NEW YORK (AP) — Except for a shared mop of wavy, darkish hair, Miles Mitchell and Zander Dueve doubtless wouldn’t be mistaken for one another. Neither would Christian Conti and Spencer Delorenzo, or David Arkay, Vincent Panetta and Dempsey Bobbitt.
But they now name themselves brothers. The “Brothers Chalamet,” that’s — linked by a passing resemblance to at least one Timothée Chalamet.
Mitchell positioned first, and Dueve, second, within the unofficial look-alike contest that noticed 1000’s — together with, briefly, Chalamet himself — swarm New York’s Washington Sq. Park final October. The remainder, if ranked in any respect, fell someplace behind them in organizer Anthony Po’s lineup.
For some, that day within the park introduced neighborhood — and alternative. Over a dozen contestants, added to an Instagram chat dubbed “Brothers Chalamet,” sat entrance row with Po at a New York Jets recreation. Mitchell, then a university senior, revived his Goodwill-thrifted Wonka costume for “The Drew Barrymore Show” and was flown out by CBS for the Golden Globes, posing with the actual Chalamet on the purple carpet. Modeling alternatives adopted. Some caught the performing bug themselves.
For Chalamet, the look-alikes grew to become sudden surrogates operating an impromptu guerrilla marketing campaign throughout his awards season push for the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Every viral second gave the bit longevity, stretching the contestants’ proverbial quarter-hour of fame.
“Every now and again, I’m like, OK, five minutes up,” Dueve informed The Related Press in Los Angeles in March. “And then I’m like, oh, OK. There’s another thing, and then another thing, and then another thing.”
What’s left, a 12 months after their assembly? A category, united by a weirder than normal day in Washington Sq. Park and a likeness — usually, admittedly, imprecise — to considered one of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
Embracing ‘cultural hijinks’
Bobbitt was in line at a meals truck throughout a go to to New York when strangers informed him to enter the competition. Arkay, conscious he didn’t share a “striking resemblance” to Chalamet however nonetheless a fan, was despatched the data by his equivalent twin brother. (“Anytime we hear the word ‘look-alike,’ our ears perk up,” he mentioned.) Panetta was working as a background actor in Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing” when he noticed the flyers providing a $50 prize.
Sensing that effervescent curiosity, photographer Jonathan Hollingsworth got here up with a plan: He’d go along with a paper backdrop, a digital digital camera and launch types. Police rapidly approached, asking if he was behind the gathering and if he had a allow. “The answer to both was, of course, no,” Hollingsworth mentioned. A summons was issued, the setup got here down, and his less-invasive backup — a Polaroid digital camera — got here out.
Because the story goes, there have been arrests, a transfer to a close-by playground and a $500 effective, which the invite app Partiful coated (Po declined the same provide from Chalamet’s group).
Kate Eberstadt had bussed in from Washington, hoping to advertise her track “Timmy Chalamet.” She additionally thought-about getting into — “I do actually look a little bit like I could be a Chalamet cousin,” she mentioned, “maybe more like Pauline (Chalamet, also an actor)” — however opted to look at. That proved fruitful: A video she caught of the actual Chalamet posing with Delorenzo, set to her track, was picked up by leisure shops. Delorenzo and Conti’s subsequent look at Eberstadt’s February live performance thrilled the viewers.
Hollingsworth’s ensuing e-book, “Call Me Timothée,” was revealed two months later. “It’s sort of a highbrow presentation of something that you could argue is a little lowbrow,” he mentioned. However “that sort of pure, simple, revelry and joyousness” — the accessible “cultural hijinks,” as he put it — was one thing he needed to doc.
YouTuber MrBeast included Mitchell and Po amongst his “Brainrot Avengers” in his 2024 rewind video. Later, Mitchell parodied Chalamet’s “College GameDay” look in a digital commercial for Unimaginable Meals — an imitation Chalamet, promoting imitation meat.
“It’s like a Doppler effect,” Hollingsworth mentioned. “It’s not something everyone just thought, ‘Oh, well, that was fun,’ and walked away from.”
Harnessing Chalamet’s vast enchantment
A two-time Oscar nominee, Chalamet has maintained enchantment amongst mainstream and very-online audiences alike since he broke out, balancing critically acclaimed indies like “Call Me By Your Name” with blockbusters like “Dune.” Forward of his “Saturday Night Live” look as host and musical visitor, followers joked he ought to carry out the notorious “Statistics” rap, a excessive school-era video that periodically resurfaces. Chalamet, whose representatives did not reply to the AP’s a number of requests for remark, opted as an alternative for deep-cut covers of Dylan.
Sergio Slavnov, a former hairstylist for Elton John and Neil Sedaka, went to the competition on the lookout for expertise for his Avenue Man product line, working on a premise he had seen play out in his salon chair: Even when they don’t appear like Chalamet, folks need his tousled waves. (Alas, the actor has not too long ago shaved his head.)
On Oscars weekend in March, Slavnov flew Mitchell and Dueve to Los Angeles to movie an commercial. Surrounded by suited fashions and holding a 3D-printed Oscar statuette, the pair dressed as Wonka and Paul Atreides earned some nods, stares and not less than one salute to “Lisan al-Gaib.” “He’s my idol too,” Slavnov laughed. “He increased my business.”
Slavnov additionally stepped in to buy a ticket on the final doable flight for Dueve when the Atlanta safety guard received a last-minute invite from the “SNL” group.
“If I didn’t make it, they would have given my spot to someone else,” Dueve mentioned. “Go into Bushwick and I’m sure you can find 10 Timothée Chalamet look-alikes.”
Within the January “SNL” promotional video, Chalamet requires backup from Bobbitt, as Wonka, and Dueve, as Dylan.
“I genuinely can’t sing enough praises for him,” Bobbitt mentioned. “He treated us with the respect that we would expect to give to him.”
“Even when we were on set, the director called out ‘Bob Dylan’ for my name and Timmy was like, ‘Nah, that’s Zander, call him Zander,’” Dueve mentioned.
Kickstarting a pattern — and discovering buddies
Copycat occasions around the globe have honored everybody from Dev Patel and Glen Powell to Zendaya and Shohei Ohtani. A Stephen Colbert look-alike contest was a rally in early September, after his late-night present was canceled.
“I was making skits on the internet in 2021, getting like 5 or 6 million views,” Po mentioned. “The greater impact of those is way less than bringing people together in real life. You know, the winner of whatever look-alike competition is going to tell their grandkids about it.”
The “Brothers Chalamet” chat — the place invitations to comedy gigs and magic exhibits are frequent — these days capabilities like a help group for the principally 20-somethings. “We’re the graduating class of the Timothée Chalamet competition,” Dueve mentioned, one bringing collectively “a bunch of people that probably wouldn’t bother to look past each other on the subway.”
Delorenzo now works at a movie show that’s planning to place him to good use when Chalamet’s “Marty Supreme” comes out. Earlier this week, he interviewed at a chocolate retailer. “The joke writes itself,” he mentioned in a textual content.
Most of the look-alikes certainly had their curiosity in leisure careers confirmed or impressed by the response to the competition.
“Best-case scenario: If I do become a really successful actor, then I could say this all came from a YouTuber who made a look-alike contest of another actor,” Mitchell defined. “And then someone is going to make a look-alike contest of me in the future, and someone is going to win that, and then they’re going to become an actor. Just because that sounds so crazy, that is a motivator for me to become an actor.”
