(Sorry for the clumsy post title. I couldn't think of a better way to put it succinctly. Just know that I mean "foreigner" in the sense of someone coming from somewhere other than the USA).
I've written before about how fun it is that we white people all look alike to people of other races (sometimes) (and vice versa). What's really fun is when that lack of finesse in distinguishing between different faces leads someone to believe that you are, in fact, a famous person (or more often, that you look a lot like one). The point is not that I actually look like these people. The point is that something about their face and mine looks the same to people of a different race.
In Japan, I had a lot of people tell me that I looked like Natalie Portman. Like, a LOT. I usually smiled and said thanks, because that was a dang nice compliment.
When I was pregnant with Miriam in Syria (and my face got so fat), I had a couple of people tell me I looked like Renee Zellwegger. Poor Renee Zellwegger. That was no compliment to her. The people were probably thinking of this picture when they said that:
One of our first few days at church in the UAE, I wore a nice dress and pincurled my hair. I was told I looked like Scarlett Johansson.
Also, as an aside, one time we were at Amman Waves water park in Jordan with my little brother, Steven. A couple of girls were eyeing us for a while and they finally worked up the guts to come over and ask, in all seriousness, if Steven was Christopher Gorham (of MBC4 Jake 2.0 fame). Sadly, Steven had to disappoint them.
It was even sadder last night when I was at the park with the girls. A little Indian girl just moved in a few lanes over and I had talked with her at the park before. Last night, she had her dad with her. After a while, her dad came over and said that the girl had something to ask me. She ended up being too shy, so he had to be the one to speak the ridiculous words, "My daughter is convinced you are an actress on the Disney Channel TV show Good Luck Charlie. She says the actress is even named Bridget, like you. I tried telling her you are a mother of two kids and not an actress, but she won't believe me!"
I had to shatter the little girl's dreams of living next to a TV star right then and there. This is my favorite celebrity lookalike story, though, because it was so close to being true (the name of the actress is Bridgit Mendler). Maybe next time I'll just say, "yeah, that's me," to avoid crushing any tween dreams.
I've written before about how fun it is that we white people all look alike to people of other races (sometimes) (and vice versa). What's really fun is when that lack of finesse in distinguishing between different faces leads someone to believe that you are, in fact, a famous person (or more often, that you look a lot like one). The point is not that I actually look like these people. The point is that something about their face and mine looks the same to people of a different race.
In Japan, I had a lot of people tell me that I looked like Natalie Portman. Like, a LOT. I usually smiled and said thanks, because that was a dang nice compliment.
When I was pregnant with Miriam in Syria (and my face got so fat), I had a couple of people tell me I looked like Renee Zellwegger. Poor Renee Zellwegger. That was no compliment to her. The people were probably thinking of this picture when they said that:
One of our first few days at church in the UAE, I wore a nice dress and pincurled my hair. I was told I looked like Scarlett Johansson.
Also, as an aside, one time we were at Amman Waves water park in Jordan with my little brother, Steven. A couple of girls were eyeing us for a while and they finally worked up the guts to come over and ask, in all seriousness, if Steven was Christopher Gorham (of MBC4 Jake 2.0 fame). Sadly, Steven had to disappoint them.
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| Steven on the left, Jake 2.0 on the right. |
I had to shatter the little girl's dreams of living next to a TV star right then and there. This is my favorite celebrity lookalike story, though, because it was so close to being true (the name of the actress is Bridgit Mendler). Maybe next time I'll just say, "yeah, that's me," to avoid crushing any tween dreams.