‘My moment of glory’: Nicolas Cage lookalikes compile in London

On a sunny, bustling past due afternoon outdoor a cinema in Soho, central London, greater than 100 folks have accrued, a variety of whom type of, when you squint, glance somewhat bit just like the actor Nicolas Cage.

There is a Raising Arizona Cage, moustachioed and with a Hawaiian blouse. There are a number of Con Air Cages in white vests, one in all whom has a toy bunny in a small cardboard field. Several can really declare an uncanny likeness to the actor; one or two others may uncharitably be mentioned to be nearer to Cage’s persona in Face/Off, who surgically swaps his personal unique options for the face of any individual else – if so, John Travolta – who seems to be not anything like him.

For a performer whose public character is rarely lower than eccentric, a parade of a number of Cages may really feel completely suitable. The reason for this tournament is extra prosaic, alternatively. The actor has a brand new movie out: The Surfer (“gloriously demented” – the Guardian), and as film PRs are finding out, when you’re after a burst of offbeat exposure in this day and age, there’s no surer strategy to do it than with a supposedly spontaneous, designedly shonky superstar lookalike contest.

t“I’ve had a whole lifetime of ridicule and this is my moment of glory,” says Raising Arizona Cage Daniel Breuer, who works within the song business and says he’s in comparison to any individual well-known virtually on a daily basis of his existence. While Serpico-era Al Pacino and Jerry Seinfeld additionally characteristic, “Nicolas Cage has been the only constant”.

Patrick Doran, an actor and internet clothier, likewise says this is a consistent chorus. “When I was younger, people used to say I looked like a young Nic Cage. Now it’s just: ‘You look like Nic Cage.’ I take it as a great compliment.”

We can blame all of it on 23-year-old American YouTuber Anthony Po (subscribers: 1.9m), who final October posted 100 sheets of A4 promoting a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest on lamp-posts round New York – he later mentioned he had achieved it for a chance. Several dozen Chalamets confirmed up, in addition to 10,000 or so different spectators and – sudden even Po – the true Chalamet. It concluded with 4 arrests, a $50 (£37.60) prize for the winner, and a global exposure hurricane.

Dublin was once subsequent at the bandwagon, website hosting a Paul Mescal doppelganger contest a couple of weeks later, at which any other light Irish males in brief shorts competed for €20 (£17), 3 pints and a packet of Denny’s sausages. Though the actor didn’t make an look himself, he was once later presented to the winner, Jack Wall O’Reilly, a wannabe screenwriter, on a radio display and congratulated him on “captur[ing] the spirit of me very well”.

From there, inevitably, issues snowballed. A Harry Styles lookalike contest in London presented prizes of £50, wine and a few hair merchandise. A gaggle of pals in San Francisco, noting that most effective white male superstar clones were sought to this point, organised a hunt for Dev Patel doppelgangers. (“I just took people out and handed out burritos,” mentioned the eventual winner, Jaipreet Hundal, of his $50 prize bonanza.)

Chicago threw a Jeremy Allen White contest, at which the cutest contender was once a baby Carmie in white T-shirt and apron. New York sought a lookalike Zayn Malik, even if it was once unclear if the eventual winner was once aware of any One Direction songs.

Glen Powell for my part recommended his personal lookalike contest in Austin, Texas, in November, inviting Powell clones to assist him level “a criminal Glenterprise” – “We all have the same face, it’s the perfect crime” – and attending (virtually) in particular person, by way of a video name to his mum, who was once some of the judges. He additionally presented probably the most unique prize: a cameo look for the winner’s folks in his subsequent film.

By the time Drake was once providing $10,000 to the winner of his personal lookalike contest in Toronto in December – claimed by way of a 21-year-old lady, Makayla Chambers, who had pigtails and a drawn-on beard – you’ll have puzzled if the rage had jumped the shark.

Not in line with Cage’s publicists, who on Friday have been providing prizes for the People’s Cage (“best overall lookalike”), the Cagiest Cage (“best cosplay”) and the Ragiest Cage (confidently self-explanatory).

First prize – existence club of the Prince Charles cinema – was once awarded by way of widespread acclaim to Breuer, who mentioned he felt “like I won the Oscar, which of course Cage did for Leaving Las Vegas”. Some of the opposite competition had had him “quaking in his snakeskin boots”, he mentioned, “but I knew I had the highest kick in the game”.