A common problem for network television actors—maybe the most common problem for network television actors—is the presupposition of familiarity that comes from allowing them to enter our homes all the time. We see their faces more than those of our uncles and cousins and probably our parents, so why shouldn’t we run to embrace them when we see them on the street?

In the case of Rashida Jones, this feeling is amplified. She’s uncommonly pretty, for sure, but she has a face that seems to be arranged in a manner that maximizes sympathy: clear eyes that quirk slightly upward at the edges; a wide mouth whose default setting is a smile; a small, proud chin. The impact is deepened by her history of playing lovable, relatable characters who are passionate about being reasonable: the power-suit-clad Karen on the third season of The Office; the profoundly understanding Zooey in the 2009 film I Love You, Man; the hardworking, levelheaded junior associate Marylin Delpy in 2010’s Oscar-winning The Social Network; and, for the last four years, nurse Ann Perkins on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, who frequently serves as the show’s soulful supporting beam when the characters around her fall apart.

But playing the good egg in a carton of crazy and bad ones will frequently leave an actor relegated to secondary roles. So in 2008, Jones took matters into her own hands and wrote—with her friend Will McCormack—the film Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012). It’s an inversion of a traditional romantic comedy—a love story about a couple that is divorcing but cannot seem to separate. The film is funny and heartbreaking, due primarily to Jones’s performance, which is janky, manic, and unhinged (though still lovable).

I met Rashida Jones on a Wednesday late afternoon at the Palihouse, a West Hollywood hotel where some of the scenes from her film were shot. It was a week before Obama was reelected and she was feeling jittery about the outcome. Regardless, she seemed a winning amalgam of the nicest and most flawed bits of all the characters she’s played, so it felt natural to embrace her for a good half minute on the street after we’d finished talking. —Kathryn Borel

I. YOUNG, DRUNK PEOPLE LOVE FAMOUS PEOPLE

THE BELIEVER: Were you on set today?

RASHIDA JONES: No, I had a day off.

BLVR: Are you going to order some food?

RJ: Yes. I’m going to have the beet and orange salad.

BLVR: Don’t you think beets are the most restorative vegetable?

RJ: I have a theory. There’s got to be some sort of hipster food-lobby, because don’t you see the food trends that are...