Exclusive: Timothée Chalamet Look-Alike Organizer Discusses Viral Event

The real Timothée Chalamet crashed a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in Washington Square Park on Oct. 20. The event ended up attracting up to 10,000 people and an NYPD presence, and separately led to its organizer being fined $500. Chalamet, who played Willy Wonka in the 2023 film “Wonka” and received an Oscar nomination for his role in “Call Me by Your Name,” seems not to have entered the contest himself, but he was definitely there taking pictures with hoards of fans dressed as him.

Only some of this was planned.

Anthony Po, the organizer of the event, runs a YouTube channel called Anthpo, and is known for his ability to, as he puts it in his social media bios, “commit to the bit.” Perhaps most famously until now, he staged an event in April wherein he covered his face and ate an entire jar of cheeseballs in Union Square Park to a hoard of cheering fans, leading to months of speculation about the identity of Cheeseball Man, before Po revealed it was him.

Similarly, Po anonymously ran the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest, only announcing that he was behind it after the winner was chosen.

“We want the events to feel authentic,” Po said in a phone interview a couple days after the contest. “I don’t like people knowing that I’m behind the thing, I feel like it ruins it, because when a company or a YouTuber is behind a thing, it’s like they’re doing it for [the] sake of commercialization. I don’t think we are, because I feel like if we were trying to make money, we would clearly not be making this type of content. But I don’t want to take away from how special it feels.”

The whole ordeal started simply enough. “We have a joke in our little office here that I look like Timothée Chalamet,” Po said. “We’ve been hanging up posters for silly events all throughout New York City, and that was one of the ones we hung up.” On the day of the actual contest, though, the internet was hooked. One individual was taken into custody by the NYPD, a police spokesperson told Straus News. He was given a desk appearance ticket and released.

Crowds of people, some reports estimated as many as 10,000 people, most of whom dressed as Chalamet or a character he has played over the years, attended the contest. “I like that it was hosted by a guy named Gilbert, like, some random dude,” Po said. The winner would receive a physically giant check for $50.

“That is the funniest number we came up with,” Po said, describing the whiteboard of prize amounts they considered. “$10 is like, ‘Oh, ... like, this is a joke.’ $100 is like, ‘Oh, like, this is kind of serious.’ $50 is, like, the dumbest ... It’s a great cash prize.”

The winner was a contestant dressed as Chalamet’s version of Willy Wonka. But, Po’s personal favorite was a little different. “The dog,” he answered instantly. The person who entered the dog in the competition is a regular at Po’s events, “some, like, 40-year-old dude, he’s got kids ... He’s great. He’s a great dude. I love that dog.”

Of course, the Chalamet that arguably stole the show was the real Timothée Chalamet himself, who got his first big break playing the Finn Walden role in the television series “Homeland.”

“We had no idea he was going to show up,” Po said. “My producer pulls me aside, she’s like, ‘Yo Timothée’s here.’ And I’m like, ‘No, he’s not,’ ... you know, I’m like, ‘Oh, she’s f***ing with me, because everybody here looks like Timothée Chalamet.’ But yeah, I mean, hope he had fun. I hope it helps him sell some movie tickets. I’m happy that I contributed to the box office.”

Things did not end there, though, as the event led to the creation of a viral meme. Now, people everywhere are jokingly posting that they are holding look-alike contests for various celebrities at their houses with $50 cash prizes (seemingly implying that they want the actual celebrity to show up).

“I woke up this morning and got, like, 100 texts from friends being like, ‘Bruh, you started a meme,’” Po said. He keeps seeing new versions of the trend on his own social media, highlighting ones for Billie Eilish, Dev Patel, and Nathan Fielder as among his favorites.

Po said not to expect another look-alike competition from him again, explaining, “I don’t want to ride bits ... you’re washed, you know what I mean, if you do it again.” But, that does not mean events from him like it, and responses similar to the one this got, are going anywhere.

“It will happen again, that is my guarantee,” Po said of the massive reach and response the look-alike contest ended up having. “I could do this every week, but I want to keep it, like, special and different.”