Meet Olivia Thirlby, Your Next Big Indie Crush

Anyone hoping to win the hearts of hipster boys — and girls! — everywhere would do well to study the Olivia Thirlby playbook. To start with, she’s in a hit movie that everyone once liked and now hates, but she is so charming and blameless in its faults that it’s socially okay to sublimate your shameful Juno love into talking loudly about how great she was in it. But she really puts on the full-court press of adorableness in today’s Observer profile. She grew up on the Lower East Side! She is winningly thoughtful but charmingly inarticulate! (“It’s difficult when people see a picture of you. It’s you but not you.”) She’s starring in a David Gordon Green movie, but not the Judd Apatow one! For God’s sake, she doesn’t even have a driver’s license. (“I’ve had my learner’s permit since I was 18 and it’s about to expire.”)

As if hearts weren’t already racing up and down the L line, Thirlby goes nuclear at the end of the profile, busting out some immaculate old-school Tribe Called Quest:

“Seriously,” she said. “I have a custom-made rhythm rug … you know, like from the ‘Can I Kick It?’” She then busted out some Tribe: “Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug/If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug/Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug.” She laughed. “I could just keep going and going.”

That sound you just heard was Williamsburg exploding.

Olivia Thirlby: Juno’s Bestie on the Brink [NYO]