Timothée Chalamet Offered to Pay $500 Fine Issued to Viral Lookalike Contest's Host After His Surprise Cameo at the Event (Exclusive)
After the actor crashed the event on Oct. 27, the actor's team told Anthony Po they thought his doppelgänger competition 'was awesome'
Spartacus / SplashNews.com; Bobby Nair | @bobbynairphotos
Timothee Chalamet in 'Wonka'; Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest winner Miles Mitchell.Timothée Chalamet went viral for crashing his own lookalike contest in New York City, but he showed even more support for the competition behind the scenes.
Halfway through the massive gathering on Oct. 27, the NYPD showed up and ousted the thousands of attendees from Washington Square Park. Event organizer Anthony Po — who posts online under the name AnthPo — was issued a $500 fine for hosting a public event without a permit.
Relatively speaking, however, 23-year-old Po tells PEOPLE that it was a small fee to pay compared to the overall price of hosting the contest.
"The production [cost] like $4,000, so it's like legit the best case scenario," he explains to PEOPLE over a month after the event was held. "They need to do something stronger to [disincentivize] us."
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Bobby Nair | @bobbynairphotos
Anthony Po hosting the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in N.Y.C. on Oct. 27.Po's post about his ticket also went viral, and he says he soon received a generous word from the Dune star's team.
"They offered to pay the ticket, which is truly funny," Po reveals to PEOPLE exclusively. Though appreciative, Po says he declined to accept Chalamet's kind offer. Instead, the digital invite app Partiful put up the money to pay off the fine.
In addition to their $500 gesture, Chalamet's people also relayed some praise from the actor himself: "They basically [said] like, 'We thought it was awesome. Thanks so much,'" Po adds. "It was all good and fun."
Po didn't actually get to meet or see Chalamet, 28, at the event, but he was included in Po's official ranking of lookalikes after the contest concluded. Despite being the real deal among dupes, the actor only came in around 13th place.
"I think if he would've stayed for the end of it, maybe I would've given him runner-up or something," Po explains, adding that the Little Women star's mustache threw off his usual curly-haired, clean-shaven look sported by most contest entrants.
Bobby Nair | @bobbynairphotos
Miles Mitchell wins the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in N.Y.C. on Oct. 27.While neither Po nor winner Miles Mitchell, 21, saw Chalamet amid the chaos, he was spotted by the actual runner-up of the day, Zander Dueve.
"I saw the very top of his head through the Washington Square Arch. I just saw his hat and his eyebrows, because you can't miss those," the Atlanta-based doppelgänger tells PEOPLE. And Dueve, 22, agrees with Po's assessment of Chalamet's appearance: "He looked the least like himself out of everyone."
Chalamet isn't the only A-lister to engage with the lookalike contest trend. Other celebrities have also bolstered the concept by reaching out to organizers and winners. After the Dublin contest in his honor, Paul Mescal FaceTimed his no. 1 twin, Jack Wall O'Reilly, to congratulate him and gush about their resemblance.
Bobby Nair | @bobbynairphotos
Anthony Po and his team at the the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in N.Y.C. on Oct. 27.Related: Glen Powell Gifts Winner of His Lookalike Contest a Cameo in His Next Movie as a ‘Personal Prize’
Though Glen Powell didn't attend his lookalike competition in Austin, Texas on Nov. 24, he did send a representative who can speak to his appearance all too well: his mom, Cyndy Powell. She acted as a judge at the event and crowned physician's assistant Maxwell Braunstein as the winner.
But Glen still managed to make a cameo at the event, beaming in to share some exciting news for the person who resembled him most. According to Variety, he called to reveal that the winner’s “parents or any family member of their choice” could make an appearance in his next movie.
“You may know that my parents make a cameo in every movie I make, but today the winner of the Glen Powell lookalike contest wins their parents, or any family member of their choice, a cameo in my next movie,” said the Twisters star in a video recording. “I am completely serious. This is a cash-value prize of $6 billion.”
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