ɿoɿɿiM Mirror

 I have been told I look like Martha Plimpton.



 And I guess I do. But I think I am starting to look a little bit more like myself—more than ever before! But if we are talking doppelgängers, and I guess we are, then here is a list of people I have been told I look like.

 Martha Plimpton
(hint: River Phoenix is the shadow beside me)
I saw Martha once, in person, in the revival of Pal Joey, off Broadway. And she was fabulous! Sitting in the audience, looking up at her, center stage, I really saw it then, really felt it for the first time. I was looking into a real-life future mirror. 

Kate Hudson
I will never forget when my sister told me I looked like Kate Hudson. It was just after Almost Famous hit the theaters, and they were talking about Kate on the radio when my sister said, "You know, you kind of look like Kate Hudson." And I was thrilled! She was my very first doppelgänger.

Drew Barrymore

The other day I walked into the bank. As I was welcomed into the world of HSBC by the male teller at the front desk, the female teller's mouth dropped open like a drawbridge. She looked at me with wide eyes and kind of shook her head and then said, "You look just like Drew Barrymore." She said, "I had to take a double take." I said, "Oh, thank you so much, but if it was my sister who had walked in, then we would have needed a fork-lift to pick your jaw back up." 

Jennifer Jason Leigh
 I was at an audition, siting in an auditorium seat next to a girl in a pink prom dress, no, better yet, a quinceañera dress. She turned to me, tapped me on the shoulder, said, "You look exactly like that girl. You know, what's her name? From that movie, that high-school movie. You know, Fast Times at..."
"Oh! Jennifer Jason Leigh," I said.
"Yea! Her! Single White Female!"
"Yup, that's me!"

Jodi Foster
What is funny about being told I look like Jodi is that a) I really do not think I look anything like her (although I have to hand it to myself, I found a pretty, pretty good picture for this pairing) and b) the girl who told me I looked like her, in my high school gym class, looked more like her than I do.

Kate Winslet
Kate is a fairly recent addition, so the story is a little less than exciting. I had posted this photo on Facebook and a friend said, "You know who you look like here, don't you?"
Again, I was sort of under the impression I looked like myself, but I asked, "No, who?"
"Kate Winslet," she said.
And just a week after that I was told I looked like her again. Who knew!

Elisabeth Shue
In high school I was told I looked like people I really did not think I looked like (i.e., Hilary Duff. Where did people get that one from? Fun fact though, about Hill Duff, we share a birthday!) and I was sort of set in the fact that I did not look like anyone other than myself, even though I am a strong believer in "we have a clone of us out there somewhere." Anyway, I was watching Adventures in Babysitting and I was looking at Elisabeth Shue and I thought, She is who I look like. And although many have disagreed, I still see it.

 Bonus: 
The thing is, I know I have another me out there somewhere in the world, and I have proof. My Nona was at a flea market—this was years ago, when I was a little young thing, tan and thin and blonde—browsing, not looking for any one thing in particular, when she spotted a poster in her peripheral. In the line-up of what looked like orphan children was a girl, facing forward, looking at my Nona with my eyes, through my face. The photo was/is this:
Here is what I really looked like, granted I am smiling, but still...can you spot me: 

Double Bonus: 
*Because it all starts and ends with Martha*

This poem is about Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix and the picture of me on the haystack.

Martha Mourns

You are the shadow beside me
and daily I dip my hand into your ice
how unlike the touch of your body
your warmth
slipping my hand into your hand like gloves
you are bare against me
a hologram
disappearing in a hand wave
convulsing quickly on concrete
and I am the road
your cold bones
brain sputtering on overdose
in sidewalk stroke
your hand swipes my hand
as I wave back to you on a haystack

Triple Bonus: 
Here are a few of my Brother-in-law's and Sister's doppelgängers, because they were too good to pass up, and because I got their permission to use them.

Michael Pitt
All I know for certain about this look-a-like combination is that it makes complete and total sense. When my sister and I first discovered Hedwig and the Angry Inch, we first beheld Michael Pitt; and my sister fell in love!

David Hemmings
We were assigned Blow-up in my comparative film and literature class. We read the short story and then watched the Antonioni film. I bought a copy of the picture and watched it with my sister at home. From the second we saw David Hemmings, back up against a brick wall, we saw the connection. We paused the film and stared for a while, finally turning to each other saying, "That's Brandon!" We sat through that whole film without a stitch of a straight face. 

David Morse

David Morse is one of those actors who is in everything, the one you can never remember the name of, but you "love him in that movie." He is the ultimate That Guy actor. And he is my Brother-in-law's future mirror. And also, watching the movie Contact, with David Morse, Jodi Foster, and Jena Malone (who comes into this doppelgänger picture below), is really bizarre considering.


Jena Malone

My sister always had a hard time with this one, I think because Jena Malone's characters are really annoying and whiny in a number of movies (Donnie Darko, Saved! to name a two), but I think since Catching Fire she has come around. This is not my sister's number one look-a-like, however, but it is pretty darn close, if you ask me. 

Drew Barrymore
My sister and Drew Barrymore are the epitome of the doppelgänger spirit. I would need all of China to count how many times my sister has been told of her uncanny resemblance to Drew. No one denies it, everywhere we go someone notes the similarity, and everyone questions if she truly is Drew. Come to think of it, now that I see their pictures side by side like this, I am beginning to question it myself. 



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