Timothée Chalamet’s lookalike competition turns New York City into an absurd circus
“I was called, ‘Timmy! ‘Timmy! Timmy!’ I respond to him. I pray to him. This is fate.”
That’s what 18-year-old Dempsey Bobbitt tells us as we forcefully walk hand-in-hand with a group of hormonal Timothée Chalamet fans to the Mercer Playground, where a similar actor’s competition is taking place. Bobbitt is one of many Chalamet wannabes with curly hair and high cheekbones hoping to be crowned Chalamet doppelgänger and take home a $50 cash prize. He’s pretty serious about winning, considering he’s dressed as Willy Wonka, played by Chalamet in the 2023 film of the same name, “Wonka.” Bobbitt also traveled to the Big Apple from Pennsylvania (“I go to school in Pennsylvania,” he says).
After the initial hype of the Halloween holiday (dubbed “Halloweekend”), New York City is buzzing on Sunday afternoon as crowds of Gen Z spectators head to Washington Square Park for the event. The contest, organized by 23-year-old YouTuber Anthony “Gilbert” Poe (aka AnthPo), went viral across social media in September after flyers for the event were seen spread throughout lower Manhattan. The online call, conducted on Partiful, included nearly 3,000 RSVPs.
Timothée Chalamet’s lookalike was introduced in the competition (Photo by Joy Saha)Beneath the Washington Square Arch, the crowds double by the minute, and the purity of the October air stirs up ambient adrenaline. It’s fitting that the park is known for it Ambush type interviews with a man on the street Random impromptu performances are fertile ground for this shaggy competition.
Hand in hand, we expel the countless thousands crowding under the passage. Chalamet look-alikes pop up like “Where’s Waldo” crowds, reporters jockey for interviews, and event-goers delight in the cuteness of Timmy’s different looks. However, unbeknownst to us, the real Chalamet, incognito in a mask and baseball cap, slips through the crowd like an undetected Chosen One, or like his character, the unseen Lysan in Dune.
“Hey man, what’s going on?” He says to one of the astonished lookalikes.
Fans hold up signs hoping to attract the attention of a Timothée Chalamet lookalike (Photo by Joy Saha)Excitement quickly turns to panic when a line of New York City police squad cars – sirens blaring and lights flashing – arrive behind the arch. NYPD officers and the city’s parks law enforcement patrol stormed the crowd and arrested four individuals (Including Chalamet’s appearance) People were asked to leave the park to gather without a permit.
“You’ve been illegally rounded up. You have to leave!” says a patrol officer before slapping Beau with a $500 fine.
This does not prevent Poe from organizing his own competition. In an act of defiance — armed with a microphone, a towering trophy, and a comically large handwritten check — Poe leads the crowd a few blocks downtown to Mercer Playground.
Swarms of people walking through the streets of New York invite many passersby and onlookers to join in out of sheer curiosity. The stadium itself is quite small, but people are content to sit on the ground and stand on either side of the barricades.
Bo explains the rules of the contest. Everyone who wants Chalamet will come to the front and introduce themselves. Audience members will then gauge how similar they are to the real Chalamet through enthusiastic cheers or loud “boos.”
Some Chalamets dress simply, instead relying on sharp jawlines, floppy brown hair and good looks to secure a place in the finals. A few Chalamets go the extra mile to dress up as the A-list actor’s more popular characters.
Spectators at the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest (Photo by Joy Saha)“This is the real deal. This is straight from the factory,” Bobbitt jokes of his chocolate outfit. The college student’s mousy brown hair, wide eyes, and smile are somewhat similar to Chalamet’s, but not an exact match. However, his top hat and maroon coat resemble Chalamet’s version of Wonka.
Although, Bobbitt said, “I can’t go a day without people asking me.” [be Chalamet]”, It’s not like he’s a big fan of the Oscar nominee. “I’m fine with [Chalamet]”, he tells us.
When we asked him if he had seen any of Chalamet’s films, he said, “No. I can name them.”
“I know the peach scene in ‘Call Me By Your Name’. I wish I hadn’t done that.”
Like all the other Chalamets scattered through the crowd, Bobbitt is having a good time. “I think I got the golden ticket,” he says.
Best Timothée Chalamet lookalike wins $50 cash prize (Photo by Joy Saha)We’re hunting down another Wonka doppelgänger. This time, Miles Mitchell, 21, shares the secret behind his creepy costume. With a red paisley-print scarf around his neck, Mitchell also has a bag full of chocolates on hand to share. He put together the outfit himself: “It went to Goodwill. Even though the jacket came from Amazon, everything else was from Goodwill.”
Mitchell admits that Chalamet’s “Wonka” is not his favorite movie in the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” series, but he still enjoys it. He says he much prefers “Dune” and “Dune Two.”
The native New Yorker says his friends pushed him to sign up because he’s also from the city like Hell’s Kitchen-born Chalamet: “I think it’s cool. We have a little bit in common.”
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Mitchell takes on a very convincing Paul Atreides, 22 year old Xander Dove. He screams “Lisan Al-Ghayb” by Dune Too every chance he gets, which is funny. The competition between these two Timmys is neck and neck. The crowd roars for the two as if they were the real Chalamet.
But the competition hits a lull when they want to sell a handful of Chalamet lookalikes to an adoring public dominated by women. Bo invites several women to participate in a temporary dating show. Just 40 minutes into the competition, it was starting to look like a lucid dream. It’s a mist featuring four women going out for a hot date with Chalamet. It’s a lot like the 2000s comedy, “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!” Except that no one is aware of themselves about the strange feelings.
One of the Chalamets, Australian-born Callum Foote, a graduate student at Columbia University, lives for female attention. He ultimately chose Sommer Mae Campbell, a 23-year-old actor and movie theater employee from New Jersey, as his best temporary match. She holds a “Hiii Timothees” sign in her hands and hands out business cards as if it were a networking event. There is a sense of awkwardness and exhausted energy surrounding the crowd. Maybe it’s because the Chalamets’ matchmaking with fans feels as forced as Twitter, and they’re anti-social.
But fortunately, the painful dating show ends as suddenly as it began. Nearly 50 minutes after Washington Square Park is evacuated, the four cops are arrested and the real Chalamet appears for the party, the look-alike is crowned.
Miles Mitchell, 21, wins a competition for Timothée Chalamet to look like him (Photo by Joy Saha)Excitement is building again because finallysomeone will take home a gold platform worth $250. Bo urges the audience to choose the crown prince, and the audience cheers enthusiastically for Mitchell and Dove. Dueve says he’ll take his girlfriend on a date with his winnings. On the other hand, Mitchell in character says, “I’m going to buy more chocolate to give to everyone!”
It’s no surprise that Mitchell won the competition. His Chalamet-adjacent appearance and chocolate outfit are enough to put him over the threshold. The audience even chants, “Wonka! Wonka! Wonka!” When he wins.
Certainly, Chalamet’s similar rivalry was ridiculous. It was perhaps an absolute nuisance to nearby residents who had to hear the high-pitched screams and horny shrieks of thirsty Chalamet fans. But at its core, the event was a testament to how unserious Generation Z (often hailed as Generation Z) is. The most serious and chronic online generation) It could really be. Chalamet – Formerly declared “Cinnamon Roll Man” and an internet favorite “White Boy of the Month” – he The epitome of great Gen Z It continues to be the generation’s favorite heartthrob. So having a competition dedicated just to him, with thousands of hopeful-looking fans traveling near and far to attend, is incredibly Gen Z-encoded.
“Our generation is so funny, I love us,” one TikTok user commented under the banner. video Posted by Nicholas “Nico” Heller (aka “New York Niko”) which summarized the competition. “This is very non-serious and I love it,” the user said.
Throughout the event, we couldn’t help but feel a sense of camaraderie among the audience, even as we fought for our lives to keep up with the Chalamet lookalikes and avoid being trampled by crazy spectators. We’ve seen people make new friends, encourage each other to get close to one of the Chalamets Islands and forget the struggles of modern-day dating, even if it’s just for a few hours.
That’s the beauty of a similar Chalamet competition.
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