I am fond of Julie Delpy.
I have, of course, never met Julie Delpy. I have never been to France (more’s the pity) and life has sadly not afforded me opportunities to meet glamorous French actresses any more than American ones. For all I know, Julie Delpy may be utterly horrid in real life.
But I doubt it. She has always seemed so sane and lovely in interviews. She radiates intelligence and a sense of humor about herself. If she’s horrid in real life, she does a wonderful job of hiding it.
However, that’s not really the reason I’m fond of Julie Delpy.
The other day I heard her interviewed (I believe it was on “Fresh Air”), along with Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater. They were discussing their new film “Before Midnight,” the newest in the series that began with the charming “Before Sunrise” (the only one I’ve seen, I’m sad to admit) and continued with “Before Sunset.” And as I listened to the three of them chatting, something struck me about her voice.
The way she speaks reminds me of how my brother’s girlfriend speaks. The two ladies are from two totally different countries, and probably would sound nothing alike if I heard them both speaking in the same room. But over the radio her tone and inflections and accent sounded like my brother’s girlfriend’s tone and inflections and accent. And I adore my brother’s girlfriend.
So, because of my surplus affection for my brother’s girlfriend, I am fond of Julie Delpy because she sounds like her. And that’s this week’s Question — what person, place or thing do you like (or dislike) for wholly irrational reasons because he/she/it reminds you of a person, place or thing you have a genuine affection/antipathy for? What product did you buy because the commercial played a song you remember from your prom? Whose face do you hate, despite it belonging to a perfectly nice individual, because it reminds you of that jerk from 8th grade gym?
“Starship Troopers” came out when I was in 9th grade. I was wholly unfamiliar with the book. But the commercial featured sweet action sequences of humans lazering giant alien bugs, all set to Blur’s “Song 2”, which had been released slightly earlier that year and was all the rage amongst teenage boys. I wanted to see the movie so badly because of how cool the commercials were, largely because of the song.
The movie was a good one, one I’ve come to appreciate and enjoy more with age. But that song never appeared anywhere in it, something my friends (all similarly afflicted by the commercial) and I still rue to this day.
There’s an actor on Defiance (the E-Rep in the fedora, to avoid some spoilers) whose line deliveries and something about his chin delivery remind me strongly of Nathan Fillion, so I keep wanting to trust his character. Even when he’s doing fairly untrustworthy things.
Jay has a friend who has the same coloring (hair, skin tone), mannerisms, and voice pitch as a former boyfriend of mine. I like him on his own merits now, but I liked him all out of proportion immediately on meeting him.
Certain personal scents (cologne, shower gel, shampoo, etc). remind me of some or another memorable wearer of them in my past – only in good ways – and tend to make me like the immediate wearer of them more. Old Spice is one of those.