Braff
He's scrubbed his way into the director's chair, but this holiday he'll be just a little bit chicken.

profiles by Benyamin Cohen & Bradford R. Pilcher


The first thing you notice upon meeting Zach Braff is that something looks different. Different than what he normally looks like when you see him on your television screen every week on NBC’s hit comedy Scrubs. Is it the head, which looks disproportionately big on his wiry frame? Is it the overgrown hair, now so long it’s begun invading part of his face? Is it his facial features -- his lips, his nose, his forehead, his eyes, heck, even his teeth -- which are so insanely big they seem just this shy of a cartoon character?

Read all the winter movie profiles: Sarah Silverman Steven Spielberg Jack Black Amanda Peet Zach Braff Jon Favreau Mel Brooks

Which, perhaps ironically, is quite appropriate considering the 30-year-old actor is spearheading the celebrity voices behind Disney’s new holiday animated flick Chicken Little, a retelling of the classic fable about a young chicken who mistakes a falling acorn for a piece of the sky. And, yes, “the sky is falling” hilarity ensues.

For Braff, voicing the lead role in a Disney cartoon is just the latest in a string of career accomplishments. The New Jersey born actor broke onto the mainstream scene with his role on NBC’s Emmy nominated Scrubs. But Braff wasn’t content with only small screen success.

Last year he wrote, directed, and starred in the critically acclaimed Garden State, a tiny independent film which made a big splash in Hollywood.

When he’s not busy promoting Chicken Little and shooting the new season of Scrubs, Braff and his brother are adapting a children’s book into a fun Goonies-style kid’s movie. “There aren’t that many movies like that anymore,” he says. “We just want to run and have fun with it.”

As for other directing projects? “I just don’t want to race to do something,” Braff says. “I’m not as prolific as some out there who can churn out a movie every year. That won’t be me. Things need to resonate and brew with me for a little while and then I’ll have another story to tell. I’ve got lots of ideas, but I’m just not sure what the next one will be.”

For now, the overachieving Braff is actually content to bask in the moment. “I just feel really lucky,” he says, eyes widening. “I feel like I’ve won the lottery.”

Release date: November 4



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