What the celebrity look-alike contest winners have to say about their taste of fame

Has anyone ever told you that you look like Harry Styles?

For most of their lives, London musician Oscar Journeaux and many others in their 20s have been told they resemble attractive male celebrities. A new internet trend gave them their moment to shine.

"Look-alike contests" have begun circulating in the U.S. and Europe following the inciting New York City event on Oct. 27, where actor Timothée Chalamet made an unplanned appearance.

The "Wonka" star showed up at New York City's Washington Square Park, where hundreds of lean, curly-haired imposters competed for a trophy and $50 prize. Competitors also donned costumes to enhance their resemblance with some opting to be Chalamet’s portrayal of Willy Wonka, Paul Atreides from blockbuster "Dune" or his casual New Yorker attire.

Since then, a Paul Mescal competition took place in Dublin last Thursday, a Harry Styles contest in London on Saturday and a Dev Patel competition in San Francisco on Sunday. USA TODAY spoke with the winning doppelgangers to discuss their five minutes of fame, as well as the brain behind the operation.

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How it started: 100 flyers spread across New York City

In late October, flyers accumulated across New York City, reading, "Timothée Chalamet Look alike Competition" with a day, time, location and a photo of the Academy Award-nominee. Word quickly spread, leading to a massive crowd, a surprise appearance from the star, one arrest and dozens of Chalamet impersonators.

The man behind the now-international sensation is content creator Anthony Po. Through his YouTube channel @anthpo, which has over a million subscribers, he aims to drive culture instead of following trends and has utilized New York City has the perfect setting for his mission. In April, he lured hundreds to watch his anonymous persona "Cheeseball Man" eat an entire tub of cheeseballs.

Po said he only planned to draw a crowd of a thousand for the look-alike contest, however around 10,000 attendees showed up. He and team spent around $4,000 including labor, wardrobe, a cardboard cutout check, a trophy and several $50 prizes for contestants. For him, it was worth every cent as it was "for the culture" and united several spitting images of Chalamet. The competitors were later invited to go to a New York Jets game and are now part of a group chat titled "Brother Chalamet."

"We want other people to have their moment. If it traces back to me that's great," Po told USA TODAY. "I didn't invent posters, I didn't invent look-alike competitions. But I think marrying all these cultural phenomenon's together was a labor of love."

Look-alikes experience fame overload

The first winner was Miles Mitchell, a 21-year-old economics student from Staten Island. In a sea of Timothées, he earned the loudest applause donning a Willy Wonka costume he thrifted and a briefcase filled with candy.

Initially expecting a small "meme event," he eventually found himself surrounded by fans, interviewed by press and on Vogue's Instagram page. Later, his phone became flooded with hundreds of messages and comments. Friends across Germany, Finland, Taiwan and Korea reached out to the student asking, "why is my mom talking about you?"

"People were just coming up to me. Like dozens of people were like, 'Oh, can we get a picture?' Can we get an interview?" he said. "It was like a sensory overload."

Jaipreet Hundal, a 25-year-old from San Jose who works for TikTok's Product team, echoed a similar shock wave at the Dev Patel look-alike contest in San Franciso's Mission Dolores Park. For so long, people said he resembled the "Monkey Man" star, including his girlfriend who convinced him to attend wearing a beige jacket, a white t-shirt and some Lululemon pants.

"I thought this was supposed to be like a casual meet up where a bunch of Indian guys from San Francisco that kind of look like Dev Patel hang out together," Hundal said. "I just walk up the hill and people's heads start turning and phones start pointing towards me and I just get hit with truck full of energy."

How do the look-alike contestants view fame now?

Oscar Journeaux, 22-year-old aspiring musician based in west London, said he was initially hesitant on attending the Harry Styles event as he aims to steer away from comparisons to the One Direction alum. Ultimately, he figured it would be a chance promote his rock band Parlay. And so he showed up with his high-waisted trousers and brown jacket, which he later took off to "show some skin" to the crowd, who gave him the loudest applause.

"It was just quite an intense environment from having a morning coffee to having like 100 people screaming," Journeaux said. "I suppose it's a little bit of a taste of what he goes through."

Jack Wall O'Reilly, a 24-year-old from western Ireland who works in film and television, felt he had no choice but to show up at the Dublin event as Paul Mescal. Not only has be been compared to "Gladiator" star, he's also a longtime fan of his work.

The event garnered just around 200 people, yet O'Reilly still found himself surrounded by press. While his resemblance definitely helped him win the 20 euros, it was his delivery of the "Normal People" line "you look really well" that sold it.

"I have a huge newfound respect and empathy for people in the public eye," O'Reilly said. "I experienced it on a total granular level, like half more so of the attention and publicity they get. And I was exhausted after it. I'm still in part recovering."

What do the look-alikes have to say to their more famous selves?

In the event that their celebrity versions of them are reading, here's what each winner has to say.

Jaipreet Singh Hundal to Dev Patel: "Keep up the good work. You've been doing a great job of representing South Asian culture in Hollywood."

Jack Wall O'Reilly to Paul Mescal: "It's a weird time for masculinity. And I think he's a leading man now in a film like 'Gladiator,' he's at the forefront of that and just the amount of tension he gets. And I'd be curious to know how he sees the importance in the portrayal of masculinity going forward in films and TV, and what it means to be a man these days."

Oscar Journeaux to Harry Styles: "I hope you don't mind my attempts at capitalizing on the look and I think he was a young musician one day, so maybe you got to understand. I hope he does definitely."

Miles Mitchell to Timothée Chalamet: "I would like to say for him to text me back on Instagram and maybe meet up and get like food or something."

Another look-alike contest for "The Bear" star Jeremy Allen White is slated for Saturday afternoon in Chicago's Humboldt Park.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet look-alike winners say about fame