When I was little, there was only one person I was ever told I looked like. It was so inevitable that when people said, “Wow! You really look like that girl, you know…” I would fill in for them, “Winnie Cooper. From The Wonder Years.” in my best Eeyore tones.
In vain did I protest to my friends, “But she doesn’t have a chin! And she’s so WISHY-WASHY! Am I wishy-washy?” They assured me I had both chin and personality in spades, and I felt much better. However, in ranting against her Winnieness once, I parroted one of her lines from the show in her piping little wishy-winnie voice: “Keeviiiin, I don’t think that’s very niiiice!” and my best friend stared at me.
“Wow. That’s uncanny.” Thanks for the reassurance. But whatever my friends thought, friendly strangers remarked upon it and unfriendly co-matriculators shouted, “Wiiiiiinnie! Winnie Cooooooper!” after me in the halls.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of myself at that age handy, but here is the face of my affliction, Danica McKellar:
To be fair, I think I wore my hair like that occasionally in the 80’s, too. It was an evil time for hairstyles.
Luckily, as I grew older the Winnie problem abated. The last time I distinctly remember hearing the familiar refrain was my freshman year at college, walking to a movie on Halloween with a friend. Some members of the University of Chicago football team were skirmishing in the field whose boundary I walked, and one stopped dead and pointed. “Dude! That chick looks just like Winnie Cooper!” They hooted at me until I passed, and it was not until the middle of the movie that I realized I should have said, “Great costume, huh?”
That was the first time I’d heard the name of my old nemesis in a long time. The new comparisons I heard were more flattering: some people said I looked like Winona Ryder (whom my sister had long been told she resembled):
My cousin and aunt thought I looked like the maid in the 1993 Secret Garden movie (Mum and I watched it, and couldn’t see it — Mom thought I looked a bit like Mistress Mary Quite Contrary, though!); unfortunately, this is the only picture I could find of her:
Finally, a fiercely flattering few have said that I resemble these two fine ladies, both of whom are on my ‘If I Had To Look Like Someone Else’ list:
<img src=”img/articles/salma.jpg” alt=”Salma Hayek” title=”
If you think I look like Salma Hayek, you are crazy, but nice.” class=”imageCenter” />
I don’t really think I live up to either comparison. This is a picture of me, albeit just one I took with a timer to show off a haircut:
So I was interested yesterday when in an e-mail exchange with a family friend I read:
I was thinking of you last night as we were watching West Wing (DVD’s – we never have our act together to watch things on anyone else’s schedule). The election night episode from season 4 (if you follow these things) had a young actress who looked remarkably like you.
Curious, I pulled up an episode guide for the show and scrolled down to the guest stars, thinking I’d imdb up any likely female names and peep their pictures. Third guest star, as Elsie Snuffin, Orange County Campaign Staffer…Danica. McKellar.
Comments
Is it really so bad?
She apparently got a hell of a lot hotter since The Wonder Years. Is it really a bad thing that as Danica McKellar’s hotness increased she began to look even more like you?
Re: Is it really so bad?
I will answer your question with bullets, because that makes me more forceful:
Re: Is it really so bad?
Re: Is it really so bad?
But, at the same time as whe was annoying, wishy-washy, incomprehensible, and inscrutable, well, at least to a oversmart childhood outcast romantic like yours turly, she embodied that same kind of non-sexualized long dark haired beauties (like Connelly in Labrinth, of course) that has dominated my major romantic engagements for my entire life. Is it such a bad thing that you inherit that sort of legacy? It should be indubitably noted that the two Audreys (Hepburn and Tautou) are the other major contributers of this effect & I don’t think it’s such poor company.
Which is to say, there are worse things than having one looks compared to someone else who has universally considered positive looks. Per comparison, I get David Spade more often than any other. Yeash!
Re: Is it really so bad?
And yes, you do have enough resemblance and enough of the mischeivious factor in your general appearance to be well compared to the Aubreys. (As such, more of the Tautou of Amelie & Amelie 2: The War Years than of the Dirty Pretty Things pic you pulled in the parent.)
Re: Is it really so bad?
Well, I tried to get pictures of them at my age, by and large. And whilst Audrey T. did three movies in her 24th year (note to self: international stardom not yet achieved), that was the best represented in Google Images. Hence, Dirty Pretty Things.
A comforting note; I couldn’t readily find pictures of Salma Hayek at 24, without delving into the frightening world of Mexican soap opera. Salma wasn’t an international star at 24. And, if I’m aiming for ‘affluent published author’, not ‘babelicious movie star’, perhaps this blog is the equivalent of a Mexican soap opera!
{dramatic jerky zoom-zoom-zoom on EMeta} {angry yelling in Spanish}
Re: Is it really so bad?
Also, Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles is not Amélie 2. Don’t make me yell at you in FRENCH on this MEXICAN soap opera.
Re: Is it really so bad?
What? I want my money back.
Re: Is it really so bad?
Well, you did say it was the worst movie ever. Why didn’t you demand your money back then?
Amelie 2: The War Years
This implies that you’ve seen Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles. And having done so, how can you possibly argue that it is not at least as similar to Amelie in flavor, spirit, cinematagraphic style and basic plot workings as any movie is with its sequel?
Let’s look at another sequal, just for comparison’s sake. Say, Waiting For Godot 2: The Denmark Years. Sure, there are a few more changes here—like some veritable action and plot movement in the notable, if predictable, deaths of the two main characters, but nevertheless, not as similar as A2: TWY is to Amelie.
The most accurate review I read of it called it “3/4’s the movie that Amilie was, but as such, still good enough to be on my top ten list [of movies of 2004]. I have to whole-heartedly agree, though having some different criteria, it made my top 3. (also, obviously, The Incredibles and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) (I think Incredibles is pulling out as my favourite of the year though).
Anyway, I think all I was really trying to say was… I Hate Saurkraut! ...That’s all I’m really trying to say.
Re: Is it really so bad?
Blah blah, that was sarcasm and you know it. I loved it, but only because I thought it was Amelie 2. Now I hate it. So there.
Re: Amelie 2: The War Years
Wow. Umm, I can’t believe people really think the movies are that similar. Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles is kinda frickin’ dark. It was violent in bits, and dealt with war and the violence it does to the human spirit as well as the human body. Amélie is about the worlds we create within ourselves and what there is to be gained by opening them up to others.
I agree! It could be worse.
Son of a biscuit, she DOES still look like you! Maybe you should write her some fan mail. In other news, “Elsie Snuffin?” More than one writer down at the West Wing has been “snuffin’” something, if you know what I mean.
Re: I agree! It could be worse.
Thanks for the support, Winona!
And why should I write her fan mail? So she knows she plagues some random girl? “Hi, please stop pairing my face with that voice. By the way, I liked it on THe Wonder Years when you were dressed up as one of those Star Trek chicks with the pain remotes. Laughed and laughed.” You underestimate my largely feigned petulance!
I like the name ‘Elsie’. It’s flirtatious.
No cause for complaint
As you’ve already seen, I don’t think you’ll get a lot of sympathy on this one. It’s not enough to be a cute_chick? You’ve gotta not look like a famous_cute_chick?
Now if people were saying you looked like Fred Savage, I could understand.
Re: No cause for complaint
Yes, yes, I’m very narty. I think it’s partially that she portrayed such an annoying character. If, for instance, I were a blonde, and people said I looked like Harmony on Buffy, I might be deeply annoyed, as despite the fact that she’s pretty, she’s a vapid and aggravating vampire-kitten :P
At least, that’s my best excuse for being annoyed by it :)