The Harry Potter reference in the title of this post refers to the fact that a lot of people think I look like Hogwarts's favorite son. The early years of my life passed without any celebrity lookalike comments; rather, it was my name that led to friendly harrassment: "Austin from Boston [note: I am not from Boston]," "Austinioooooooooo Hall," "Il Pagetto," and the ever-popular "Austin Powers."
I'm not complaining. In fact, I liked that people would give me pet names. The Harry Potter books--particularly the cover illustrations--changed everything. At the height of the books' popularity, I was wearing my hair a little shaggy and my skin a little pale. I also carried a broom around with me for a variety of reasons. The likeness is, I must admit, fairly convincing.
As a lookalike, people expect a lot out of you. My strangest incident happened in Books-a-Million [a store that I haven't seen in a long time]. An older teenager approached me with her friend and asked if she could take a picture with me. With a puzzled look on my face, she said that she would have to run to her car to get her camera. Before she turned to go to the car, she said, "This is amazing. I kinda have a Harry Potter fetish." Somewhere in Alabama there is a girl with a picture of me and a strong set of feelings for a boy wizard. Creepy.
I've tried to embrace the Harry Potter thing, but it's sort of disappointing. More than anything, I've always wanted someone to say, "You know what? You look just like David Duchovny." Not going to happen, and, with Duchovny's recent bad press, it's probably for the best. Maybe Steve McQueen? Not even close.
Do you get any lookalike comments? Who do you supposedly look like? Is there someone you think you look like or would want someone to say you look like?
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As far as the name thing goes, I can relate. Try being named "Jennie" during the height of Forrest Gump. People thought it was hilarious to put an arm around me and and in their best Forrest voice say things like, "Me and Jennie's like peas and carrots," or, "I may not be a smart man, Jennie, but I know what love is." Yeah. It was a hoot.
Oh, man. At least I didn't have a lot of people giving me the Gump voice. That's hilarious and cruel all at the same time. It reminds me of my buddy on our high school cross country team: Jonathan Forrest. You can bet that he heard a lot of "Run, Forrest. Run" when we were out running through the community. To make it even worse, he was a really fast runner.
Hilarious.
When I was in high school, I looked an awful lot like Greg Brady (the oldest Brady Bunch son). I was a cross between him and Screech.
Nowadays, I've had people tell me I look like Jake Gyllenhaal. One of these two people is my own grandmother.
Speaking of the "Run, Forrest, run" - my Dad's name is Forrest. When people would learn this fact, you can imagine their response. Yeah, I've never heard that one before.
No one's ever told me I looked like anyone, but since everyone thinks Mike is Jake Gyllenhaal, I've liked to imagine I look like Reese Witherspoon.
Tom Hanks from Philadelphia.
Brandon = Napolean Dynamite
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