wreminiscence. we're all mad here.

petitdejeuner:

Down in Paris they walk fast
That is unless they’re walking slow
And in cafe’s they look away
That is unless they look right in
And in the corners I’m getting lost
That is unless I’m getting found
And if you are the ghost of New York City
Then won’t you stick around

Ne me quitte pas, mon cher

- Regina Spektor

Zooey Deschanel is a true Hollywood original. With her bone-white skin and huge blue eyes, she’s startlingly beautiful, but unconventionally so. She’s high-energy and high-decibel, but her accent is impossible to place. She has a flair for off-the-wall conversation, but is too smart to dismiss as merely a kook.
Born into the acting business - her mother is an actress; her father a cinematographer - she made her film debut in 1999’s Mumford. Since then, she’s specialised in playing ‘misfits’, from a mental patient in indie film Manic to a spacefaring scientist in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Her latest movie is (500) Days of Summer, in which she plays a love-weary secretary who falls for a greetings-card writer. Now 29, she lives in LA and is engaged to singer Ben Gibbard.


If there was a fire in my home the first things I’d grab would be my musical instruments.

I’ve got two pianos, a Yamaha upright from the Sixties and one from Twenties Chicago. Those pianos are my babies. They’d be difficult to get out of the door in a hurry, but I can’t leave my babies behind, right? I’ve also got a pedal steel guitar and a couple of ukuleles. People seem to think playing the ukulele makes me some kind of eccentric, but it doesn’t seem odd to me. I love the sound they make. George Formby is one of my heroes.


The best music was made before 1980.

It’s not that music went tragically wrong in the Nineties; I just don’t connect to recent stuff so much. The music I love I’ve always loved, whether it’s Ella Fitzgerald or the Kinks, Dusty Springfield or Bobbie Gentry. The last band I loved was the Smiths, but even they are less in my sphere than those other names I’ve mentioned. But I’ve listened to them a lot recently, because their songs are a big part of (500) Days of Summer. In general I prefer old stuff, whether it’s music, movies or clothes.

I knew I was destined to become an actress from the age of two.

My nursery school did a production of The Three Little Pigs. Even at two I was very specific about how I wanted the scene to play out, like I would insist that the narrator called me ‘Third Baby Pig’. When the wolf started knocking on the door I refused to get up and open it because he was knocking the wrong way.


I just lay on the stage pretending to be asleep.

At this point my dad leaned over to my mum and whispered, ‘Dustin Hoffman.’ He meant not only was I definitely going to be an actor, but I would always want to act in my own way, the way I felt was appropriate for the moment. He was right. As an actor I’ve never settled for less than the best. That doesn’t make me difficult to work with; it just makes me very precise.

I grew up believing my sister was from the planet Neptune and had been sent down to Earth to kill me.

I believed this because my sister Emily convinced me of it when I was a toddler. I think she’d seen Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and her imagination ran away with her. There’s a part of me that still believes it. I have moments when I think, ‘Hmm, could that be true?’ Occasionally I ask my sister about it and she responds by pulling an alien face, which only confuses matters.


As a child my best friends were tropical fish.

At elementary school I was a bit of a troublemaker. I wasn’t a horrible child; I simply didn’t understand the rules I was meant to abide by. It took me a long time to understand things like waiting my turn or raising my hand before I could talk in class. I was very sensitive and kind of chubby. I didn’t respond well to teasing and taunting. So I’d end up doing something like hitting some kid with a pencil and getting sent to the principal’s office. There was a big fish tank there. I spent so much time in that office that I got to know the fish real well.


I bought a Fifties prom dress for $15 and loved it so much I wore it to the Oscars.

Happiness to me is finding bargains in second-hand stores. I’ve been passionate about vintage clothes as far back as I can remember and I’ve developed a good eye for a bargain. In a New Orleans thrift store I got a Seventies ski suit that had been designed for the Winter Olympics. I picked that up for $30 and it’s worth much more.


It took me years to get over my fear of ghosts.

I believe there are things within my control and things outside my realm of control. Eventually I realised it was time to stop feeling anxious about ghosts that I’ve never met, may never meet and may not even exist.


I used to anonymously fax people photos of Liza Minnelli.

She was everywhere at the time because she was about to marry David Gest. I was captivated by all these photographs in magazines and sent them all over the place, but I think most people worked out it was me. It didn’t strike me as strange or silly.


People tell me I have the strangest hobbies; on movie sets I used to crochet hats for the entire cast and crew, although the repetitive motion used to hurt my wrists.

But some of the things I like doing are perfectly normal - bowling, ice skating and miniature golf. These days I pass the time on set by reading books.


You may be surprised to learn that I’m able to make myself invisible.

Not literally invisible - but I only need to change one tiny thing about my appearance and even my closest friends don’t recognise me. A slight change of hair colour or make-up is usually enough. It makes for an easier life. I guess I’ve got one of those faces that’s easily adaptable.


I believe your life is extended by one hour if you hold your breath when passing a graveyard.

My dad taught me that when I was very young. He used to say it wouldn’t work unless I held my breath for the whole length of the graveyard. I still do it to this day.

thingsgohazy:

kissyourbones:(via floatingintheblue)