Her Current Gig: Thirlby plays a pregnant 1980s New Hampshire high school student, outshining Hilary Duff in What Goes Up, opening May 29.
You Know This Face Because: 22-year-old Thirlby worked the quirk as Leah, the plucky best friend and confidante to Ellen Page ’s Juno and was smokin’ hot for her stoner role in The Wackness.
In Her Own Words: The classically beautiful Thirlby still gets normal girl anxiety, telling New York Daily News, “I am always plagued with ‘I’m not skinny enough, I’m not in shape’ … but I am trying to get to a place where I am like, I’m just me … It doesn’t matter if I am the most beautiful person in the room. There is inevitably going to be somebody way shinier and more tan than my pasty self.”
Why So Fresh? A New Yorker by birth, Thirlby has extensive Shakespearean and stage combat training. But she’s not just badass ’cause she can ward off onstage trouble with a sword, Thirlby is rapidly building a career marked by smart roles in critically acclaimed films like United 93, which marked her first big-screen role. No surprise that this thespian plans on attending college as soon as she’s created a solid body of work in Hollywood.
Why We Love Her: Thirlby maintains a desire for audiences not to “look at me as a teen actress — I crave to be taken seriously. I trained in Shakespeare, and that’s all comedy, even when it’s tragedy,” she says. “But you’re not going to catch me in Not Another Teen Movie 2.” With her career choices thus far, Thirlby has definitely earned the respect, and the laughs, she’s looking for.
What’s Next: Thirlby joins a massive ensemble cast that includes Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf and Blake Lively in this fall’s New York, I Love You.
LAST WEEK’S FRESH FACE: Moon Bloodgood
