Tamara Beckwith
Would you call them by his name?
Throngs of lanky, mop-topped boys — and their admirers — will converge in NYC from near and far this weekend for a decidedly outré event: a Timothée Chalamet look-alike competition with a $50 prize for his most convincing, doe-eyed doppelgänger.
London student Octave Cusinberche, 22, is considering flying in from England — if his university finals go well this week.
“The whole thing is pretty funny,” he told The Post. “Like, why not?”
The French, curly-haired brunette often gets told that he looks like Chalamet, so Cusinberche hopes he has that certain je ne sais quoi evoked by the 28-year-old “Call Me By Your Name” heartthrob.
Though he’s not yet bought a plane ticket, he said that many people across the pond have been talking about the event, set for 1 p.m. Sunday at Washington Square Park’s famed arch.
And while Cusinberche acknowledged that the cash award wouldn’t come close to covering the cost of his ticket, at least the aspiring contestant still found justification for potentially making the journey.
“It’s a story for the grandkids,” said Cusinberche, who submitted a photo to Partiful, an online party-planning tool, in hopes it’ll enter him into the US competition if he can’t make it.
Fliers for the knockoff contest have been spotted around the city since September and gained international attention several weeks ago when one went viral on X.
The pages feature a QR code for an open event on Partiful, created by an anonymous host advertising minimal information and a guest list.
No one knows how it will go, but nearly 2,000 “Wonka” actor wannabes have submitted RSVPs since a photo of a flier on Howard Street went viral.
That’s how Reed Putnam, 21, of upstate Ogdensburg learned of the event.
He didn’t believe it was real until he checked Partiful and saw all the entrants. That was when he realized “it was a big deal.”
The Chalamet clone uploaded a photo of himself to the event page and was pleasantly surprised by the reactions he received, with people dropping friendly emojis, notes insisting he had a good chance at winning and messages asking to meet up.
The SUNY student and substitute teacher decided to go for it and bought tickets to fly to NYC with his girlfriend — a Chalamet fan — to attend the event.
“Honestly, it’s kind of just mind-blowing,” he told The Post.
“It’s one of those things where you take something so small that’s almost like a joke and then it becomes this huge thing.”
The avid traveler is “excited” to use the event as an excuse to come into the city because “Everyone’s just going to go for a good time.”
But some Chalamet knock-offs don’t have to travel too far.
At Chalamet’s alma mater, New York University, leadership and management student class of 2026 Loris van Vlodrop, 19, told The Post he might enter the competition — coincidentally set for his birthday — as a way to celebrate because “everybody’s” talking about it.
“When I saw it, I was like, you know, it’s a $50 cash prize, nothing crazy,” the student and professional soccer player said. “But it’s more about the pride of this exclusive competition that’ll go down in history.”
He thinks the event was possibly put together by a woman with a certain type or a movie director on a budget in search of an off-brand Chalamet.
The birthday boy told The Post he hopes to leave with a few phone numbers and a movie deal.
“I’m really curious about the competition because in the end, I’m just I am a guy with brown hair,” he said.
Others are hoping that Chalamet himself stops by the event. One fan even crowd-funded $5,000 — 100 times the prize money — they say will be donated to a charity of the actor’s choice if he comes by for “a hot second” to “have a laugh.”
His reps have yet to confirm to The Post whether or not the actor knows about any of this.
But even if the actor is a no-show, most people seem satisfied with the possibility of a crowd of Chalamet wannabes.
Lily Jones, 22, told The Post she’s simply “intrigued by the absurdity” and plans to attend the event with several friends.
“We just think it’s fun,” she said. “And, you know, if a Timothée Chalamet happens to seduce one of my friends, that would be so funny.”