Recently, I watched a video of Adele, singer of the songs we can't get out of our heads, entering an Adele-look-alike contest, infiltrating the ranks of many veteran impersonators who gasp when she takes the stage with the hushed exclamation, "You can't fake that!"
The trend of celebrities entering their own look-alike competitions is an old one. There are many stories of Charlie Chaplin entering such a contest, only to come in third. So, it seems, you can "fake that," whatever "that" is: the grace of a talent, the ease of a true identity.
However, though we scoff at Charlie Chaplin and his failure to succeed at a contest quite literally tailored to him, the true surprise is that he even managed to place as high as third. The contest specified "Charlie Chaplin look-alike," and truly, that's the one thing Charlie Chaplin could never be. A look-alike is a physical culmination of traits- the way the body is carried, the way gestures are executed, the idiosyncrasies of speech and manner. A look-alike strives for recognizability, that uncertain blurring of real and not real- where does the impersonator end and the impersonation begin? A look-alike will never be Charles Spencer Chaplin, will never have seen the inside of his childhood London apartment, will never witness his mother succumb to encroaching mental illness- and honestly, they're not supposed to. A look-alike is a look-alike, plain and simple. Charlie Chaplin is no look-alike, at least, not a Charlie Chaplin look-alike, and his loss is, therefore, not surprising.
Adele's entry in the look-alike contest was, in a way, a kind of existential moment. A collection of look-alikes witness the reality they mimic, and admit to themselves that she, inevitably, cannot be faked. However, a moment backstage reveals that, in this arena, it is the look-alikes who dominate, and Adele who cannot emulate that elusive persona- Adele, as seen by others.
"How long have you been doing this?" Adele asks the other performers, her voice slow and monotone in an effort to conceal.
"About five years," one answers.
The gulf between a look-alike and the real thing is great, but perhaps it was never meant to be crossed to begin with.
