Zach Braff, age 30, proves he's very un-Hollywood by calling right on time. "Carolyn?" he asks. I try not to freak out that the star of NBC's Scrubs and the writer/director/star of award-winning romantic quirky comedy Garden State is on the other end of the line. After all, Zach is the poster boy for multi-talented Jewish gents in the entertainment industry. And in spite of a busy schedule--wrapping his fourth season as kooky medical man JD on Scrubs, gearing up to star in The Last Kiss and marketing musical mezuzahs -- Zach made time for JVibe.

You and Donald Faison, who Scrubs fans know as "Turk," play best friends on the show and are best friends in real life. How much of your off-screen relationship works its way into the show?

Just like in real life, we're best buddies. He's black and I'm white, and not only is it not an issue, but, well, on the rare occasion it is an issue we just talk about it and joke about it. Neither one of us is uptight about the East coast Jewish stereotypes or the black stereotypes. We are from totally different backgrounds and have the same sense of humor.

Now that you've directed and starred in your own movie, Garden State , do you get to the set of Scrubs and tell all the writers they can head home?

Oh no, no. I can't write like those guys. They can write one of those a week. I'm not nearly that prolific or funny. They're really good. I've directed two of them and we improve jokes and stuff but I've never written one.

Garden State is packed with wisdom for teenagers. But a lot of kids couldn't see it because of the R rating. If you were a kid, how would you convince your parents to let you watch it?

Well, I don't think that there's a kid above the age of 12 who couldn't see this. It's really only R-rated for curses, and I think it's ridiculous to keep kids from seeing a movie because of curse words. They've all heard them already. There are a couple of quick little drug usages but it's nothing worse than a kid would see on cable TV.

It seems like you're really in touch with your roots. Did you set out to write a movie about your heritage?

Yeah, I didn't know what my first movie was going to be but I think in the back of my mind I always knew I wanted it to be something about Jersey. I also think your teenage years are your body's puberty, while your twenties are your mind's puberty--my mind's puberty. It was a real time of growing and learning. Just like in puberty, there were some really painful growing pains of figuring out who I was going to be and I wanted to make a movie about that.

You have a scene on the DVD version of the movie Garden State , where your father in real life plays your dad in the movie. Apparently that did not make it into your film. Was it tough to leave your dad's scene on the cutting room floor?

It was a great scene, and it is on the DVD. While sitting shiva, he delivered a speech about how he was furious at having to pay for his son's bar mitzvah theme, which was Broadway musicals. It was a very funny thing. All that had to get cut. All my relatives in the scene that got cut. Did you see the electronic mezuzah?

Oh yes. Do they really make those?

No. But everyone keeps telling me I should make them because people would buy them.

So might you go into the mezuzah business?

No, I got my hands full so I can't really stop and focus on marketing electronic mezuzahs.

Your blog (http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/blog/) is full of Jewish references. Was there ever a time when you weren't so into your heritage?

What I love about Judaism are the traditions and the family aspect of it and, most importantly, the humor. Because I think my sense of humor is totally based on a Jewish sense of humor, from Mel Brooks to Woody Allen and all the others. I think that's how I learned humor, from my father, from my family. I have great memories of the traditions of it, but I'm not a huge organized religion guy.

Let's talk bar mitzvahs. Did you get teased for having a bar mitzvah that was all about Broadway show tunes?

No. No one at that age really paid attention. At the time I thought it was so cool, and now, in hindsight, I'm like, oh I was such a nerd.

You've always known you wanted to make movies. But still, you went to college. Did you ever consider skipping out on it?

No. I was never going to skip college. You can't be a kid in a Jewish family and not go to college. But I always wanted to go to college. It wasn't even a question.

Want to hear more from Zach? Then you need to subscribe to JVibe magazine today to get the whole interview (make sure you ask for the Sept./Oct. issue).