A day at the Timothée Chalamet look-alike competition

All content creators, curls, jaw bronzer, police and me.
Photo: Stefan Jeremiah/AP Photo

“Where are you?” – a girl screamed into the phone in Washington Square Park. “I said, Where You? Get your ass over here. Timothy is here!

On a very sunny Sunday afternoon, not far from the New York University campus, where Timothee Chalamet Once enrolled, several hundred people gathered under the Washington Square arch, waiting for men like Chalamet to arrive and fight each other. An hour before the event, there was a lot of questions and confusion: what would the competition entail? Who organized this business? Who judged? Will Chalamet himself appear?

The anticipation for this event began several weeks earlier. In mid-September, signs began appearing around SoHo and the West Village. announcing “Timofey (so in the original) Chalamet Lookalike Contest with a cash prize of $50. Everything about the ad, from the QR code link to Partial page which listed around 2,500 participants (or maybe close to 600) and its unassuming format, replete with a flattened image of Chalamet himself, suggested that this was a genuine “only in New York” type event, a perfectly silly bash that might could have made up for the bad atmosphere in the city when Donald Trump rode into the city two miles north to hold Rally at Madison Square Garden. “I have to go there in 30 minutes,” one of the photographers said to the other. “So, let me know who wins.”

In addition to Chalamet in attendance—and seemingly more than a few people eager to meet someone who might be like Timothée—there were content creators. Selfie sticks, iPhone tripods, baby microphones, as far as the eye can see. Being a modest five-two-inch man, every time I lifted my camera into the air to take a photo of the action, I mostly found myself taking photos of other people taking photos. There was no one to see who was most like boy king in appearance, voice and general energy? Or were we all just there to post?

In this sea of ​​creators, Chalamet thrived, eager to take photos, talk on iPhones, shake hands and even flirt with each other. The doubles used different aesthetic strategies. For Spencer DeLorenzo, a 22-year-old who works in film, the process of getting into character required “a rinse that makes the hair darker” and “an appointment at the salon at 8:30 a.m.” that morning to get Chalamet’s signature curls. . DeLorenzo had all of Chalamet’s nervous charm on the red carpet – looking away and laughing a little. “Fifty dollars will probably go to my dinner tonight,” he said of the prize money. “Maybe if I meet a charming young woman, she can come with me.”

Vincent Panetta, an 18-year-old from Vermont, appeared dressed as Bob Dylan, a reference to Chalamet’s upcoming album. Complete unknown. “Some people compared me to Bob Dylan, so I felt like the best way to do it was that way.” For Kramer Ekholm, an 18-year-old from Wisconsin, this approach was something of a streetwear Chalamet And Dune Chalamet arrived wearing a black robe and white T-shirt. Ekholm also carried an MCoBeauty bag: his appearance was sponsored from a cosmetics company – Creamy bronzer is successfully used to highlight Chalamet’s jawline.

However, some people were ultimately unimpressed by the resemblance. “Just because you have curly hair doesn’t mean you look like Timothée Chalamet,” said Ariana, 24, who attended the event. “I have curly hair. I should come in. What’s stopping me if some of the these are people coming in? Few could agree on the criteria for a successful Chalamet double: “It’s not all about the hair,” I told one woman to another. “He’s not hot because he’s hot. He’s hot because he’s unattainable.”

Curly hair is an issue.
Photo: Stefan Jeremiah/AP Photo

Just after 1 p.m., the event organizer appeared in a top hat and suit. It wasn’t some random guy named Gilbert, as Partiful had suggested; it was YouTuber Anthony Poe, the whole event is another one of Poe’s long, labor-intensive segments, like when he walked like “Man with Cheeseball” This was clear from the second Poe arrived – he shouted, pushing the crowd through a megaphone, as the police attacked the crowd and the real Chalamet has come and gone – that the event will have the entire organizational sequence of the stunt planned by the YouTuber. After the police came to talk to Poe (and apparently ticketed him for lack of crowd control), he led everyone, Chalamet and everyone else, through the NYU campus and finally landed at the Mercer Playground where the refereeing

Poe put Chalamet through a series of qualifying rounds of competition, with Chalamet first standing in the center of the playing area where people either cheered or booed them. Then the contestants were asked Miss America-style questions (about being French, about Kylie Jenner), after which the women came up to, I don’t know, inspect them. By this point, the megaphone had gone silent, the sounds of the event lost among the chatter of those present. “I feel like we should be getting bagels soon,” the man behind me said as another woman walked over to inspect Chalamet.

A final cheer and applause ensued, with the most enthusiastic applause going to Miles Mitchell, who dressed as Willy Wonka, and Zander Duewe, who dressed as Paul Atreides. Was this really a competition of Chalamet look-alikes, if the most similar Chalamet to Chalamet was Chalamet? characters? “One of the requirements must be that you must be born here to compete,” the woman behind me said. “How is that half the battle is with him” That men in suits were finalists suggests Chalamet’s relative inscrutability. None of us really understand that heartthrob even those who rubbed shoulders with him in Washington Square Park.

Chalamet Mitchell’s Wonka ultimately took home the prize, a giant check for fifty dollars, the likes of which are likely dwarfed by what Poe would make from ad sales in his eventual video. Mitchell didn’t seem to mind. The winning Wonka threw candy into the crowd, and crowds of fans descended on the losing group of Chalamet lookalikes, hoping that maybe they already had $50 and would want to go out to dinner. A guy at least two heads taller than me craned his neck to get a better look at the winner. “He’s just in a Wonka costume. He doesn’t even look like Timothée Chalamet,” the man said. The woman in front of him turned around sharply. “So what?” – she snapped. “You think You do?”