I love going out with my mate Jerry. People stare at him with admiration¹. Some even ask for his autograph. But Jerry isn't famous. He just bears a resemblance to someone who is: the actor Daniel Radcliffe. Yes, Harry² Potter himself! And it has a magical effect on people!

 

I told Jerry he should be a lookalike model. That's what Pauline Bailey did. She decided³ to replicate⁴ Marilyn Monroe's image after she was told she bore a likeness⁵ to the star.

 

Bailey says: "I bought books and started reading about Marilyn. I realised we had a similar upbringing, so I had an affinity⁶ with her. Then people started saying when I went to places that I looked like her. I didn't realise you could make a living out of it."

 

Now the blonde model gets jobs through a specialised agency. She jumps out of cakes, allowing men to live the fantasy of meeting the late goddess of the silver screen.

 

But not everybody profits from the lookalike business. Iranian actor Mahmoud Basiri claims his likeness to a famous person cost him eight years of earnings⁷. He happens to be the spitting image of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was told in 2005 that he could only work with the leader's agreement.

 

So will Ahmadinejad ever give his consent to the actor to play him? Don't hold your breath - Basiri specialises in comedy!

 

But overall, a resemblance to a popular artist is a good thing, isn't it? The biggest challenge must be to keep the illusion going – for example, by gaining or losing weight if they do. Nonetheless, Pauline Bailey thinks it's important to keep a sense of yourself. She says: "I'm very much an individual person, away from Marilyn. I think you could lose yourself very easily being someone else all the time and lose your own identity".

 

I asked Jerry if he thinks impersonating Daniel Radcliffe professionally could go to his head. I worried that all the adulation might change him and make him leave me behind. "No way," he said. "We do everything together."

 

What about you? Which celebrity⁸ would you like to be the spitting image of?

点击收听单词发音