This study characterized, the surface properties of plasticized and crosslinked zein films. We showed that the distribution of the surface energy into dispersive and polar components of the amphiphilic zein protein was strongly affected by the surface zein is cast on when zein was cast on polystyrene, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon (TM)). Plasticized zein films had higher fractions of dispersive Lifshitz-Van der Waals (gamma(LW)) components than the Lewis acid base (gamma(AB)) polar components overall when the surface energy was analyzed and deconvoluted using the Van Oss method. When cast on PDMS the polar component increased, water contact angles were the lowest and the total surface free energy increased as a result. Oleic acid and glutaraldehyde concentration, were also varied during fabrication of the films in addition to contact surfaces. Film composition did not have an equally significant effect on the surface energy of films but as expected affected mechanical properties.