Timothée Chalamet offered to pay the $500 fee incurred in October by YouTuber Anthony Po, the organizer of a viral Chalamet look-alike contest in New York City, but Po turned down the offer.
Po’s Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest took the internet by storm on Oct. 27, with several thousand people descending upon downtown Manhattan for the event — even Chalamet himself made an appearance. The competition went viral and spawned offshoots around the world searching for the doppelgängers of actors like Glen Powell, Harry Styles and Paul Mescal.
Chalamet’s contest went particularly viral for its civil unrest — the NYPD arrested four attendees in their attempt to break up the event (Po had not sought a permit) and fined Po $500.
“The production [cost] like $4,000, so it’s like legit the best case scenario,” Po told People of the fine on Tuesday. “They need to do something stronger to [disincentivize] us.”
The internet star went on to say he was eventually contacted by the Dune star’s team, offering to cover the cost of the ticket, which Po said was “truly funny.”
Po declined the offer; the digital invite app Partiful paid for it instead.
He also said that Chalamet’s team told him they loved the contest. “They basically [said] like, ‘We thought it was awesome. Thanks so much.’ It was all good and fun.”
Shortly after the event, Po told The Hollywood Reporter he got the idea for the contest because he thought it was funny, and “I’m in a stint of just trying to do public stunts, like performance art type stuff.”
“So me and Paige [his producer and assistant] just sit around all day and all day and think about like, what would be fun? What would get people talking? Wholesome fun things that are free for people to gawk at and tell their grandkids about,” he said. “And people always joke, I look like Timothée Chalamet. They call me ‘Less hot Timothée Chalamet,’ so we wanted to host a look-alike competition. And the original plan was for me to enter and us to rig it. But as it got bigger, we’re like, ‘This is kind of just bigger than me,’ so we wanted it to be just a fun, wholesome thing for the city.”
Po also said he didn’t expect Chalamet to make an appearance and that “I really wanted him to compete, but it was so hectic that he couldn’t.” The internet star told People he wasn’t able to meet the actor, for similar reasons.
