WHERE ARE ALL THE NORMAL SIMONES?

This is funny: I used to almost never encounter my name in fictional media. My name is Simone, so it’s a familiar name, but just uncommon enough that you have to be reminded of it.

The only time I’d ever really heard a character have my name was in the 2002 film S1M0NE (which, funnily enough, also happens to be the year I was born. I also have been meaning to see this film for years). The next time really caught me off guard, and it was while watching As Told By Ginger for the first time, and one of the minor characters featured heavily in a few episodes is also named Simone. That one was a nice, unexpected surprise, since I already adore that show and that gives me a way to connect with it more, lol.

But lately, man. I don’t know what’s been going on- maybe it’s because I’m scrubbing the indie scene trail a bit more- but I’m getting that same coincidental, déjà vu experience I mentioned in my last post about the city: I’m starting to see my name everywhere.

Not in recent stuff. That actually would be scary. But in stuff I’ve never encountered before, I’m finding my namesake in the most fucked-up characters in the line-up.

The first movie was Loving Annabelle (2006). I literally don’t even remember how I heard of this movie; all I know is I was reading the description on Letterboxd, and BAM! Simone is a teacher who gives tongue to her student. Gross?!

The next one is The Fan (1982). A disturbed girl confesses her love to the pop singer of her obsessions. He doesn’t love her back, she loses her mind! Wanna guess what her name is? You’re right!

Those two are probably the worst ones. The other few were tame (one actor even had the combination of my and my mom’s given names as her full name, and it was very sweet to see), but mostly just consisted of me being caught unannounced by all these sudden appearances of that name.

It seems my name has been doomed to be assigned to the most off-the-wall, basket head-cases you could ever dream of coming across. I thought the name was meant to be sophisticated or something!

This post was typed up after midnight the day it was posted, as apart of the “After Midnight” series ★