What Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet look-alike winners say about fame
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What Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet look-alike winners say about fame

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Has anyone ever told you that you look like Harry Styles?

For most of their lives, London musician Oscar Journeaux and many other 20-somethings have been told they resemble attractive male celebrities. A new internet trend gave them their moment to shine.

“Look-alike contests” have begun circulating in the US and Europe following the inflammatory event in New York City on October 27, where the actor Timothée Chalamet made an unscheduled appearance.

The “Wonka” star appeared in New York City’s Washington Square Park, where hundreds of skinny, curly-haired con artists competed for a trophy and a $50 prize. Competitors also donned costumes to enhance their likeness with some choosing to be Chalamet’s portrayal of Willy Wonka , Paul Atreides from Blockbuster”Dune” or his casual New Yorker attire.

Since then, a Paul Mescal the competition took place in Dublin last Thursday, a Harry Styles competition in London on Saturday and one Dev Patel competition in San Francisco on Sunday. USA TODAY spoke with the winning doubles to discuss their five minutes of fame, as well as the mastermind behind the operation.

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How it started: 100 flyers scattered across New York City

At the end of October, flyers accumulated across New York City reading “Timothee Chalamet Look alike Competition” with a day, time, location and a photo of Oscar nominees. Word spread quickly, leading to a huge crowd, a surprise appearance from the star, an arrest and dozens of Chalamet impersonators.

The man behind the now international sensation is content creator Anthony Po. Via his YouTube channel @anthpoWith over a million subscribers, he strives to drive culture rather than follow trends and has leveraged New York City as the perfect setting for his mission. In April, he attracted hundreds to watch his anonymous persona”Cheeseball Man“eat a whole tub of cheese balls.

Po said he only planned to draw a crowd of a thousand to the look-alike contest, but around 10,000 participants showed up. He and the team spent around $4,000 including labor, wardrobe, a cardboard cutout check, a trophy and several $50 contestant prizes. To him, it was worth every penny because it was “for the culture” and united several spitting images of Chalamet. The contestants were later invited to go to a New York Jets game and are now part of a group chat titled “Brother Chalamet.”

“We want other people to have their moment. If it traces back to me, that’s great,” Po told USA TODAY. “I didn’t invent posters, I didn’t invent look-alike contests. But I think it was a labor of love to bring all these cultural phenomena together.”

Look-alikes experience fame overload

The first winner was Miles Mitchella 21-year-old economics student from Staten Island. In a sea of ​​Timothées, he got the loudest applause when he donned a Willy Wonka costume that he sparingly and a briefcase filled with sweets.

Initially expecting a small ‘meme event’, he eventually found himself surrounded by fans, interviewed by press and on Vogue’s Instagram page. Later, his phone was flooded with hundreds of messages and comments. Friends across Germany, Finland, Taiwan and Korea reached out to the student asking “why is my mom talking about you?”

“People just came up to me. Like dozens of people were like, ‘Oh, can we get a picture?’ Can we have an interview?” he said. “It was like sensory overload.”

Jaipreet Hundala 25-year-old from San Jose who works for TikTok’s product team, echoed a similar shockwave at the Dev Patel lookalike contest in San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park. For so long people said he resembled “Monkey Man” star, including his girlfriend who convinced him to attend in a beige jacket, a white t-shirt and some Lululemon pants.

“I thought this was going to be like a casual meeting where a bunch of Indian guys from San Francisco who look like Dev Patel hang out together,” Hundal said. “I just walk up the hill and people’s heads start turning and phones start pointing at me and I just get hit by a truck full of energy.”

How do the look-alikes view fame now?

Oscar JourneauxThe 22-year-old aspiring musician, based in west London, said he was initially hesitant to attend the Harry Styles event as he aims to avoid comparisons with One Direction alum. Finally, he thought it would be a chance to promote his rock band Parlay. And then he appeared in his high-waisted trousers and brown blazer, which he later took off to “show some skin” to the audience, who gave him the loudest applause.

“It was just a pretty intense environment from having a morning coffee to having like 100 people screaming,” Journeaux said. “I guess it’s a bit of a taste of what he’s going through.”

Jack Wall O’Reillya 24-year-old from the west of Ireland who works in film and television, felt he had no choice but to appear at the Dublin event as Paul Mescal. Not only has been compared to “Gladiator“star, he’s also a longtime fan of his work.

The event only drew around 200 people, but O’Reilly still found himself surrounded by press. While his likeness definitely helped him win €20, it was his delivery of “Normal people” line “you look really good” that sold it.

“I have a tremendous newfound respect and empathy for people in the public eye,” O’Reilly said. “I experienced it on a total granular level, about half the attention and publicity they get. And I was exhausted after that. I’m still partially recovering.”

What do look-alikes have to say to their more famous selves?

In case their celebrity versions of them are reading, here’s what each winner had to say.

Jaipreet Singh Hundal to Dev Patel: “Keep up the good work. You’ve done a great job representing South Asian culture in Hollywood.”

Jack Wall O’Reilly to Paul Mescal: “It’s a strange time for masculinity. And I think he’s a leading man now in a movie like ‘Gladiator,’ he’s at the forefront of that and just the amount of tension he gets. And I’d be curious to know how he sees the importance of portraying masculinity going forward in movies and TV, and what it means to be a man these days.”

Oscar Journeaux to Harry Styles: “I hope you don’t mind my trying to capitalize on the looks and I think he was a young musician one day, so maybe you have to understand. I really hope he does.”

Miles Mitchell to Timothée Chalamet: “I’d like to say he’d send me a text on Instagram and maybe meet up and eat or something.”

Another look-alike contest for “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White is scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Chicago’s Humboldt Park.

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