Anthony “Gilbert” Po is a bit in shock. That’s what the content creator turned event organizer tells me moments before his first-annual Timothée Chalamet Look-Alike Contest is about to start. Over the last month, Po put up around 50 paper signs around West Village advertising the contest—and now more than 100 faux Chalamets and their entourages are mobbing Washington Square Park. “The event started out as a joke,” Po says. “To me, it will be until the very end. But I have friends working on the movie set he’s shooting in SoHo right now. He was talking about the competition. He knows it’s happening. But I’m not sure if this is the safest place for him to just show up.”
Before Po, who actually resembles the actor we’ve all gathered to celebrate, can hop onto his antique bicycle and get the event started, the New York City cops show up. The crowd starts to grumble. “I wasn’t expecting Timothée to be here, but I wanted to see some hot look-alikes,” says Lola Wayne Villa, a student who found out about the event through the posters. As the cops start to issue citations (but before they start arresting people), Po cycles by like a top-hatted pied piper and the Chalamets follow. Apparently, he doesn’t know the fuzz has arrived.
Once organized in a circle, Po explains the very scientific rules: The crowd will be presented with each Chalamet, and the one with the loudest cheers will be crowned king, winning a six-foot trophy and a giant check for $50. There are a lot of off-duty Chalamets, a handful clad in all black like his Dune character (and screaming, “I am the voice from the outer world! I will lead you to paradise!”), a solitary wigged Bob Dylan, and one very spirited Willy Wonka carrying a suitcase to complete his look. The actor’s appeal surpasses the human species, and there’s both a corgi and a pug here to compete.
“I don’t like big crowds,” says Kyle, dressed in a black sweater and skinny scarf, as his curls fall into his brown eyes. “But my parents read about this in the newspaper and really wanted me to do this. People have filmed me before at the airport thinking I was Timothée.”
The cops finally squeeze through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd to deliver the shutdown message: Washington Square Park’s board has issued a cease-and-desist order. We’re moving to a nearby park. Along the way, Dylan Chalamet is stopped a handful of times, including by an enterprising blonde handing out cards with a headshot and her Instagram handle to the look-alikes.
Now at location two, Po stops the judging to start auctioning off the single Chalamets. If you can’t get the real one, a finalist in the look-alike competition may just be the next best thing. Two walk away with dates, but one confesses he lives in Arkansas—and the crowd begins to boo.
Back on track, the final three Chalamets answer a few questions in character: Which Marvel character would you play? What can you say in French? But it’s Willy Wonka’s suitcase reveal—it’s filled with candy! He’s throwing it out into the crowd!—that wins him the honor of eardrum-shattering screams and the trophy. Apparently, we’re not above bribery.
While Wonka (real name: Miles Mitchell) soaks up his day in the Chalamet sun, Po shares the biggest surprise of the day: An unrepresented Chalamet appeared at Washington Square Park after the event moved locations—the real one. Not only did Timothée Chalamet know about the event, but he braved the masses too. Hold onto that trophy, Mitchell.
