A Timothée Chalamet lookalike was arrested during a contest to see who looked most like the actor. The doppelgänger has since spoken out, saying the whole experience was “absolutely wild.”
On Sunday, October 27, YouTuber Anthony Po hosted a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest. The competition was held in lower Manhattan, New York.
With 2,000 onlookers in the crowd, Washington Square Park was full of people ready to see the best Wonka doppelgänger. The actor himself even popped out to see what his lookalikes were working with.
However, the large crowd drew the attention of the NYPD, resulting in a hefty fine and one arrest.
The organizer of the ‘Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest’ in NYC was fined $500 pic.twitter.com/8zlqOt6F9H
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) October 28, 2024
The citizen who was arrested, Matt Mannix, attended the event because he thought it would be “funny.” Instead, he was handcuffed and charged with two counts of failure to comply with directions from park staff, police officers, or park signs, disorderly conduct, and trespassing.
Mannix has since spoken out in an interview with Teen Vogue about his unexpected arrest, saying that an officer put his hands on him “without warning.” He explained that the cop pushed him several times and held his wrists together for “about three minutes.”
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“Throughout this whole process, I keep asking him, ‘Am I being detained? Am I being detained? Am I being detained?’ And the entire time, he does not answer,” Mannix said. “So he just keeps deflecting by asking me, ‘Are you leaving? Are you leaving?’ And I don’t know how he wants me to leave when he’s still gripping onto my wrists.”
Mannix added how “absolutely wild” the whole situation was and that he’s still managing the “jumble of emotions that keep oscillating.”
Though he said he’s still “shaken up,” the Timothée Chalamet lookalike noted that he was contacted by an HBO rep in regards to a potential casting call.
As for the event’s host, Po, he was fined $500 for hosting an unpermitted event.
This isn’t the first event Po has held in the heart of the city, either. Earlier this year, the YouTuber went viral for eating a jar of cheeseballs in front of hundreds of people. He was then given the title of ‘Cheeseballman‘ and has come clean about being the man behind the orange mask.