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My Life As A Katy Perry Twin

For Francesca Brown, a 31-year-old actress in London, looking like Katy nearly ruined her career. Here, she shares the perks and downsides of being a lookalike.

 

Celebrity lookalikes are having a bit of a moment. Whether it’s Taylor Swift calling out her “twin” on Tumblr or Katy Perry posing alongside her doppelganger at a L.A. premiere, these people are making headlines for their crazy resemblances. But when the 15-seconds of Internet fame are up, the attention these celebrity dead-ringers get doesn’t stop. ELLE.com spoke with a Katy Perry lookalike—Francesca Brown, a 31-year-old actress based in London—about what it’s really like having the face of a famous person, and how looking like Katy nearly ruined her career.

Francesca Brown remembers the first time she was mistaken for Katy Perry. It was 2008, and Brown had no clue who the singer was. “She had just released ‘I Kissed A Girl,’ and she wasn’t famous in England at this point,” Brown explains. “I was in America, and I was standing, waiting to go into a club in Vegas and, this guy came over who was security. He was like, 'Don’t wait. Follow us.’ And I thought, 'They think I’m someone, but I don’t know who they think I am.’”

“We got into this club, and they sat me down. I was speaking to them and, obviously I have a British accent. They’re looking really confused and then someone said, 'Is she British? I thought she was American.’ I just said to them, 'I don’t think I’m who you think I am.’”

“On the way home, at the airport in Vegas, I saw a magazine, and she was on the front, and I was like, 'Oh! That’s the girl that everyone thinks I am!’. And that was the very, very first time and obviously as she became more famous, it just went crazy.”

 

KATY, LEFT, AND FRANCESCA, RIGHT. FRANCESCA’S MAKEUP BY LAUREN JOHNSON AND PHOTO BY FRANCESKA SHIRKA.

Did you research her that night?
Yeah. I don’t think her album was out then, but I loved the single [“I Kissed a Girl”]. I’ve always been such a fan of her, so it was like a cool comparison to have. She’s very outgoing, and she’s very inspirational.

Obviously her career has taken off since 2008. How has your life changed as she’s become more famous?
It really changed [in England] when she was with Russell Brand. I would just get mistaken everywhere. I’d have people running after me; I went shopping, and I had children running after me. I went to a music festival here in London, and there were cameras and crowds of people turned up wanting their picture [with me]. Everyone would think I was her!

[In my career,] I was working quite a lot as an actress. I was going up for auditions, and I kept getting the comparison to Katy Perry. For some reason—I don’t know why—it was costing me jobs.

Did you try to change your appearance to look less like her?
Yeah, but because she has covered so many hair colors, it’s hard to find a hair color that Katy Perry hasn’t tried! I went a normal brown color, but I still got mistaken as her so then I went blonde, but I still got mistaken as her. Then she went blonde so I went back dark. My natural color is dark, [and] it’s just less damaging to my hair if I just keep it natural.

So how did you manage on the career front?
I obviously needed to do something to pay the bills, [and] I was contacted by an agency in the U.K. that deals with lookalike people. I said no for ages. I had put so much into my acting career, and I didn’t want to get confused. In the end, [I thought] I could do this impersonation work [rather than get an office job], and that makes me free to be able to carry on auditioning. It was so much fun because I was on stage and I’m getting to perform incredible songs in fun costumes.

Although [looking like Katy] made the acting harder for me, it hasn’t stopped me. I do believe in myself as an actress and I know I have what it takes. I mean there’s Zooey Deschanel as well, and they get mistaken, and I think that people can take both of them. So there can be Zooey Deschanel, Katy Perry, and me. [Laughs]

You’re doing sports broadcasting now, too. How did you make that transition?
The sports journalism just came about because I am a massive football—you call it soccer—fan. I constantly bore everyone with all of it. So now I [do] a little bit of sports presenting for like a sport’s show in England. Arsenal is my team, so I’m constantly either really happy or really sad because they’re always winning and losing.

 

Got it! So when you were doing impersonations, how did you enhance your appearance to look more like Katy?
The main thing I would do would be to put on a costume. I did my makeup the same. But it’s really strange to me because especially if it’s like a [regular, non-impersonation] acting audition, I try to get away from the comparison. I do something really different, like braid my hair all back and hardly wear any makeup. And I still get it just as much so I feel like there’s nothing really I can do.

How has looking like Katy changed the way you see yourself?
It’s definitely given me some confidence in myself [although] I don’t see the resemblance sometimes. When you look in the mirror, you just see yourself because you’ve grown up with yourself. So when I’m out, and people believe I’m her and they don’t believe that I’m not [when I correct them], I think, 'Oh, I really must look like her.’ Because I really admire her, that gives me confidence. We all have our own insecurities and that kind of helps them—you know, getting compared to someone you think that is great.

WITH A RITA ORA LOOKALIKE. MAKEUP BY LAUREN JOHNSON AND PHOTO BY FRANCESKA SHIRKA.

Working in celebrity impersonation must have introduced you to other celebrity twins. What’s that community like?
My good friends here are like a Lady Gaga, a Rita Ora lookalike, and a Rihanna. It’s so funny. We’ll just go out to get a coffee and then everyone is staring at you and taking pictures. And I’m thinking, “Why? Do I have something on my face? Do I look stupid?” and then you realize it’s because we look like them, and we’re having a coffee, and that’s a bit strange. Everyone’s really friendly though!

That’s so awesome! So what other perks come along with it?
Sometimes I’ve gone out, and people have said, “Oh, come this way,” and I just always try and tell people that I’m not [Katy.] When I was at the music festival [in London], and I was just sitting there having a drink and their Twitter tweeted, 'Oh, Katy Perry’s in the VIP section if you want to go and see her.’ And then loads of people turned up, lots of people [with] products and stuff, like, 'Please take these!’ And I’m just like, 'I’m not Katy Perry. You don’t want me to take these!’ I’m very honest with it. I don’t want to mislead people. It’s hard, like saying to little kids—their eyes light up, and they get so excited. I feel like I just told them Santa isn’t real, like I just ruined their life because they thought I was Katy Perry and I wasn’t.

 

What do you think of the fame she has from the hint of it that you’ve gotten?
It must be really scary. It’s just so overwhelming. I can’t even imagine what they must feel like. I’ve been in their line of work. Before I got this comparison, I thought one day I might be in a world that has that and I don’t know how well I’d handle it. One thing I will say about Katy is getting compared to her is really nice because all of her fans [have] been so happy and lovely. She’s really loved out there, which is helpful. It’s helpful if you look like someone who’s loved because I can only imagine what it must be like if you look like someone who [isn’t], who must get abuse from the street rather than people being nice to you.

You posed as Katy at the Cannes Film Festival for a PR stunt and said in an interview that some of her friends came up to you. What was that like?
It was so funny when it was happening because I’m a big fan of them. I didn’t know what to say, and they were talking to as if they were friends with her, saying things like, 'How are you? How’s so and so?’ And I thought surely you must know I’m not her if you’re her friend! [But] we sort of just laughed about that.

Because my line of work is in the entertainment industry in England, I’ll be at events—like, I was at fashion week and one of the designers mentioned her to someone and was like, 'Why’s Katy Perry here? Can I speak to her about wearing my dresses?’ And I thought, 'I would love to wear some of these dresses but I’m not Katy Perry!’ That sort of thing is quite baffling to me, like I don’t get it at all. I think surely they must be able to tell. But apparently not in some cases!

 

Is there anyone you’ve been starstruck by?
No, I haven’t yet met anyone that I’ve been really struck by, but if I met the lady herself, Katy, I would be ridiculously starstruck. I don’t think I would know what to say! And I don’t know if she knows about me either.

What would you do if you met her?
I would have to take a selfie with her. I would have to!

I read that you met your boyfriend at a celebrity impersonation shoot you went on. He was the photographer.
He was the best thing that has come out of looking like her because if I didn’t look like her, I probably wouldn’t have been asked to do that shoot. When we go out, he just becomes the same as friends of mine, they become used to it. But sometimes at dinners and stuff—[particularly] when she was dating people like Russell—some people you can tell what they’re thinking. They just look confused, and they don’t really know what’s going on. It’s just a very bizarre experience when I’m out and about. He generally finds it really amusing. It’s so absurd to us [when people freak out] because, you know, it’s just me.

 

MAKEUP BY LAUREN JOHNSON AND PHOTO BY FRANCESKA SHIRKA.