The Girl Next Door

Olivia Thirlby just made the big move. After 22 years in Manhattan, she's crossed the bridge to Brooklyn. "It was a big deal for me, but I absolutely love it," says Thirlby. "It's just so fucking nice to go home to a place that's not crowded." Twice as big as her old West Village digs, Thirlby says her new Brooklyn apartment has, as the Craigslist ad might read: "Tons of natural light!" with three windows in each room (including the bathroom) and a porch she plans to turn into her own little "Garden of Eden" this spring.

It's one of those bitter-cold, mid-winter days when I meet Thirlby for lunch at Epistrophy, a white brick-walled café in Nolita. She's wearing white Ray-Bans, a grey V-neck sweater, skinny jeans, a pale gold shimmery scarf (a nice contrast to her mass of deep brown hair) and patterned socks tucked into vintage Joan & David flats. She could easily be the girl sitting next to you waiting for the L at the Bedford stop in Wiliamsburg, and in fact, Thirlby grew up not too far away in Alphabet City during the mid-'80s, before the East Village was a brunch and bar-hopping destination. "The only people there were drug dealers, squatters, and us," she says of her old neighborhood, where she ate Joselito's rice and beans daily and uptown parents were afraid to let their children travel for a play date.

Thirlby's ethereal beauty first resonated on screen in the role of the spunky best friend of Ellen Page in last year's Oscar-winning underdog Juno, delivering witty rebuttals such as the now-famous "Honest to blog?" after Juno tells her she's pregnant. In her first starring role (in last summer's ode to the mid-'90s, The Wackness), Thirlby rocked oversized gold bamboo earrings, drank forties out of a paper bag and got naked with Josh Peck. With an urban sensibility that could only come from having grown up in New York City, Thirlby is the kind of girl that appeals to guys who might have a thing for Zooey Deschanel or a young Parker Posey (read: twenty-somethings who wear glasses, whether they need them or not). Guys like, say, Wackness director Jonathan Levine: "She's just the perfect embodiment of every girl I had a crush on in high school. She has this authenticity and combines it with amazing instincts as an actor. A lot of actors have already developed their bag of tricks -- they're like, 'Oh, I'll do face number six,' and [Thirlby] doesn't have that. Everything she does is just so organic."

It is that organic sensibility that keeps Thirlby grounded and good-humored when it comes to her imminent fame. "So yesterday I was shopping at Anthropologie, and the lady in the dressing room was like, 'You look really familiar. Did you go to U of M?' and I said, 'Nope.' And then she asked, 'Oh, do you just shop in here a lot?' and I was like, 'Yeah, I shop here all the time,' which is a total lie. It's possible she recognized me from a film, but I'm not going to be like, 'Actually I was in Juno and The Wackness and you might have also seen me appear in..." Thirlby's not looking to be a household name, although with a slew of films due out this year -- including New York, I Love You, a collection of shorts about her hometown, and her most Hollywood project to date, Margaret, with Matt Damon and Anna Paquin -- it's likely she won't be mistaken for an old classmate much longer. Still, Thirlby is intent on taking it slow and is self-aware enough to know that at her age she may not be ready to handle fame as gracefully as she might like to, particularly when it comes to publicity. "[Press] is something that a lot of people can do. They're really good at it -- you know, the charm and charisma, and it doesn't bother them, but for me I just know that's not my strength."

When it comes to her career choices, the roles Thirlby opts for reflect a far more mature creative conscience than that of a 22-year-old. "Olivia has an old soul," says her Juno costar Allison Janney. "She is wise beyond her years." In addition to Juno and The Wackness, Thirlby also starred as an arty outcast in love with a band geek in Snow Angels by director David Gordon Green, who, like Levine, is quick to note Thirlby's intelligence and originality in a sea of industry sameness. "A lot of actresses have to take what they can get, but it's fun watching her be smart and selective," says Green. "Everyone is slowly turning their heads -- much cooler than just the whiplash chick." Indeed, rather than heading to Hollywood on the tails of the Juno hype, Thirlby made her off-Broadway debut last fall in the Atlantic Theater Company's political satire Farragut North, with Chris Noth and John Gallagher Jr. "I've turned down a lot of work and been incredibly poor," she says, "I could have chosen to do, like, a horror flick, but I really don't like horror films, so why would I want to do a horror film? There are other people that would be much better at it and enjoy it much more."

Instead, she'd like to do more theater. "I didn't really grow up loving film. I never had a DVD or VHS collection. For every holiday, I would get theater tickets, and seeing plays and actors on stage, I said to myself, 'I want to do that.'" She lovingly urges me to see a show her friends are doing at the off-off Broadway festival, Under the Radar ("It's thoroughly fucking amazing"), and has set her sights on playing Princess Fiona on Broadway in Shrek the Musical, if only to sing Fiona and Shrek's lovey-dovey song about, um, breaking wind, if you will. Fake fart noises are sort of Thirlby's M.O. "I saw it with my best friend, who's known me for years, and she grabbed my arm and said, 'Oh my god, it's you!' They were onstage farting for like a whole minute."

Goofball antics aside, her teen years at Friends Seminary in Gramercy were no joke. Thirlby booked her first job -- a leading role in The Secret opposite David Duchovny -- her senior year (a day after her Juilliard rejection letter arrived). In order to film the movie, about a daughter (Thirlby) who becomes inhabited by the spirit of her dead mother (Lili Taylor), she had to leave school in the middle of her senior year -- not a popular decision at Friends, an academically rigorous private Quaker school. But Thirlby, who was a bit of a loner growing up, was ready to move on. "I didn't have very many friends at school -- it wasn't like I had people who hated me or anything, but it was rough," she recalls. "My best friend, who is still my best friend, was sort of my ultimate partner in crime, so once she left after junior year, I was just kind of like the solo partner in crime, which is a bit of a let-down."

After spending most of her senior year on location, Thirlby went back to school for her graduation and prom, but it wasn't any better. "It was really lame and not worth it all. I just ended up feeling really awful and isolated." Now with high school as much in her past as her legwarmers and bright blue Tecnica boots ("I used to dress like an absolute total nut job"), Thirlby has become a consistently impressive young actress who delivers natural and honest performances. "Part of acting is reacting as yourself, although you are in a situation that doesn't pertain to your life at all," she says. "When people cast, they look for the person who might not be the most talented actor, but the person who in their essence is the most similar [to the character]. There are certain roles that I read and I'm like, 'Oh I'm perfect for this role, I could play this with my eyes closed,' and other things I read and I'm like, this would be a huge stretch for me and a big, big challenge."

And what would be a big challenge to an actress who signed on to play one half of a lesbian couple in Jack and Diane (currently on hold) opposite Ellen Page? "Roles that are really intimidating to me are people that are inherently truly mean and bitchy. That's one thing that I really struggle with, is bitchy girls. I'm not good at selling that attitude. It's a weakness. I'd like to think that [it's because I'm not that way], but maybe it's just too close to home or something like that," she laughs. It feels safe to go with the former -- clearly, the girl doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Not even Amber Heard can get a rise out of her. Heard is the blonde actress who took over the role of Seth Rogen's girlfriend in last summer's Pineapple Express -- a part that had originally been given to Thirlby, who says of Heard: "She was fucking awesome and way better than I was."

For a girl who spent her high school years feeling lonely, she certainly doesn't lack for friends now. It would appear that Thirlby gets close with most of her co-stars, like the entire cast of Farragut North. During lunch she gets a text from Chris Noth, and earlier in the week she went to see Gallagher perform with his band. "Apparently this doesn't always happen, and I have nothing to compare [Farragut] to, since it was my first play, but we got along famously as a cast. I was so excited. We'd get together at least once a week, either at one of our houses or at a bar just to hang out and drink."

Thirlby went to Sundance this year to promote Arlen Faber, a film in which she has a small role alongside Lou Taylor Pucci. This is her third trip to the Park City festival, but this year promises to be more subdued, which Thirlby doesn't consider such a bad thing. She's not into the nightlife scene (she gets sick when she drinks more than a glass of wine in less than an hour) or the crowds on Main Street, and she says that independent film has reached a breaking point -- the same way that word gets out about a hot new bar, and suddenly it's the back of the line for anyone without a black AmEx card. "The face of independent film has changed. If you're an unknown actor, it used to be that independents were a vehicle. That's how actors like Lili Taylor and Sam Rockwell became well known. Now indie films are so popular, you actually can't get cast in an indie film unless you are [a name], so it's really killing a lot of actors who can't get their career started."

A true New Yorker, Thirlby, who operates on a strict monthly budget, depends on the subway and doesn't relish the idea of becoming so famous that she can't ride public transportation without being recognized. "I don't think it will ever get there," she says, genuinely hopeful. "Chris Noth rides the subway everyday, so if he can do it, I can do it." She might, however, be willing to sacrifice some anonymity if it meant costarring opposite her "ultimate" man, Brad Pitt (not that an opportunity has presented itself -- but from Thirlby's lips to Brad's ears...). "He's sort of fascinatingly one of the most under-recognized actors. Yes, he's a movie star, and yes, he's unforgivably fucking gorgeous, but if you look at the scope of his performances, he is good in everything -- whether it's Snatch, doing that weird thing, or [The Curious Case of Benjamin] Button," says Thirlby, in what would otherwise come across as a blatant attempt at intellectualizing a high school crush, if she weren't so damn sincere. After all, a girl's got to have her crushes.

While she has no plans to leave New York, Thirlby is interested in a trip to Nepal, and her friends say Barcelona would be a perfect match for her. "I hear it's just my type of vibe -- very relaxed." She's also drawn to Asia and South America. "I'd love to go spend time by the Andes -- I've had a hankering for mountains lately, I don't know why." For now, though, she'll head down the block to Screaming Mimi's before she hops the L train back to Brooklyn.

Hair: Wesley O'Meara for TRESemmé
Makeup: Lena Koro at ArtMix Beauty

Stylist's assistant: Tyler Wray
Photographer's assistants: Simon Biswas, Joshua Griffler and Isaac Rosenthal
Interns: J. Dwayne Joseph and Dave Gonz
Fashion coordinator: Diane Drennan-Lewis
Production: Liz at Ehmanagement.com
Fragrance: Narciso Rodriguez Essence.
Lotion: David Yurman Luxurious Body Cream.
Hair: L'Oreal Professional Techni.Art Hairmix Supreme Smooth.